= Ecclesiastes 9
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== Ecclesiastes 9
1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
8 Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
13 This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:
14 There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:
15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
16 Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
17 The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.
== Notes
== Cross Reference
== Concordance
== Commentary
== Rashi
==== Verse 1
To make [all this] clear. And to clarify —
All this. I clarified and tested.
That the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. He helps them and He judges them in order to benefit them in their end.
And their works. These are their students, their servants, who follow [in] their ways.
Whether it be love or hate. The rest of mankind neither knows nor perceives what would make them become beloved by the Omnipresent and what causes them to become hated.1
All is before them. Before the righteous and the wise.2
==== Verse 2
All things come alike to all. All perceive when the occurrence happens to all mankind, and they know that ultimately each person is recompensed according to his ways.
The same fate [awaits]. And [they] know that ultimately everyone, whether righteous or wicked, will die, and they all have one fate in this world. All this they know, but nevertheless, they choose for themselves the proper path, because they know that there is a distinction between them in the World to Come.
The righteous. Such as No’ach.
And the wicked. [Such as] Pharaoh Necho. This one became crippled, and that one [No’ach] became lame.
The good. This is Moshe.3
And the pure. This is Aharon.4
And the impure. These are the spies;5 these spoke well in praise of the land of Yisroel, but those spoke derogatorily about it. Neither these entered the land, nor those entered the land, hence, they have the same fate.
To him who brings offerings. This is Yoshiyahu, as it is stated, “And Yoshiyahu offered a sacrifice.”6
And to him who does not bring offerings. This is Achav, who abolished [Bnei] Yisroel’s festival pilgrimages [to the Beis Hamikdosh]. and that one [Yoshiyahu] was killed by arrows.8
As is with the good man. This is Dovid.
So is it with the sinner. This is Nevuchadnetzar. This one [Dovid] built the Beis Hamikdosh, and that one destroyed it; this one reigned forty years, and that one reigned forty years.
As is with one who swears [easily]. This is Tzidkiyahu, who swore falsely, as it is stated, “And he also rebelled against King Nevuchadnetzar, who had made him swear, etc.”9
So is it with the one who fears an oath. This is Shimshon, as it is stated, “And Shimshon said to them, ‘Swear to me, that you, yourselves, will not strike me.’”10 We learn that he was strict in his observance of an oath. This one died after his eyes were gouged out,11 and that one [Tzidkiyahu] died after his eyes were gouged out.12 Therefore—
==== Verse 3
The hearts of men are filled with evil. For they say that there is no judgment of retribution for the wicked. Everything is attributed to chance, [benefitting] sometimes the righteous, and sometimes the wicked.
And afterwards they join the dead. And they ultimately descend to Gehinnom.
==== Verse 4
For to him that is joined to all the living, there is hope. For as long as he lives, even if he is wicked and he associates with the wicked, as it is stated, “to all the living,” [including] even the wicked, there is hope that he will repent before his death.13 14
For a live dog is better than a dead lion. And they are both wicked. It was better for Nevuzaradan, who was a wicked slave and became a proselyte, that death did not overtake him sooner than Nevuchadnetzar, his master, who is called a “lion,” as it is stated, “A lion has come up from his thicket,”15 and who died in his wickedness, in Gehinnom, while his slave [Nevuzaradan] is in the Garden of Eden. Our Rabbis expounded upon this, that we may butcher a carcass for dogs on Shabbos, but a human corpse, lying in the sun, may not be moved unless one places a child or a loaf on it.
==== Verse 5
For the living know that they will die. And perhaps they will be mindful of the day of death, and they will repent of their ways, but once they die, they do not know anything,16 and they no longer earn reward for the actions17 that they do from their death and onwards, for “whoever toils on the eve of Shabbos will [have what to] eat on Shabbos.”18
==== Verse 6
Also their love. That they loved folly and scorn.
[Also] their hate. That they hated knowledge.
[Also] their jealousy. That they provoked the Holy One, Blessed Is He, with their [evil] deeds. And a portion they will never again have, etc.,
in anything that is done, etc. The merit of a son or a daughter did not avail those wicked men who worshiped idols, and they have no atonement after death.
