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Ecclesiastes 9:1 open_in_new
IX.
(1) No man knoweth. — If this verse stood by itself we should understand, “Man cannot know whether he will experience marks of the Divine favour, or the reverse;” but taking Ecclesiastes 9:6 into account, we understand of a man’s own love or hatred the objects of which he cannot tell beforehand.
By all. — Rather, all is before them.
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Ecclesiastes 9:2 open_in_new
(2) He that sweareth. — Zechariah 5:3.
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Ecclesiastes 9:3 open_in_new
We have again the sentiments expressed in Ecclesiastes 2:14-16; Ecclesiastes 3:19; Ecclesiastes 5:15; Ecclesiastes 6:12.
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Ecclesiastes 9:4 open_in_new
There is a various reading here in the Hebrew. Our translators, following the older translators, adopt the reading of the margin. That of the text gives, instead of “joined,” a word signifying “chosen;” the best sense that can be given to which is to translate, “For who is excepted,” joining it with the previous verse, beginning this one, “To all the living,” &c. With regard to the statement of the following verses, comp. Psalms 6:3 and the marginal references there given. The shepherd’s dog is spoken of Job 30:1, and watchdogs Isaiah 56:10. Elsewhere in the Old Testament the dog is an unclean animal living or dead.
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Ecclesiastes 9:6,7 open_in_new
Now. — Rather, long ago.
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Ecclesiastes 9:7 open_in_new
Accepteth. — The thought has been expressed before (Ecclesiastes 2:24; Ecclesiastes 8:15), that earthly enjoyment is to be received as given by God’s favour.
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Ecclesiastes 9:10 open_in_new
Thy hand findeth. — Leviticus 12:8; Judges 9:33; and margin, reff.
The grave. — Sheol (John 9:4).
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Ecclesiastes 9:11 open_in_new
Chance. — Elsewhere only in 1 Kings 5:4.
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Ecclesiastes 9:14 open_in_new
Idle attempts have been made to find a historic reference in this passage. What is here told is so like the story (2 Samuel 20) of the deliverance of Abel-beth-Maachah by a wise woman, whose name, nevertheless, has not been preserved, that we cannot even be sure that the writer had any other real history in his mind.