View source for Ecclesiastes 8

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|[[File:Jesusteach.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Jesus was called teacher. [[Abraham]], [[Moses]], and [[Jesus]] were all teaching the people [[The Way]] of God and His [[righteousness]]. [[Jesus]] came to take the [[Kingdom of God|kingdom]] from those who were [[teach]]ing something different from [[Moses]] and [[appoint]]ed it to the [[Apostles]] so that they would bear [[fruit]] and the [[world]] might be [[saved]] through [[repent]]ance.<Br>[[Ecclesiastes 7|Chapter 7]]: The song of fools who make the ''sacrifice of fools'' verses the  [[Song of the Lamb]] and the [[Corban of Christ]]. The gifts that destroy and keeps wisdom far off as there is '''a woman whose heart is a [[snare]]''' and a net. We ''need to know ourself'' which comes with the wisdom of God.]]
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| '''Comments'''
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|[https://www.hisholychurch.org/audio/20230708ecclesiastes8.mp3 Download Recording Part 8 show]<Br> <html><audio controls src="https://www.hisholychurch.org/audio/20230708ecclesiastes8.mp3"></audio></html>
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| V1 "who knoweth the interpretation<Ref name="pesher">{{06592}} </Ref>? Who knows the solutions? Who is wise or just thinks he is wise?
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| V3 He warns "keep the king's commandment" and do not be hasty to go out ''because he does as he pleases''. Many want to [[come out]] of [[Babylon]] before they [[repent]] and [[seek]] the [[kingdom of God]]. Who is their wise counsel and [[Guru theories|is he wise?]]
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| V4 "word of a king is, there is power:"<Ref name="shiltown">{{07983}} </Ref> which means  "exercise power over"<Ref name="exauth">{{exauth}}</Ref>
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| V6 "to every purpose there is time and judgment"<Ref name="mishpat">{{04941}}</Ref>
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| 8V "no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit"
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| 9V "one man ruleth over another to his own hurt"
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| V10 Many commentaries say "The English version is scarcely intelligible"<Ref>Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</Ref> and they suggest alternative versions. ''"And so I have seen the wicked buried and they went their way; but from the holy place they departed."''
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| V11 If a "sentence"<Ref name="pithgam">{{06599}} </Ref> or ''decree against the wicked'' is slow does not mean it will fail to come.
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| 12V It will be well for those who reverence God.
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| 13V the wicked will ''sink into darkness and it will not be well with them.
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| 14V Just men can be treated like they were wicked as we see with Christ. 
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| V15 But "to eat, and to drink, and to be merry"<Ref name="simchah">{{08057}} </Ref> is to be joyfull because he benefits from ''his own labour''.<Ref>[[Luke 14]]:15  And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed [is] he that shall eat bread in the [[kingdom of God]].
: [[Luke 22]]:16  For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
: Luke 22:30  That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.</Ref> and not the [[covetous practices]]<Ref name="jesuscovet ">{{jesuscovet }}</Ref> of [[idolatry]].<Ref name="Isidolatry">{{Isidolatry}}</Ref>
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| '''V16''' In this verse "I applied '''mine heart''' to know wisdom" expresses an idea we saw in [[Ecclesiastes 1]]:13<Ref>[[Ecclesiastes 1]]:13 "And I gave my heart to [[seek]] and search out by [[wisdom]] concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith."</Ref> where a man is guided by '''his heart''' is a "sore travail...to be exercised([[06031]]) Our ''heart'' cannot know the ''wisdom of God'' but rather that is only known by the revelation of God. <Br>
The word ''exercised'' can have a meaning of '''humbling affliction'''([[06031]]). The author is talking about his own heart seeking wisdom which is like a man eating of his own [[tree of knowledge]]. Thinking you can figure out God's ways is truly vanities of vanity.
