Click
here to show/hide instructions.
Instructions on how to use the page:
The commentary for the selected verse is is displayed below.
All commentary was produced against the King James, so the same verse from that translation may appear as well. Hovering your mouse over a commentary's scripture reference attempts to show those verses.
Use the browser's back button to return to the previous page.
Or you can also select a feature from the Just Verses menu appearing at the top of the page.
Selected Verse: Ecclesiates 7:14 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ec 7:14 |
King James |
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 man should find nothing after him. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
consider--resumed from Ecc 7:13. "Consider," that is, regard it as "the work of God"; for "God has made (Hebrew, for 'set') this (adversity) also as well as the other (prosperity)." "Adversity" is one of the things which "God has made crooked," and which man cannot "make straight." He ought therefore to be "patient" (Ecc 7:8).
after him--equivalent to "that man may not find anything (to blame) after God" (that is, after "considering God's work," Ecc 7:13). Vulgate and Syriac, "against Him" (compare Ecc 7:10; Rom 3:4). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Good and prosperous days are in God's design special times of comfort and rejoicing: the days of affliction and trouble, are in God's design the proper seasons of recollection and serious consideration. The Providence of God hath so contrived it, that our good and evil days should be intermingled each with the other. This mixture of good and evil days is by the Divine Providence so proportioned, that it sufficiently justifies the dealings of God toward the sons of men, and obviates all their discontent and complaints against Him.
Set the one over against the other - Rather, made this as well as that, i. e., the day of adversity, as well as the day of prosperity. The seeming imitation of this passage in Ecclesiasticus (Ecclesiasticus 36:13-15) affords a strong presumption that this book was written before the days of the son of Sirach.
To the end ... - God hath constituted the vicissitude of prosperity and adversity in such a way that no man can forecast the events that shall follow when he is removed from his present state. Compare the Ecc 6:12 note. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Be joyful - Enjoy God's favours with thankfulness. Consider - Consider that it is God's hand, and therefore submit to it: consider also why God sends it, for what sins, and with what design. God also - Hath wisely ordained, that prosperity and adversity should succeed one another. That - No man might be able to foresee, what shall befal him afterwards; and therefore might live in a constant dependance upon God, and neither despair in trouble, nor be secure or presumptuous in prosperity. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| In the day of prosperity be joyful - When ye receive these temporal gifts from God, enjoy them, and be thankful to the Giver: but remember, this sunshine will not always last. God has balanced prosperity and adversity against each other; and were it not so, how many would put the former in the place of God himself! |
4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
10 Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.
13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
12 For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?