No man knoweth either love or hatred— Yet no man knoweth what he should either love or hate. This being mentioned in an inquiry concerning the choice which a man ought to make of a certain course of life preferably to another, the most obvious sense is that whereby love and hatred are supposed to be metonymically taken for the objects of either; for, in making a choice you must consider what you should love or set your affections upon. But I do not see by what figure those words can be understood of the manner in which God stands affected towards men. His attributes are sufficiently known for any body to conclude with certainty, that he loves the righteous, and hates the workers of iniquity; and, as to particular persons, every man has within himself the testimony of his own conscience, which he has a right to look upon as the evidence of God (1 John 3:21.), and whereby he may be informed whether he deserves love or hatred. But for a man who looks no further than this earthly dispensation, and whose inducement to a choice must arise from the prospect of happiness only here below, it may be a matter of doubt whether unhappy virtue deserves to be chosen before seemingly prosperous vice. All that is before him is vanity; and therefore, it is hard for him to know what he should either love or hate, as he does not find that either a virtuous or a vicious course is constantly rewarded or punished in this world. This interpretation may be confirmed from what is said of the dead, Ecclesiastes 9:6 that their love, hatred, and envy are perished; which may conveniently enough be understood of the objects of those passions. Desvoeux.
Related Commentaries of Ecclesiastes 9:1
Ecclesiastes 9:1
1 For all this I considereda in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.