コヘレトの言葉 7:3

聖書日本語

3 悲しみは笑いにまさる。顔に憂いをもつことによって、心は良くなるからである。

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Sorrow: or, Anger

is better: Psalms 119:67, Psalms 119:71, Psalms 126:5, Psalms 126:6, Jeremiah 31:8, Jeremiah 31:9, Jeremiah 31:15-20, Jeremiah 50:4, Jeremiah 50:5, Daniel 9:3-19, Daniel 10:2, Daniel 10:3, Daniel 10:19, Zechariah 12:10-14, Luke 6:21, Luke 6:25, John 16:20-22, 2 Corinthians 7:9-11, James 4:8-10

by: Romans 5:3, Romans 5:4, 2 Corinthians 4:17, Hebrews 12:10, Hebrews 12:11, James 1:2-4

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Sorrow [is] better than laughter,.... Sorrow, expressed in the house of mourning, is better, more useful and commendable, than that foolish laughter, and those airs of levity, expressed in the house of feasting; or sorrow on account of affliction and troubles, even adversity itself, is oftentimes much more profitable, and conduces more to the good of men, than prosperity; or sorrow for sin, a godly sorrow, a sorrow after a godly sort, which works repentance unto salvation, that needeth not to be repented of, is to be preferred to all carnal mirth and jollity. It may be rendered, "anger [is] better than laughter" h; which the Jews understand of the anger of God in correcting men for sin; which is much better than when he takes no notice of them, but suffers them to go on in sin, as if he was pleased with them; the Midrash gives instances of it in the generation of the flood and the Sodomites: and the Targum inclines to this sense,

"better is the anger, with which the Lord of that world is angry against the righteous in this world, than the laughter with which he derides the ungodly.''

Though it may be better, with others, to understand it of anger in them expressed against sin, in faithful though sharp rebukes for it; which, in the issue, is more beneficial than the flattery of such who encourage in it; see Proverbs 27:5;

for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better: when the sadness is not hypocritical, as in the Scribes and Pharisees, but serious and real, arising from proper reflections on things in the mind; whereby the heart is drawn off from vain, carnal, and sensual things; and is engaged in the contemplation of spiritual and heavenly ones, which is of great advantage to it: or by the severity of the countenance of a faithful friend, in correcting for faults, the heart is made better, which receives those corrections in love, and confesses its fault, and amends.

h טוב כעס משחוק "melior est ira risu", Pagninus, Mercerus; "melior est indigatio risu", Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Sorrow - Rather, Seriousness.

The heart is made better - i. e., is made bright and joyful (compare 2 Corinthians 6:10). The mind which bears itself equally in human concerns, whether they be pleasant or sorrowful, must always be glad, free, and at peace.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 7:3. Sorrow is better than laughter — The reason is immediately given; for by the sorrow of the countenance - the grief of heart that shows itself in the countenance -

The heart is made better. — In such cases, most men try themselves at the tribunal of their own consciences, and resolve on amendment of life.