Ecclesiastes 8:10-17

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Ecclesiastes 8:10

So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are soon forgotten in the city where they did thus. This too is futility.


Solomon had lived long enough to see wicked me die and here he comments on their passing.

1. They were wicked yet they had access to the Temple just like the righteous man.

2. Their deeds of wickedness, their hypocrisy, is soon forgotten. And we have even seen the wicked praised after their deaths.

Does this seem right in our eyes, of course not. The law of retribution seems to have broken down.


Ecclesiastes 8:11

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.


Evil systems delay legal retribution against the wicked and their evil deeds.

In other words, they are getting by with it.

The sentence is not executed quickly and others who see the wicked prosper and get by with it are tempted to follow in their evil footsteps.

Now do we have this problem today? No doubt about it.

When a convicted murderer is sentenced to death and the punishment is delayed and delayed by appeal after appeal, justice is seen as a joke in the eyes of evil men.

We often debate whether capital punishment is a deterrent to crime. Certainly not in the way it is executed today. Even when a capital offender is executed it is so often for crimes committed years ago that is does not have any impact upon society and no impact upon the criminal element of society.

Is this right, can we figure it out? No? Our vision does not allow us to figure out this kind of injustice.

Verses 12-14 The Confidence we must have in God's Plan over what we see in life.


Ecclesiastes 8:12

Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may lengthen his life, still I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear Him openly.


We have already seen that one liability the wicked face is that they may die as a result of their wickedness (Eccl. 7:17)

Here that liability is taken away from the proposed situation. The sinner does evil, intense evil, a hundred times a day is the idiom, and his life is lengthened and yet...

Solomon says I KNOW that is will be well for those who fear God, the ones fearing Him openly.

At issue here is how does he know this? It cannot be by observation, if anything his observation would point to the opposite being true.

The only way this can be known is by depending upon God's wisdom rather than what is seen and observable by human wisdom.

KNOW is YAW-DAH in the Hebrew and is a Qal active participle, the Qal stem is declarative and the participle looks at an active process, in this case a process of learning the wisdom of God.

FEAR is a Qal imperfect indicating that what is expected is not perfection but a process of fearing or respecting God more and more as we grow.

TO DO THIS OPENLY is to do this not openly before men but before God Himself.


Ecclesiastes 8:13

The end of the evil man: But it will not be well for the evil man and he will not lengthen his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God.


God will certainly not lengthen the life of the evil man and in reality his life may be cut short by his own involvement in evil.

The word LENGTHEN is a Hiphil stem which is causative active. The evil he does will not cause his life to be lengthened.

WHY: Because he does not fear God.

One Hebrew word that is not translated is PAW-NEEM and that word is similar to the word we had in v 12 for OPENLY, here the evil man does not respect God in the presence of God.


Ecclesiastes 8:14

There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility.


This is saying that Solomon has seen the righteous get what the wicked deserve and the Wicked get what the righteous deserve.

This is a contradiction to the principle of retribution and in the eyes of man whose vision is not 20/20 seems like enigmatic or meaningless.

NOTICE: He both begins and ends this observation with HE-BEL, vanity, emptiness, meaningless.

Verses 15-17 His Conclusion.


Ecclesiastes 8:15

God wants us to have Joy: So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.


The word PLEASURE is at times translated JOY, so Solomon is commending, recommending an attitude of JOY.

Under the Sun, as man is bound to earth he should eat, drink and be merry.

Paul uses this same phase in I Corinthians 15:32 as a negative by adding the words for tomorrow we shall die.

There he is critical of the ones who do not believe in the resurrection to eternal life.

Also in Isaiah 22:13 the negative use of the phrase

But Solomon uses it in a very simplistic manner. He says we are here, are earth, often things do not make sense of seem very clear since our vision is not 20/20. There is injustice, there is inequality. But those things are in God's hands and under His care.

We need not seek revenge upon the wicked. We need not get upset about these things. God, in the end will triumph.

So what is left to us: Enjoy life as we place our lives under God's care.

EXAMPLE: James 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

If we take this thought in light of the first verse of this chapter we see that it is the wise man who can face the perplexities of life and still have a face that beams with joy.


