Ecclesiastes 8:10-15 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

The One End of Righteousness and Unrighteousness. The good are soon forgotten, the wicked enjoy honour and long life; the best thing a man can do is to enjoy life while he has it.

Ecclesiastes 8:10 is difficult, MT is probably corrupt. RV is a fair attempt; others would emend so as to read, I saw the wicked buried, carried even from the sanctuary, and they used to go about and be praised in the city because they had done so (i.e. used their power to hurt others; cf. Ecclesiastes 8:9). This excludes all mention of the righteous and their shameful exclusion from the holy place, which in any case cannot be interpreted as consecrated burial ground.

Ecclesiastes 8:12 f. is plainly the insertion of an orthodox annotator; Ecclesiastes 8:12 is a concession, Ecclesiastes 8:13 is the general rule as to the wicked man's long life. Ecclesiastes 8:12 b seems to hint at some compensation, possibly future, for the short-lived good man.

Ecclesiastes 8:14 f. shows us the typical mood of Qoheleth; cf. especially Ecclesiastes 3:12 f., Ecclesiastes 3:22; Ecclesiastes 5:18; Ecclesiastes 9:7-10.

Related Commentaries of Ecclesiastes 8:10

Ecclesiastes 8:10-15

10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.

11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:

13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.

15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.