Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ecclesiastes 7:23

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 23. All this have I proved by wisdom — These rules I have laid down for my own conduct, and sought after more wisdom; but have fallen far short of what I wished to be.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Avoid extremes (7:15-29)

One of the puzzles of life is that bad people often have long and prosperous lives, but good people suffer and sometimes die before they have had a chance to enjoy life. The writer suggests that people follow a middle course through life, where they do not ruin their lives through being either over-zealous for goodness and wisdom or over-tolerant towards sin and foolishness. Those who fear God will be successful in avoiding both extremes (15-18).
Certainly, wisdom is better than folly and right is better than wrong, but the reality is that everyone sins sometimes. Before condemning others, people should realize that they may have been guilty of similar things themselves (19-22).
Again the writer points out how his search for absolute wisdom failed. He found that the meaning of existence was beyond his understanding. So he turned to consider practical wisdom in relation to human conduct, and discovered the disaster that results from wickedness and stupidity (23-25). His own experience taught him the ruin that an immoral woman can bring to the man who falls victim to her temptations. He also came to the conclusion that, though he might find one man in a thousand whom he could respect, he could not find one such woman. For this he blames not God but the human race in general. People have become too smart for their own good (26-29).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

SOLOMON'S DESIRE TO PROVE WHAT GOD HAD SAID

"All this have I proved in wisdom; I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me. That which is, is far off and exceeding deep; who can find it out? I turned about, and my heart was set to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the reason of things, and to know that wickedness is folly, and that foolishness is madness."

"But it was far from me" Why would the wisest man of his day have failed to find wisdom? He was searching for it by 'experience,' rather than trusting God for the truth. "This line is an honest confession of Solomon's failure to find wisdom,"The Bible Speaks Today, p. 71. and the failure was due to his method of seeking it. "He found out here that wisdom (derived from earthly experience) cannot answer the ultimate questions."The Tyndale Commentaries, op. cit., p. 115.

"My heart was set to search out… and to know (find out) that wickedness is folly, etc." Instead of taking God's Word for it that the multiplication of wives to himself and the acquisition of horses from Egypt, and all such things, were both wickedness and folly, Solomon here announced his purpose of `proving' whether or not all this was the truth. He found out, all right; but in doing so he lost his relationship with God, was seduced into paganism, and laid the foundation for the destruction of Israel. Today, there are men who take this same approach. They will try everything out for themselves; they will discover their own religion; they will choose what is wise, etc., etc. Barton, in these verses, credited the author of having actually found out that, "Wickedness is folly, and that folly is madness";International Critical Commentary, op. cit., p. 146 but that information came from God, not from Solomon's experience."

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

I will be - Or, I am. There was a time when Solomon thought himself wise enough to comprehend the work of God, and therefore needed for himself the self-humbling conviction declared in this verse.

It - i. e. Wisdom. Compare Ecclesiastes 8:17.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Tonight we want to return again to the book of Ecclesiastes beginning with chapter 7. And as we return to the book of Ecclesiastes, again, it is important that we make note of the fact that the book of Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon in his later years. After he had assiduously pursued to find the purpose and meaning of life in so many different things: in wisdom, in wealth, in fame, in building, in pleasures. And after his pursuit, which carried him into every area and experience of life, he came up with the conclusion that life is empty and frustrating. Solomon made the mistake of searching for purpose in life under the sun. And if your purpose is limited to under the sun, chances are you will come up, as Solomon, with the conclusion that life is a mistake. That it is not worthwhile. That everything is only filled with emptiness and frustration.

But God did not intend for you to live a life under the sun. God intended that you should experience real life in the Son. In First John we read, "And this is the record, that God has given unto us, even eternal life, and this life is in the Son. And he who has the Son has life" ( 1 John 5:11-12 ). There is real life. There is real meaning and purpose to life. When you find the life in Jesus Christ.

The life apart from Him, apart from the spiritual dimension, living a life on the animal plane of a body-conscious experience and a body-conscious level will lead a person to despair even as the philosophies of today have concluded. That man will be led by reason to despair. Life is hopeless. Thus, man must take a leap into the upper story of experience and man must have some kind of a non-reasoned religious experience to save him from the despair of reality. And so the philosophy led man to the point of despair by reason. And then his only suggestion for man is jump out of reason. Become unreasonable. Take a leap of faith into a non-reasoned religious experience in order that you might not despair because life is hopeless. This is the conclusion that Solomon drew after trying everything.