Ecclesiastes 8:16

When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night),


And I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, I know, he cannot discover.

Solomon is coming to the end of the road with human wisdom. He is beginning to see that it cannot be a substitute for the wisdom that comes from God.

In Eccl. 9 he will give a example of wisdom and its value over human and military strength

Then in Eccl. 10 he concludes the dissertation on human wisdom in three verses that tell us that we cannot understand God and what God is doing by human wisdom.

Here, at the end of chapter 8, he begins, so to speak, to see the light.

The opening words of v 16 reminds of where Solomon began this most recent quest back in Eccl. 7:25

Eccl. 7:25 I directed my mind...

Eccl. 8:16 I gave my heart...

The words MIND and HEART are the same word in the Hebrew.

Both phases are Qal Perfects and yet here in verse 16 the perfect is incomplete in context. This quest, this search, did not arrive at its goal.

He even spent some sleepless nights trying to understand what was going on, on earth.


Ecclesiastes 8:17

And here is the problem, I saw every work of God.


The word WORK is MAH-AS-EH which can also mean needlework. Now needlework, of which I know almost nothing, but I do know that in the process it doesn't look like much and from the backside it looks like even less even when done.

So this is an excellent analogy of how we look at what God is doing, we see it in part, prior to completion, we see it from the wrong side.

It looks great to God, but it can be very perplexing to us.

How does man in his human wisdom attempt to have 20/20 vision.
1. By hard work, seeking laboriously, driving on to that point in which he thinks he will understand.

2. These are imperfect tenses that contrast sharply with the perfect tense used back in v 16.

3. By convincing himself he understands. This is the stroking of the beard, the nodding of the head, the distant look in the eyes, and the saying of I Know.

But he does not know. Even if he says he has God figured out, in human wisdom he cannot discover.

DISCOVER is a Qal infinitive indicating that the boast of man, man's words, do not result in discovering what God is doing.

This all adds up to the fact that man in human wisdom will face perplexities in life.

But as believers, with God's wisdom, we too will face perplexities in life.

In II Corinthians 4:8 Paul speaks of the fact that believers, even himself, get perplexed. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing . Despairing is a word that means to be at a loss, to be despondent, to be depressed. Paul admits to his perplexity yet says this should not slide over into depression.

The word PERPLEXED means to doubt, to hesitate, to not know what to do, to not know what to say or how to act. As the believer sees what God is doing in his life there will be times of perplexity. Times in which we will say we do not understand. At times this perplexity will come out of what others do as with Paul and the Galatian believers.

Galatians 4:20 But I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

Paul was perplexed regarding how quickly they were embracing legalisms.

We can be perplexed by what is taught as were the disciples during the upper room discourse when Jesus told them one of them would betray Him.

John 13:22 The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking.

In Acts 25:20 we see an UNBELIEVER who is perplexed at the accusations being made against Paul.

Festus, the Roman Governor of Judea is speaking: And being at a loss how to investigate such matters, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there stand trial on these matters.

But believers too can be perplexed regarding the accusations of others and the conflicts that arise among men.

The Bible Doctrine we have will allow us to understand many of things in life that cause people to be perplexed. But we will never have the full counsel of God. And there are times we will not understand, and we will be perplexed and we will not know what to do or what to say.

I Corinthians 2:1-3 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

What do we do then? Look again to II Corinthians 4:8

First, we do not despair. We do not allow for depression to settle in and turn the adversity of perplexity to the stress of depression.

Look at verse 10: Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

The deaths of Christ, carried with us, allow for the continual adjustments to the justice of God when we sin. We look away from our weakness, our sin, our lack of understanding to His deaths.

The price paid for us...to have His life.

IN ORDER THAT the Life of Jesus might be manifested in our body.

How will this occur? By learning the Word, by Faith, and in the sphere of our relationship with Him.

If you know Him by way of the doctrine in your soul, and you trust Him by way of the faith you have in Him in the sphere of your personal relationship with him, when you are perplexed, you not despair.

After all, you know the one who knows all the answers and if He chooses to tell you, fine, if not, well that is fine also.

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