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വ്യാഖ്യാനം നിലവിൽ ഇംഗ്ലീഷിൽ മാത്രമേ ലഭ്യമാകൂ. മലയാള പരിഭാഷ പുരോഗമിക്കുകയാണ്.

Wisdom · Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 7 — Sorrow Is Better Than Laughter

Summary

A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? Wisdom is good with an inheritance. God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

Key verse

“It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.”

— Ecclesiastes 7:2

Outline
  1. v.1-14 Wisdom in sorrow
  2. v.15-22 Be not over-righteous
  3. v.23-29 God made man upright
Verse-by-verse
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

A counter-intuitive priority. Funerals teach what banquets cannot. The reality of death sobers the living.

A verse to refuse the constant avoidance of death's reminders. Sit with mourners; you learn what no party teaches.

29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

The doctrine of original sin in one verse. Man was made upright; the inventions are his — the twisting after creation.

A check on blaming God for sin. He made us straight; we crooked ourselves.

Key doctrines
Mourning Better Than Feasting
Ecclesiastes 7:2 · Psalm 90:12 · Romans 12:15
Man Made Upright, Self-Twisted
Ecclesiastes 7:29 · Genesis 1:31 · Romans 5:12
Application

Verse 2 is the discipline of going to funerals. Do not shrink from the house of mourning; the living learn there what they never learn elsewhere.

Christ in this chapter

Christ, the Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53:3), sanctifies the house of mourning. He came to the funerals as well as the feasts. Either is at home with Him.