Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Ecclesiastes 4:10-12

Ecclesiastes 4:10-12 . For, if they fall If one or more of them fall in any way; as into any mistakes, and errors, or sins, dangers, or distresses. The one will lift up his fellow Will hold him up, if he be falling, or raise him up, if he be fallen. If two lie together, then they have heat They will be sooner warm in a cold bed and a cold season. So virtuous and gracious affections are excited by good society; and Christians warm one another, by provoking one another to love and good... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Ecclesiastes 4:4-16

The uselessness of achievement (4:4-16)Several examples illustrate how useless much human activity is. Some people drive themselves in their work but can never relax and enjoy it, because they are always worrying about being ahead of everyone else. Others do not work at all and so ruin themselves. Both extremes should be avoided. People should work for a living and enjoy it, but they should not be so ambitious that they create trouble for themselves (4-6).Other unhappy people are those who... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Ecclesiastes 4:9

Ecclesiastes 4:9. Because they have a good reward— Because they have a better reward for their common labour. read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Ecclesiastes 4:9

9. Two—opposed to "one" (Ecclesiastes 4:8). Ties of union, marriage, friendship, religious communion, are better than the selfish solitariness of the miser (Ecclesiastes 4:8- :). reward—Advantage accrues from their efforts being conjoined. The Talmud says, "A man without a companion is like a left hand without the right. read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Ecclesiastes 4:10

10. if they fall—if the one or other fall, as may happen to both, namely, into any distress of body, mind, or soul. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Ecclesiastes 4:4-16

3. The motivations of labor 4:4-16The phrase "vanity and striving after wind" (Ecclesiastes 4:4; Ecclesiastes 4:16) brackets this section. This structure emphasizes the relative vapidity of everything between these statements. The main theme seems to be "the power complex common among humans and ways of reacting to it." [Note: J. S. Wright, "Ecclesiastes," p. 1165.] read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Ecclesiastes 4:7-12

Greed for self 4:7-12The reader cannot miss the folly of working just to accumulate more in this powerful description."Such a man, even with a wife and children, will have little time for them, convinced that he is toiling for their benefit although his heart is elsewhere, devoted and wedded to his projects." [Note: Ibid., pp. 46-47.] Solomon commended sharing, rather than hoarding, by calling attention to several advantages that come from cooperating with other people (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Ecclesiastes 4:1-16

Vicissitudes of Life. ’Oh, the pity of it!’1-3. The mass of human suffering and the absence of pity are such that better off are the dead and still more the unborn.It is not only through God’s ordinance, but by reason of man’s perversity, that he is disturbed and perplexed by the social disturbances around him. The world is full of trouble. The weak are oppressed by the strong.4-6. Success involves envy. Better be secure and at peace. 4. Right] RV ’skilful,’ RM ’successful.’ For this..... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Ecclesiastes 4:10

(10) Woe.—The word occurs only here and in Ecclesiastes 10:16, but is common in post-Biblical Hebrew. read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Ecclesiastes 4:1-16

Ecclesiastes 4:1-2 Compare John Morley's Critical Miscellanies, I. pp. 84 f. Reference. IV. 1. A. W. Momerie, Agnosticism, p. 204. Ecclesiastes 4:8 See Quarles's Emblems, II. 2. Ecclesiastes 4:9 'The best things come, as a general thing,' says Mr. Henry James in his Monograph on Hawthorne (p. 81), 'from the talents that are members of a group; every man works better when he has companions working in the same line, and yielding the stimulus of suggestion, comparison, emulation. Great things... read more

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