Now as we read the book of Ecclesiastes, it is a book of despair. "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and vexation of spirit" ( Ecclesiastes 1:14 ). The conclusions that Solomon came to are conclusions of natural, human reasoning apart from God. Therefore, they are not to be taken as doctrinal truths. You are dealing with a man searching for life apart from God and his conclusions are not doctrinal truths. Except that they do bring to you the end result of natural reasoning, but not divine wisdom. So they show you man apart from God and the despair and hopelessness of man apart from God. And the conclusions that are drawn are in that kind of a background. They're not doctrinal truths, because if you take the step into the spiritual level, you'll come to a far different conclusion of life.

Back in the book of Deuteronomy when God was giving the law to Moses, and because God could foresee down through time to that particular time in the history of the nation of Israel when they would demand a king, and because God knew that one day they would no longer be satisfied with Him being king over them and would want a king, God incorporated even into the law of Moses 400 years before they ever had a king, God incorporated laws for the kings. Because God knew that 400 years down the line the people were going to come to Samuel and say, "We want a king like the other nations around us. And because God knew they were going to say that, He incorporated into the law in the book of Deuteronomy laws for kings.

Now it is interesting as we look at the seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy, as God is setting up the laws for the king, beginning with verse Ecclesiastes 7:14 of the seventeenth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord said, "When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, 'I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me.'" And that's exactly what they said to Samuel, "Set us up a king over us that we might be like the other nations."

Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose. One from among your brothers shalt thou set king over thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses. Forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away. Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn the fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them. That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left. To the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel ( Deuteronomy 17:14-20 ).

But verse Ecclesiastes 7:17 , "Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away."

It seems prosaic to declare God understands human nature. And God's laws are written for our admonition, and they weren't written in vain. "When you set up a king, one thing a king isn't to do, he's not to multiply wives lest they turn his heart away."

Now let's turn to First Kings, chapter 10. As we are reading of Solomon, remember he wasn't to multiply gold unto himself or silver or horses, but as we read in verse Ecclesiastes 7:14 ,

Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents. He had traffic of spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia. He made two hundred targets of beaten gold; six hundred shekels of gold went to one target. And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pounds of gold went into one shield. And the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. Moreover, he made a great throne of ivory, who overlaid it with the best gold. [Down in verse Ecclesiastes 7:21 ,] All of the drinking vessels were of gold, the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver, for silver was counted as nothing in the days of Solomon. [Verse Ecclesiastes 7:27 ,] And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars to be as the sycamore trees in the valley, for the abundance. And Solomon had brought horses out of Egypt ( 1 Kings 10:14-19 , 1 Kings 10:21 , 1 Kings 10:27 , 1 Kings 10:28 ).

He's not to multiply horses, not to go back to Egypt. Solomon's so far getting an F for the course.

And as we get into chapter 11,

But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites, and of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, [He's not to multiply wives, oh. Flunk him.] three hundred concubines: [And what does it say?] and his wives turned away his heart ( 1 Kings 11:1-3 ).

Four hundred years earlier God had warned about this very thing. God had forbidden this very thing with the warning, lest they turn his heart away. Solomon thought he could beat God. He thought he knew better than God. He thought he knew better than the law of God. But you don't.

God knows your human nature better than you know it yourself. And God has given laws to protect you. For God knows what the consequence of the violation of these laws will be.

For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after [the pagan gods of] Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, the Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem ( 1 Kings 11:4-7 ).

Actually it's on the, if you've been over to Jerusalem that hill that goes on up to the Mount of Olives down at the area of Gihon Springs. That is the hill where he built all of these and it's in the sight of all Jerusalem. It's right across the valley. It's in the sight of all Jerusalem. He began to build these pagan temples, a place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. "And also likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods" ( 1 Kings 11:8 ).

So every time he married a wife from some different area, he'd build a temple for her so she could go over and burn incense to her god right across the hill where all of Israel could see.

