Ecclesiastes 6:7,8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

All the labour of man is for his mouth For meat and other necessary provisions of this life; and yet the appetite is not filled Although all that a man can obtain by his labours is but a provision for his bodily wants, which the meanest sort of men commonly enjoy, yet such is the vanity of the world, and the folly of mankind, that men are insatiable in their desires, and restless in their endeavours after more and more, and never say they have enough. What hath the wise more than the fool Namely, in these matters? Both are subject to the same calamities, and partakers of the same comforts of this life. What hath the poor Especially? What advantage in this respect? That knoweth Even though he knoweth; to walk before the living? Though he be ingenious and industrious; that is, fit for service and business, and knows how to conduct himself toward his superiors so as to deserve and gain their favour, and to procure a livelihood; what more hath he than the poor that do not know this? The verse is obscure, and some think it should be rendered, For what hath the wise more than the fool? And what than the poor, who knoweth how to walk before the living? That is, who knows how to act prudently: and they think the meaning is, that the wise and the fool, and even the poor, if they be industrious, and know how to behave themselves properly, all enjoy the necessaries of life, food and raiment. The only objection to this interpretation is, that though it seems to improve the sense, it is not consistent with the Hebrew text, מה לעני, signifying literally, not than the poor, but, What is there to the poor? or, what hath the poor? The Hebrew, however, may be rendered, What excellence hath the wise man more than the fool? What excellence, especially, hath the poor that knoweth, that is, although he knoweth, &c.