A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.
Ecclesiastes 7:1-29.-Consolation to God's people under suffering.-The sorrows of the saints are better than the joys of the worldly.
(See note, Ecclesiastes 6:12.)
A good name - character; a godly mind and life; not mere reputation with man, but what a man is in the eyes of God, with whom the name and reality are one thing (Isaiah 9:6). This alone is "good," while all else is vanity," when made the chief end.
Is better than precious ointment (Proverbs 22:1) - used lavishly at costly banquets, and peculiarly refreshing in the sultry East. The Hebrew for name and for ointment have a happy paronomasia, sheem (H8034), shemen (H8081). So our phrase to be in good odour. Contrast Exodus 5:21. "Ointment" is fragrant only in the place where the person is whose head and garment are scented, and only for a time. The "name" given by God to His child (Revelation 3:12) is forever, and in all lands. So in the case of the woman who received an "everlasting name" from Jesus Christ, in reward for her precious ointment (Isaiah 56:5; Mark 14:3-9). Jesus Christ Himself hath such a name as the Messiah - i:e., the Anointed (Song of Solomon 1:3). The word good, better, occurs in this chapter oftener than in any chapter of the Old Testament.
And the day of death ... birth. Not a general censure upon God for creating man, but, connected with the previous clause, death is to him who hath a godly name "better" than the day of his birth - "far better," as Philippians 1:23 hath it. This is the consolation offered to those mourning the death of godly friends (Ecclesiastes 7:2; Isaiah 57:1-2). Their "good name" still endures, and shall be blessed on earth (Proverbs 10:7; Psalms 112:6). Their day of death also teaches more instructive lessons than the day of their birth. The light of life, says the Preacher, is sweet (Ecclesiastes 11:7), and we have good reason to "eat and drink with a merry heart" (Ecclesiastes 9:4; Ecclesiastes 9:7-8). But this present life is not to be our chief good: that is not to be found until we change this vale of tears for the realms of tearless joy (Revelation 14:13).