So Solomon had turned his heart away from God, and in turning his heart away from God, he lost the meaning of life and the purpose of life. And now he is an old man and he is writing of his experience. The consciousness of the greatness of Jehovah, God of Israel, has passed from his mind. And he's trying to find life apart from God. And he finds that life apart from God is nothing but emptiness. Therefore, you cannot take as scriptural doctrine the conclusions that Solomon came to in regards to life and death, because he is reasoning, this is the reasoning of man apart from God and you need to look at the book of Ecclesiastes as that.

Human wisdom, perhaps in its highest expression, yet apart from God is foolish. As God said in Romans, chapter 1, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" ( Romans 1:22 ). And any time you in your human wisdom seek to find a purpose of life apart from God, it's foolish. Your wisdom has led you to foolishness.

Now chapter 7 of Ecclesiastes is a series of proverbs and, of course, Solomon was filled with proverbs. We just have completed the book of Proverbs of which the majority were written by Solomon, and in chapter 7 he does go into another series of proverbs, sort of unrelated again to each other, but just little sayings of human wisdom.

A good name is better than precious ointment ( Ecclesiastes 7:1 );

Better to have a good name than to have good perfume.

and the day of death than the day of one's biRuth ( Ecclesiastes 7:1 ).

Now that sounds pretty much in despair, doesn't it? "Oh, the day of a person's death is better than the day of his birth." That's one who has become cynical because he has sought to find life apart from Jesus Christ. And in that case, it may be true. But living with Christ is a glorious life.

It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of merriment ( Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 ).

So he has taken a very jaundice view of life, a very jaundice view of pleasure, of joy, because apart from the Lord it is all emptiness. It is all a sham. And because he was seeking it apart from God, he experienced the emptiness of it, and thus, he became a bitter old man. Bitter with life.

It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: it's just emptiness. Surely oppression makes a wise man mad; and a gift destroys the heart. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger rests in the bosom of fools. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this ( Ecclesiastes 7:5-10 ).

You always hear them talk about the good old days. They say that's not always so true. The good old days when we didn't, when you women didn't have automatic dishwashers and vacuum cleaners, and wall-to-wall carpeting in your house, supermarkets down the block. You all grew your own gardens. Ground your own flour. Used the scrub board. Oh, the good old days. No, we have it pretty nice. We always look back, though, and we think about the days of our youth when Orange County wasn't crowded, when it was full of orange trees instead of subdivisions. But there are advantages both ways.

Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. For wisdom is a defense, and money is a defense: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to those that have it ( Ecclesiastes 7:11-12 ).

Money's good, but wisdom will give life to those that have wisdom.

Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? ( Ecclesiastes 7:13 )

Who can actually do anything against the work of God? We're powerless and helpless against the work of God.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that a man should find nothing after him. All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongs his life in his wickedness ( Ecclesiastes 7:14-15 ).

I've observed this. There have been good men who perished, died young in their righteousness. There were wicked men who lived many years. Therefore, his conclusion. Now it's not scriptural, it's not biblical. I mean, it's not in the sense, it's not godly. Human looking at life. Seeing that righteous man died young and a sinner lived to be a D.O.M., became a dirty old man, he came to this conclusion. Truly just pure human wisdom.

Don't be overly righteous ( Ecclesiastes 7:16 );

Don't get too involved in righteousness.

neither make thyself over wise: why should you destroy yourself? ( Ecclesiastes 7:16 )

Now it's a wrong conclusion. The righteous don't always die young. There are some beautiful old saints of God. But don't be overly righteous. Why should you kick off soon? Also,

Don't be overly wicked ( Ecclesiastes 7:17 ),

Be moderately wicked.

neither be thou foolish: why should you die before your time? ( Ecclesiastes 7:17 )

So purely human type of reasoning of life.

It is good that you should take hold of this; yes, also from this withdraw not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all. Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city. For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not ( Ecclesiastes 7:18-20 ).

Now, in this he was correct. The Bible said, "There is none righteous, no, not one" ( Romans 3:10 ). The Bible says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" ( Romans 3:23 ). A human observation that is correct.

Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear your servant curse thee ( Ecclesiastes 7:21 ):

They say that an eavesdropper rarely hears anything good about himself. You know, you're that kind of person that's always trying to eavesdrop on other's conversations. And so he's sort of warning you against that. Don't take heed; don't try to listen to what they say. You're going to find out they're cursing you.

