For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. For God shall bring every work into judgment - This is the reason why we should "fear God and keep his commandments."
1. Because there will be a day of judgment.
2. Every soul of man shall stand at that bar.
3. God, the infinitely wise, the heart-searching God, will be judge.
4. He will bring to light every secret thing - all that has been done since the creation, by all men; whether forgotten or registered; whether done in secret or in public.
5. All the works of the godly, as well as all the works of the wicked, shall be judged in that day; the good which the godly strove to conceal, as well as the evil which the wicked endeavored to hide.
This, then, will be the conclusion of the whole mortal story. And although in this world all is vanity; yet there, "vanities will be vain no more." Every thing whether good or evil, will have its own proper stable, eternal result. O God! prepare the reader to give up his accounts with joy in that day! Amen.
Masoretic Notes
Number of verses, 222.
Middle verse, Ecclesiastes 6:10.
Sections, 4.
The Arabic subjoins this colophon: - "Praise be to God for ever and ever!"
"By the assistance of the Most High God this book of Ecclesiastes, which is vanity of vanities, written by Solomon the son of David who reigned over the children of Israel, is completed."
The Syriac has, "The end of the book of Koheleth."
There are others, but they are of no importance.
Commentary on the Bible, by Adam Clarke [1831].