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| '''V16''' '''Commentaries''' again struggle with this translation including verse 16. '''Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges''' even quotes [[Cicero]], "He was of wonderful vigilance, who did not sleep during his entire consulship."<Ref>"Fuit mirificâ vigilantiâ qui toto suo consulatu somnum non vidit."</Ref>  <Br>'''The Pulpit Commentary''' seems to suggest confusion comes in part because of the chapter break with [[Ecclesiastes 9]] is misleading. <Br>they also reach out to the [[Septuagint]] and the Vulgate along with other quotes from ''Cicero'' and more of the Greek classics to attempt to make some sense of the text ''"(For also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes.)"'' <Br>They seem torn by the "parenthetical clause expressing either the restless, unrelieved labor that goes on in the world, or the sleepless meditation of one who tries to solve the problem of the order and disorder".<Br>But '''The Pulpit Commentary''' does say that "Man's wisdom is incapable of explaining the course of God's providential government" adding that "death awaits all without any exception, whatever be their condition or actions." But of course death awaits all who eat of the [[tree of knowledge]]. 
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| '''V16''' '''The answer''' to verse 16 may be seen by simply reading it literally. The verse ends with the words  ''(בעיניו)with his eyes (איננו)no (ראה׃)one sees''.<Br>This unique phrase "with his eyes no one sees"<Ref>with his eyes no one sees(בעיניו איננו ראה׃)</Ref> which contains the word "no" normally spelled AlefYodNun<Ref name="ayin">{{0369}}</Ref> but in the text we see '''AlefYodNun'''NunVaV with a [[double Nun]].<Br>This is preceded by (את־ הענין אשר נעשה) ''the business that is done'' (על־הארץ) ''on the earth'' (כאשר נתתי את־לבי לדעת חכמה ולראות) (כי גם ביום) for even though ('''בַּ'''יּוֹם֙)day (וב'''ליל'''ה)or night.<Ref>The word ''night'' is LamedYodLamed.</Ref> Normally the letters VavBeit'''LamedYodLamed'''Hey(ובלילה) are translated ''and in the night'' as we see where it also occurs in [[Job 24]]:14, [[Psalms 42]]:8 and even in [[Genesis 1]]:18. But here the translators put it in parentheses (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:). <Br>The word sleep is ShemNunHey(שנה). The author may be simply saying that if you sleep day and night you still may not see with your eyes under the light of the sun because your own wisdom will not let you see the wisdom of God. If you look only with your eyes and wisdom of your heart will not be able to see. This is the same as eating of the [[tree of knowledge]] which will keep you in the dark.
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| '''Verse 17''' may provide the explanation. You cannot find out the works of God under the sun by looking with your own eyes. You need the eyes of the [[Holy Spirit]] because you own heart is grossly inadequate.<Ref>[[Matthew 13]]:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and [their] ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with [their] eyes, and hear with [their] ears, and should understand with [their] heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 16  But blessed [are] your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
: Mark 8:18  Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?</Ref> But the Gatherer/Teacher states that he "beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out" but this may be because of what he will tell us ''in verse 17 of [[Ecclesiastes 9|Chapter 9]]'', "The words of wise men are heard in quiet"(bənaḥaṯ (בְּנַ֖חַת))".
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| '''Summary''': We should keep the king's commandments and not be hasty to go out until we eat, drink, and are merry in our own labor alone and see and hear the wisdom of God in the ''[[be still|quiet]]'' of our personal [[heart and mind]] for we cannot know or see the wisdom of God by [[Tree of knowledge|our own knowledge]].
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|[[https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/ecc/8/1/s_660001]]
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== The Wise Man Keeps the King's Command ==

1 Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation<Ref name="pesher">{{06592}} </Ref> of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine<Ref name="owr">{{0215}} </Ref>, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.

2 I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.

3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.

4 Where the word of a king is, there is power:<Ref name="shiltown">{{07983}} </Ref>  and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.

=== In God's time ===

6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.

7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

8 There is '''no man that hath power 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.

9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.

== Those Who Fear God Will Do Well ==

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

11 Because sentence<Ref name="pithgam">{{06599}} </Ref> against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:

13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

== Ways of God Are Mysterious ==

14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.

=== Eat, drink, and be merry ===

15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than 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.

=== Sleep with your eyes ===

16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)

=== Not in the tree of knowledge ===

17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
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[[Category:Ecclesiastes]]