For [you know how that] oftentimes in your own heart that you have likewise cursed others. All this have I proved by wisdom ( Ecclesiastes 7:22 , Ecclesiastes 7:23 ):

Not by God, I proved it by wisdom. But the wisdom of man, the scriptures said, is "foolishness with God" ( 1 Corinthians 3:19 ).

I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me. That which is afar off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out? I applied my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even the foolishness and madness: And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be caught by her. Behold, this have I found, saith the Preacher ( Ecclesiastes 7:23-27 ).

Or the debater, or the word... it was translated into the Septuagint ecclesia, the assembler.

one by one, to find out the account; Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found ( Ecclesiastes 7:27-28 ).

So in all his thousand wives he did not find a decent one. Now, he did find one man out of a thousand. So men have a little better record as far as Solomon is concerned. But you might, of course, also observe he didn't marry any men and you don't really know a person till you marry them. But if he was, you know... people, it's interesting people seem to repeat mistakes, and you find a person who has been married five, six, seven times. It really can't be that the other person was wrong all the time. You say, "Well, it might be. It might be the person is just a, who has been married that many times is just a poor judge of character." And they're following a pattern because we often do. We married the same kind of person. And always you think, "Oh, the second time around, you know, I'll be wiser, make better choices and all." But we are bound by certain patterns and if, of course, you get a godly, righteous woman, her price is "far above rubies" ( Proverbs 31:10 ). And you'll find one in a thousand every time. You find one who loves the Lord. How glorious it is, how beautiful it is to have a wife who loves God, who calls upon the Lord. What a blessing, what an asset they are to our lives.

Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions ( Ecclesiastes 7:29 ).

God made us straight, but boy, how we have searched otherwise. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. Righteousness and wickedness 7:15-29

Even though the righteous sometimes do not receive a reward in this life and the wicked prosper, it is still better to live righteously.

"Proper evaluation of a man’s character helps to explain the apparent inequalities in divine providence." [Note: Kaiser, Ecclesiastes . . ., p. 78.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Righteousness does not always protect from adversity (Ecclesiastes 7:15-16), but wisdom will help guard us against it (Ecclesiastes 7:19).

"Wisdom is not the knowledge of accumulated facts but the inner strength that comes from a God-instructed conscience." [Note: J. S. Wright, "Ecclesiastes," p. 1176.]

Wisdom is necessary because righteousness does not protect completely (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Solomon illustrated the fact-in Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 -that no one is perfectly righteous. If you think you are perfect, just ask those closest to you if you are (Ecclesiastes 7:21). If people are honest with themselves, they will admit that they are not perfect (Ecclesiastes 7:22).

"In itself, 21 f. is excellent advice, since to take too seriously what people say of us is asking to get hurt, and in any case we have all said some wounding things in our time." [Note: Kidner, p. 69.]

Wisdom also has its limitations. It is not a completely reliable shield against adversity (Ecclesiastes 7:23-24). Even Solomon with all his wisdom could not ward off all adversity. He did not have sufficient wisdom to do this, and no one else does either.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

All this have I proved by wisdom,.... Referring either to all that he had been discoursing of hitherto in this book, concerning the vanity of natural wisdom and knowledge, of pleasure, power, and riches; or to the several useful instructions given in this chapter, particularly concerning patiently bearing everything from the hands of God or men, Ecclesiastes 7:8. This, by the help and use of that wisdom which God had given him, he had made trial of, and found it to be right, and therefore recommended it to others; though he acknowledges that, with all his wisdom, he was from perfection;

I said, I will be wise; but it [was] far from me; he determined, if possible, to attain to the perfection of wisdom, and made use of all means to come at it; that he might know all the works of God in creation, the nature, use, and excellency of them; in providence, his different dispensations towards the sons of men, and the causes of them; and in grace, the redemption and salvation of men, and the mysteries thereof; but the more he knew, the more he was convinced of his own ignorance, and seemed further off from the summit of knowledge than he was before; and plainly saw, that perfection in wisdom is not attainable in this life. The Targum restrains this to the wisdom of the law; but it is better to understand it in a more general sense.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      23 All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.   24 That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?   25 I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:   26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.   27 Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:   28 Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.   29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

