Eclesiastes 7
Didymus the Blind · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Eclesiastes 7:1
The good name consists in a virtuous life. It is acquired with labor, effort and sweat. What, however, is pleasant in the moment oftentimes is gained without labor and one's own effort.…Those who really make progress regarding their inner person and who lead a spotless life, they have a good name. This is better than ointment, better than pleasantness. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 196:22
Eclesiastes 7:1
Whoever does not focus attention on perishable goods and does not think highly of them but knows that "it is better to be with Christ after death" thinks that the day of death is better than the day of birth. The latter is the beginning of many evils; the former, however, the end and termination of evil. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 197:14
Eclesiastes 7:2
Where there is mourning, there is no moral superficiality. Happiness and laughter are avoided; the calamity prohibits it. Sometimes we refrain from appearing happy out of regard for those who mourn and for those who experience harm. In the house of feasting, however, the opposite happens: Dances and songs bring reproof, since they indicate a disorderly life.…The "house," however, signifies a condition or an attitude, not a location.… The one who goes to the house of mourning knows that everyone dies in the end. Once he knows that he has to die, he will not think about and dedicate his effort to owning something, if it is a possession that is lost in death such as wealth, reputation and honor.… One can understand "the living" in the following way: one who lives according to God's will. Those people were Abraham and his descendents. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 197:19-198:22
Eclesiastes 7:3
Take the case that someone has subjects, for example, children or slaves. If he is angry with them and in a fury so that he limits the evil, then his anger is good, not anger as such, but the anger of a father over his child, of a guardian's anger over his charge.…He calls that kind of anger good that prevents sins from becoming so big that punishment has to follow. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 199:22
Eclesiastes 7:5
For most people it seems to be right to avoid the critique of a wise man, especially if they like to sin. Whoever desires amusement and sin avoids the person who wants to hinder it. Whoever has no insight is pleased with flatterers, preferring flattery to critique. It is the characteristic of the wise man that he criticizes the one he loves.… The flatterers sing in a certain way. Even when they give ethical speeches, they want to make their audience happy instead of looking out for their best interests. Such song is a speech that gives joy, but a rebuke helps one to find the right way. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 202:2
Eclesiastes 7:6
Thorns that burn under a pot make loud crackling noises. This is like the laughing of the foolish. It makes noise and is crackling, but not because it educates the soul.… As the thorns produce noise when they as plants are burned under a pot, in the same way the laughter of the foolish comes out of a bad soul that is burning.… Thorns are earthly worries, shameful desires and uncurbed joys. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 203:3
Eclesiastes 7:8
The end of words is more likely to be good than their beginning.… A speech is given in order to actualize something.… Oftentimes someone who teaches has with patience led someone who is not highly intelligent to learning. He does not give up after the first or second admonition but tries to heal him in every case. Such a patient teacher is better than an arrogant one, or someone proud in spirit. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 204:22
Eclesiastes 7:13
Even among the Greeks there were many opponents to those who claimed that the cosmos came into being by itself.… Since providence of necessity is concerned with the details and God is providence, his providence concerns the cosmos that he himself has created. Now admit even something else: God watches over the cosmos that he himself has created out of providence, so that it might go well.… God knows the reasons for everything that came into being, and he knows why they are hidden.… In no way do you have sufficient knowledge of God's creations, if you take offence at them, because you are not reasonable. Watch God's creatures! What for others is a reason for offence will be for you knowledge of the Creator and of the created. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 209:26
Eclesiastes 7:13
God does not make crooked by causing destruction but by showing that someone is crooked.… It is written, "Those who turn to crooked ways, the Lord will lead away together with those who have committed injustice." It is not God himself who leads them away against their will together with those who have committed injustice, but he has shown that those who turn from the way after their own moral decision are such people. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 212:12
Eclesiastes 7:15
There is an absolute righteousness and a righteousness that is only righteous for one.… A righteous person can get lost in what is only righteous for him. Those, however, who are really righteous … do not remain in what is righteous for them alone and do not trust in this as their own right. This is why he does not perish in absolute righteousness, as the psalmist says: "In your righteousness I will live." Paul, for example, who was a great man who lived in Christ and for whom truth was revealed, said, "I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted." — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 213:23
Eclesiastes 7:19
Look for the might of a general in his wisdom rather than in the size of his troops.… If a city has many mighty men but lacks wisdom, these cannot help the city. In a spiritual exegesis the world is called city, that is, the earthly realm around us. No one can live without harm, if he is not given divine wisdom. If wisdom does not help, the mighty ones cannot do anything, whether you mean angels or holy men. If wisdom does not help, the city will not be saved. One can also see the soul of every human being as a city. Even if one had a thousand earthly thoughts that could help a city, it cannot be helped if God's wisdom is not sent down to help and to create and sustain order. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 219:8
Eclesiastes 7:26
In many passages of divine instruction, thoughts and mindsets are called "women" of those who have them, both in a positive and in a negative sense. So it is said, for example, "Sophia gives birth to a man's insight," and, "Your wife is like a good vine, your sons like offshoots of olive trees." Out of this woman male offshoots emerge, nourishment for fire and light, since the blessing from these plants gives nourishment for fire and light. In the negative sense again it is said, "Do not pay attention to a bad woman; honey runs from the lips of every prostitute who makes your throat sweet only for a brief time. Later you will find it more bitter than bile." … If you want to understand it in an allegorical sense the bad and frivolous thought is a temptation. It is sophistical and heretical; it is like an evil woman. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 227:7
Eclesiastes 7:29
God has created human beings straightforward, that is, morally perfect without anything crooked or oblique. But they themselves found many thoughts.… They did not devise one thought but many. Evil, thus, is manifold.… There is only one single human form that makes a person like God, but there are many into which he can transform himself. If he is cunning, he has the face of a fox; if he shows a poisonous, dangerous face, he has the face of a snake; if he looks wild, he has the face of a lion; if his face is ungovernable, flattering and desiring pleasures, he has the face of a dog. Generally out of one human being and one form emerge a whole plurality of characters and forms. Thus it is the goal to get rid of all forms—even if some people do not share this opinion—in order to show that he has the face that God created. — COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 231:13