Bible Commentaries
Ecclesiastes 8

Verse 1

8:1 Who [is] as the wise [man]? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face {a} to shine, and {b} the boldness of his face shall be changed.

(a) That is, gets him favour and prosperity.

(b) While before he was proud and arrogant, he will become humble and meek.

Verse 2

8:2 I [counsel thee] to keep the king’s {c} commandment, and [that] in regard of the oath of God.

(c) That is, that you obey the king and keep the oath that you have made for the same cause.

Verse 3

8:3 {d} Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatever pleaseth him.

(d) Do not withdraw from yourself lightly from the obedience of your prince.

Verse 5

8:5 He who keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both {e} time and judgment.

(e) That is, when time is to obey, and how far he should obey.

Verse 6

8:6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the {f} misery of man [is] great upon him.

(f) Man by himself is miserable, and therefore should do nothing to increase the same, but to work all things by wisdom and counsel.

Verse 8

8:8 [There is] no man that hath power {g} over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither [hath he] power in the day of death: and [there is] no discharge in [that] war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

(g) Man has no power to save his own life and therefore must not rashly cast himself into danger.

Verse 9

8:9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: [there is] a time in which one man ruleth over another to his own {h} hurt.

(h) As comes often to tyrants and wicked rulers.

Verse 10

8:10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and {i} gone from the {k} place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this [is] also vanity.

(i) That is, others as wicked as they.

(k) They who feared God and worshipped him as he had appointed.

Verse 11

8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not {l} executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

(l) Where justice is delayed, there sin reigns.

Verse 14

8:14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there are just [men], to whom it happeneth according to the {m} work of the wicked; again, there are wicked [men], to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also [is] vanity.

(m) Who are punished as though they were wicked, as in Ecclesiastes 7:17

Verse 15

8:15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than {n} to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.

(n) Read Geneva "Ecclesiastes 3:22"