      Solomon had hitherto been proving the vanity of the world and its utter insufficiency to make men happy; now here he comes to show the vileness of sin, and its certain tendency to make men miserable; and this, as the former, he proves from his own experience, and it was a dear-bought experience. He is here, more than any where in all this book, putting on the habit of a penitent. He reviews what he had been discoursing of already, and tells us that what he had said was what he knew and was well assured of, and what he resolved to stand by: All this have I proved by wisdom,Ecclesiastes 7:23; Ecclesiastes 7:23. Now here,

      I. He owns and laments the deficiencies of his wisdom. He had wisdom enough to see the vanity of the world and to experience that that would not make a portion for a soul. But, when he came to enquire further, he found himself at a loss; his eye was too dim, his line was too short, and, though he discovered this, there were many other things which he could not prove by wisdom.

      1. His searches were industrious. God had given him a capacity for knowledge above any; he set up with a great stock of wisdom; he had the largest opportunities of improving himself that ever any man had; and, (1.) He resolved, if it were possible, to gain his point: I said, I will be wise. He earnestly desired it as highly valuable; he fully designed it as that which he looked upon to be attainable; he determined not to sit down short of it, Proverbs 18:1. Many are not wise because they never said they would be so, being indifferent to it; but Solomon set it up for the mark he aimed at. When he made trial of sensual pleasures, he still thought to acquaint his heart with wisdom (Ecclesiastes 2:3; Ecclesiastes 2:3), and not to be diverted from the pursuits of that; but perhaps he did not find it so easy a thing as he imagined to keep up his correspondence with wisdom, while he addicted himself so much to his pleasures. However, his will was good; he said, I will be wise. And that was not all: (2.) He resolved to spare no pains (Ecclesiastes 7:25; Ecclesiastes 7:25): "I applied my heart; I and my heart turned every way; I left no stone unturned, no means untried, to compass what I had in view. I set myself to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, to accomplish myself in all useful learning, philosophy, and divinity." If he had not thus closely applied himself to study, it would have been but a jest for him to say, I will be wise, for those that will attain the end must take the right way. Solomon was a man of great quickness, and yet, instead of using that (with many) as an excuse for slothfulness, he pressed it upon himself as an inducement to diligence, and the easier he found it to master a good notion the more intent he would be that he might be master of the more good notions. Those that have the best parts should take the greatest pains, as those that have the largest stock should trade most. He applied himself not only to know what lay on the surface, but to search what lay hidden out of the common view and road; nor did he search a little way, and then give it over because he did not presently find what he searched for, but he sought it out, went to the bottom of it; nor did he aim to know things only, but the reasons of things, that he might give an account of them.

      2. Yet his success was not answerable or satisfying: "I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me; I could not compass it. After all, This only I know that I know nothing, and the more I know the more I see there is to be known, and the more sensible I am of my own ignorance. That which is far off, and exceedingly deep, who can find it out?" He means God himself, his counsels and his works; when he searched into these he presently found himself puzzled and run aground. He could not order his speech by reason of darkness. It is higher than heaven, what can he do?Job 11:8. Blessed be God, there is nothing which we have to do which is not plain and easy; the word is nigh us (Proverbs 8:9); but there is a great deal which we would wish to know which is far off, and exceedingly deep, among the secret things which belong not to us. And probably it is a culpable ignorance and error that Solomon here laments, that his pleasures, and the many amusements of his court, had blinded his eyes and cast a mist before them, so that he could not attain to true wisdom as he designed.

