Ecc Notes Week 5
Words
1639 עָמָל (ʿāmāl) to labor.
Derivatives
1639a עָמָל (ʿāmāl) labor, toil, trouble.
1639b עָמֵל (ʿāmēl) I, laborer, sufferer.
1639c עָמֵל (ʿāmēl) II, toiling.
Verses
Ecclesiastes 4:4 (CSB)
It is envy that drives us on in the mad rush after “gain.”
It is the suspicion or realization that others are gaining more from life than we are that leads us on to compete with them in the insane rat race, striving to outdo them.
Ecclesiastes 4:5 (CSB)
Ecclesiastes 4:6 (CSB)
“Two handfuls” are not better than none if they are gained at the expense of “tranquillity” (naḥat) or “peace of mind” (NEB), for the lack of tranquillity or contentment is also something that marks out the fool (cf. Prov. 29:9, where naḥat is contrasted with a striving marked by rage and mockery).
Life for the body (Heb. baśar in Prov. 14:30) is no more achieved through grasping with both hands than through folding them (which actually results in self-destruction, 4:5—lit., the “eating of the flesh [baśar]”). The single handful symbolizes the way ahead.
Ecclesiastes 4:7–8 (CSB)
Now he scores the futility of the laborer who has no inheritor to share with him. There is little sense in toiling for merely personal gain. It should be noted that עמל, “toil,” figures in both passages.
The foregoing material has made it clear that the life of striving is fundamentally anti-neighbor. The point of life, when viewed from this perspective, is to get ahead of one’s neighbors rather than to participate in community with them—just as, earlier in the book, it was to “get ahead” of creation as a whole rather than to live in harmony with it.
It is not surprising, then, that in 4:7–12 we find material that first focuses on the loneliness of the striving individual and then moves on to offer a stirring and uplifting commendation of community.
Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 (CSB)
In the world of the self-centered achiever there is only one person “all alone” (ʾeḥad weʾen šeni; lit., “one and not a second,” v. 8), and that one person knows only toil (ʿamal) in place of “the good” (ṭoba). His individual life is futile, and it brings great pain and misery to others. In this alternative world, however, “Two are better than one” (ṭobim haššenayim min-haʾeḥad), and both have a “good return for their work” (śakar ṭob baʿamalam)
Ecclesiastes 4:11 (CSB)
4:11 Third, they give emotional comfort to each other. The warmth of lying beside each other does not refer to sexual activity, nor are the two necessarily husband and wife. It is an image derived from that of travelers who must lie beside each other to stay warm on cold desert nights.
But the usage is here metaphorical for emotional comfort against the coldness of the world.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 (CSB)
Fourth, they give each other protection; for that, in fact, a third friend is even better! This verse also appears to be a proverb (note the numerical pattern).
It is noteworthy that this is one aspect of life that the Teacher does not class as הֶבֶל.
Ecclesiastes 4:13–16 (CSB)
It is not surprising that in the course of reflections on the solitary yet unhappy and futile life we should return to consider once again the figure of the king.
Ecclesiastes 4:13–14 (CSB)
Like Absalom in David’s old age, the latter youth uses his energy and political cunning to gain the hearts of a people who are weary of the now-aloof, inflexible, and aged monarch.
The occurrence of “the second” in v 15 serves as a catch word that ties vv 13–16 with vv 9–12, in which “two” occurs so frequently.
Conclusions
The secular individualism that is often apparent in modern culture, which has everything to do with self-sufficiency and self-fulfillment and little to do with worship of God and social responsibility, has nothing in the end to do with the Bible. Even the religious individualism that lays great emphasis on a person’s relationship with God but little emphasis on a person’s social, economic, political, and religious relationships with other people, has little in the end to do with the Bible. The Bible is about persons-in-community, whether in the Godhead of Father, Son, and Spirit, or in the church, or in the world at large. The proper goal of the Christian is not an individualistic heaven but is to be found in right relationship with God, neighbor, and God’s world now and in the future, which will include by God’s grace a future stretching beyond death.
Envy
The first is to root out from our hearts all the destructive and sinful thoughts that lead us to pursue a selfish and individualistic path through life. Envy, which Qohelet mentions in 4:4, is certainly one of these; this vice is also highlighted in the New Testament (e.g., Mark 7:22; Rom. 1:29; 1 Cor. 13:4; Gal. 5:21; Titus 3:3). Excessive desire for our own advancement is another (Eccl. 4:13–16), and Christians are explicitly told not to set out on this road but to aim at servanthood (e.g., Mark 10:35–45).
Selflessness
Another sin to root out of our hearts is the refusal to accept that all other human beings do indeed have a stake in the world (in Heb., a ḥeleq or “portion”), which leads, for complex but often abominable reasons (e.g., greed, government policies framed “in the national interest”), to the turning of a blind eye to the reality that we have much more than others do. We also refuse to accept that many of these others have indeed been deprived even of the most basic means out of which to live their lives.
