Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
Eat thy bread with joy. Here the voice of the Spirit rebuts the voice of the flesh. Addressed to the "righteous wise" spoken of in Ecclesiastes 9:1.
Now accepteth thy works Being "in the hand of God," who "now accepteth thy works" in His service, as He has previously accepted thy person (Genesis 4:4), thou mayest 'eat etc., with a cheerful (not sensually "merry") heart' (Ecclesiastes 3:13; Ecclesiastes 5:18; Acts 2:46). Instead of giving way to gloomy discontent, as if God made no difference between the good and the bad in His dealings (Ecclesiastes 9:1; Malachi 2:17). God accepteth-literally, hath pleasure in ( raatsaah (H7521)) - thy works, and therefore will in due time let thee see the difference which He makes (in spite of present appearances to the contrary) between the righteous and the wicked (Malachi 3:18); parallel is Psalms 73:1 - Hebrew, 'God is only good (not also evil, as carnal reason would suggest) to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart,' in spite of all appearances to the contrary.