      II. He owns and laments the instances of his folly in which he had exceeded, as, in wisdom, he came short. Here is,

      1. His enquiry concerning the evil of sin. He applied his heart to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. Observe, (1.) The knowledge of sin is a difficult knowledge, and hard to be attained; Solomon took pains for it. Sin has many disguises with which it palliates itself, as being loth to appear sin, and it is very hard to strip it of these and to see it in its true nature and colours. (2.) It is necessary to our repentance for sin that we be acquainted with the evil of it, as it is necessary to the cure of a disease to know its nature, causes, and malignity. St. Paul therefore valued the divine law, because it discovered sin to him, Romans 7:7. Solomon, who, in the days of his folly, had set his wits on work to invent pleasures and sharpen them, and was ingenious in making provision for the flesh, now that God had opened his eyes is as industrious to find out the aggravations of sin and so to put an edge upon his repentance. Ingenious sinners should be ingenious penitents, and wit and learning, among the other spoils of the strong man armed, should be divided by the Lord Jesus. (3.) It well becomes penitents to say the worst they can of sin, for the truth is we can never speak ill enough of it. Solomon here, for his further humiliation, desired to see more, [1.] Of the sinfulness of sin; that is it which he lays the greatest stress upon in this inquiry, to know the wickedness of folly, by which perhaps he means his own iniquity, the sin of uncleanness, for that was commonly called folly in Israel,Genesis 34:7; Deuteronomy 22:21; Judges 20:6; 2 Samuel 13:12. When he indulged himself in it, he made a light matter of it; but now he desires to see the wickedness of it, its great wickedness, so Joseph speaks of it, Genesis 39:9. Or it may be taken there generally for all sin. Many extenuate their sins with this, They were folly; but Solomon sees wickedness in those follies, an offence to God and a wrong to conscience. This is wickedness,Jeremiah 4:18; Zechariah 5:8. [2.] Of the folly of sin; as there is a wickedness in folly, so there is a folly in wickedness, even foolishness and madness. Wilful sinners are fools and madmen; they act contrary both to right reason and to their true interest.

      2. The result of this enquiry.

      (1.) He now discovered more than ever of the evil of that great sin which he himself had been guilty of, the loving of many strange women,1 Kings 11:1. This is that which he here most feelingly laments, and in very pathetic expressions. [1.] He found the remembrance of the sin very grievous. O how heavily did it lie upon his conscience! what an agony was he in upon the thought of it--the wickedness, the foolishness, the madness, that he had been guilty of! I find it more bitter than death. As great a terror seized him, in reflection upon it, as if he had been under the arrest of death. Thus do those that have their sins set in order before them by a sound conviction cry out against them; they are bitter as gall, nay, bitter as death, to all true penitents. Uncleanness is a sin that is, in its own nature, more pernicious than death itself. Death may be made honourable and comfortable, but this sin can be no other than shame and pain, Proverbs 5:9; Proverbs 5:11. [2.] He found the temptation to the sin very dangerous, and that it was extremely difficult, and next to impossible, for those that ventured into the temptation to escape the sin, and for those that had fallen into the sin to recover themselves by repentance. The heart of the adulterous woman is snares and nets; she plays her game to ruin souls with as much art and subtlety as ever any fowler used to take a silly bird. The methods such sinners use are both deceiving and destroying, as snares and nets are. The unwary souls are enticed into them by the bait of pleasure, which they greedily catch at and promise themselves satisfaction in; but they are taken before they are aware, and taken irrecoverably. Her hands are as bands, with which, under colour of fond embraces, she holds those fast that she has seized; they are held in the cords of their own sin,Proverbs 5:22. Lust gets strength by being gratified and its charms are more prevalent. [3.] He reckoned it a great instance of God's favour to any man if by his grace he has kept him from this sin: He that pleases God shall escape from her, shall be preserved either from being tempted to this sin or from being overcome by the temptation. Those that are kept from this sin must acknowledge it is God that keeps them, and not any strength or resolution of their own, must acknowledge it a great mercy; and those that would have grace sufficient for them to arm them against this sin must be careful to please God in every thing, by keeping his ordinances, Leviticus 18:30. [4.] He reckoned it a sin that is as sore a punishment of other sins as a man can fall under in this life: The sinner shall be taken by her. First, Those that allow themselves in other sins, by which their minds are blinded and their consciences debauched, are the more easily drawn to this. Secondly, it is just with God to leave them to themselves to fall into it. See Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28; Ephesians 4:18; Ephesians 4:19. Thus does Solomon, as it were, with horror, bless himself from the sin in which he had plunged himself.