==== Verse 7
Go eat [your bread] in joy. But you, the righteous man, who the Holy One, Blessed Is He, has already accepted your good deeds and who will merit the World to Come, “go, eat [your bread] in joy.”19
==== Verse 8
At all times, let your garments be white. Prepare yourself at all times with good deeds, so that if you die today, you will enter [the Hereafter] in peace. And Shlomo likened this to a man whom the king invited for a day of feast, without setting a date for him. If he is wise or clever, he will immediately launder his garments, bathe, and anoint himself.20 And similarly [he will do] tomorrow until such time that he will be summoned to the feast, all this time his garments are white21 [=laundered] and he is bathed and anointed. So did our Rabbis expound it in Maseches Shabbos.22
==== Verse 9
See [to enjoy] life with the wife you love. See and understand to learn a skill by which to earn a livelihood,23 together with Torah study that you possess.24
For that is your portion in life. If you have done so, your share will be life in this world, by earning a livelihood from the skill, and in the World to Come, because laboring in both [i.e., work and Torah study] causes sin to be forgotten.25
==== Verse 10
Whatever you are able to do. The will of your Maker— as long as you have your strength—do.26
For there is neither deed, etc., in the grave. For your merit after you die, and if you did so, you have no reckoning in the grave to worry about. The [text of the] verse is transposed [meaning], “for there is neither deed nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave for the wicked,27 nor reckoning for the righteous, when the wicked give an accounting and reckoning, and so is it expounded in the Midrash. And one who interprets it without transposing it, but according to its apparent meaning, interprets ‘חֶשְׁבּוֹן’ as an expression of “thought,” what more can he still do28 to exempt himself from judgment.29
==== Verse 11
Again I saw. Like ‘זָכוֹר’[=remebering continually], wedant in O.F.
The race is not to the swift. Isohel’s swiftness30 did not avail him when his time [to die] arrived.31
Nor the battle to the strong. Avner’s might did not avail him when his day [to die] arrived.
Nor does bread [come] to the wise. For example, I, whose daily bread was “thirty kor of fine flour, etc.,”32 and now, “this [was] my portion [reward] from all my labor,”33 my staff and my cup.
Nor riches to men of understanding. Such as Iyov. In the beginning, “His livestock consisted of, etc.,”34 But when his time came, he said, “Have pity on me, you, my friends.”35
Nor favor to the learned. Referring to Moshe; there was no one more knowledgeable or wiser than he in Yisroel, and yet he did not find favor with his prayer to enter the land [of Yisroel].36
For time and chance. [To be interpreted] as its apparent meaning.37 Another explanation: “For time” will befall them, and to entreaty and supplication they should be accustomed, that these things should not befall them.
==== Verse 12
As fish that are caught in a weak net. Like large fish that are caught in an inferior and weak net, and our Rabbis explained: This is a fishhook, which is no more than a type of needle, by which a large fish is caught.
Like them, [men] are snared. With a small and weak trap, like the weak net and the snare. People stumble at the time of the visitation of their evil, when their time comes for evil to fall upon them suddenly, in an inferior trap, malweise in O.F.
Like them. Like them.
==== Verse 15
Yet no person remembered. No one attributed any importance to him.
==== Verse 16
And [yet] I said. When I saw this, “Wisdom is better than might,” for this one’s wisdom was despised by all, but now, they were all rescued through him.
The Midrash Aggadah [expounds as follows]: A small city. This is the body.38
With few men within it. These are the limbs of a person.
A mighty king. This is the evil inclination, which all his limbs feel.
A poor [wise] man. This is the good inclination.
==== Verse 17
Are received with pleasure. They are accepted by mankind.39
More than the shouts of a ruler of fools. Moshe passed away many years ago, yet his decrees are still accepted by Yisroel, and how many kings of the nations issue decrees over Yisroel, but their words do not endure.
==== Verse 18
Wisdom is better than weapons of war. The wisdom of Serach, of whom it is stated, “And the woman then went to [all] the people, in her wisdom,”40 availed them more than the weapons that were in their hands, to wage war with Yo’av.41
But one sinner destroys a multitude of good. Had she not slain Sheva the son of Bichri, they would all have been destroyed by him.42
Another explanation: But one sinner destroys a multitude of good. If Yisroel were half of righteous people and half of wicked ones, and one person came and sinned and made [the wicked] the majority, the result would be that he weighed them all down to be guilty.43