      (2.) He now discovered more than ever of the general corruption of man's nature. He traces up that stream to the fountain, as his father had done before him, on a like occasion (Psalms 51:5): Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. [1.] He endeavoured to find out the number of his actual transgressions (Ecclesiastes 7:27; Ecclesiastes 7:27): "Behold, this have I found, that is, this I hoped to find; I thought I could have understood my errors and have brought in a complete list, at least of the heads of them; I thought I could have counted them one by one, and have found out the account." He desired to find them out as a penitent, that he might the more particularly acknowledge them; and, generally, the more particular we are in the confession of sin the more comfort we have in the sense of the pardon; he desired it also as a preacher, that he might the more particularly give warning to others. Note, A sound conviction of one sin will put us upon enquiring into the whole confederacy; and the more we see amiss in ourselves the more diligently we should enquire further into our own faults, that what we see not may be discovered to us, Job 34:32. [2.] He soon found himself at a loss, and perceived that they were innumerable (Ecclesiastes 7:28; Ecclesiastes 7:28): "Which yet my soul seeks; I am still counting, and still desirous to find out the account, but I find not, I cannot count them all, nor find out the account of them to perfection. I still make new and amazing discoveries of the desperate wickedness that there is in my own heart," Jeremiah 17:9; Jeremiah 17:10. Who can know it? Who can understand his errors? Who can tell how often he offends?Psalms 19:12. He finds that if God enters into judgment with him, or he with himself, for all his thoughts, words, and actions, he is not able to answer for one of a thousand,Job 9:3. This he illustrates by comparing the corruption of his own heart and life with the corruption of the world, where he scarcely found one good man among a thousand; nay, among all the thousand wives and concubines which he had, he did not find one good woman. "Even so," says he, "When I come to recollect and review my own thoughts, words, and actions, and all the passages of my life past, perhaps among those that were manly I might find one good among a thousand, and that was all; the rest even of those had some corruption or other in them." He found (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Ecclesiastes 7:20) that he had sinned even in doing good. But for those that were effeminate, that passed in the indulgence of his pleasures, they were all naught; in that part of his life there did not appear so much as one of a thousand good. In our hearts and lives there appears little good, at the best, but sometimes none at all. Doubtless this is not intended as a censure of the female sex in general; it is probable that there have been and are more good women than good men (Acts 17:4; Acts 17:12); he merely alludes to his own sad experience. And perhaps there may be this further in it: he does, in his proverbs, warn us against the snares both of the evil man and of the strange woman (Proverbs 2:12; Proverbs 2:16; Proverbs 4:14; Proverbs 5:3); now he had observed the ways of the evil women to be more deceitful and dangerous than those of the evil men, that it was more difficult to discover their frauds and elude their snares, and therefore he compares sin to an adulteress (Proverbs 9:13), and perceives he can no more find out the deceitfulness of his own heart than he can that of a strange woman, whose ways are movable, that thou canst not know them. [3.] He therefore runs up all the streams of actual transgression to the fountain of original corruption. The source of all the folly and madness that are in the world is in man's apostasy from God and his degeneracy from his primitive rectitude (Ecclesiastes 7:20; Ecclesiastes 7:20): "Lo, this only have I found; when I could not find out the particulars, yet the gross account was manifest enough; it is as clear as the sun that man is corrupted and revolted, and is not as he was made." Observe, First, How man was made by the wisdom and goodness of God: God made man upright; Adam the first man, so the Chaldee. God made him, and he made him upright, such a one as he should be; being made a rational creature, he was, in all respects, such a one as a rational creature should be, upright, without any irregularity; one could find no fault in him; he was upright, that is, determined to God only, in opposition to the many inventions which he afterwards turned aside to. Man, as he came out of God's hands, was (as we may say) a little picture of his Maker, who is good and upright. Secondly, How he was marred, and in effect unmade, by his own folly and badness: They have sought out many inventions--they, our first parents, or the whole race, all in general and every one in particular. They have sought out great inventions (so some), inventions to become great as gods (Genesis 3:5), or the inventions of the great ones (so some), of the angels that fell, the Magnates, or many inventions. Man, instead of resting in what God had found for him, was for seeking to better himself, like the prodigal that left his father's house to seek his fortune. Instead of being for one, he was for many; instead of being for God's institutions, he was for his own inventions. The law of his creation would not hold him, but he would be at his own disposal and follow his own sentiments and inclinations. Vain man would be wise, wiser than his Maker; he is giddy and unsettled in his pursuits, and therefore has many inventions. Those that forsake God wander endlessly. Men's actual transgressions are multiplied. Solomon could not find out how many they are (Ecclesiastes 7:28; Ecclesiastes 7:28); but he found they were very many. Many kinds of sins, and those often repeated. They are more than the hairs on our heads,Psalms 40:12.