Ecclesiastes 2:14

Ecc 2:14 The wise man’s eyes [are] in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.

Ver. 14. The wise man’s eyes are in his head.] He judiciously pondereth things past, and prudently ordereth things present, and providently foreseeth to prevent dangers likely to ensue. {a} The Chinese use to say of themselves, that all other nations of the world see but with one eye, they only with two. {b} Italians tell us, that, whereas Spaniards seem wise and are fools, Frenchmen seem fools and are wise, Portuguese neither are wise nor so much as seem to be so, they themselves both seem wise, and are so. {c} This I could sooner believe if from a better mouth than their own. Romani, sicut non acumina, ita non imposturas habent, saith Bellarmine; The Romans (those wittiest of the Italians) are neither very subtle nor very simple.

But the fool walketh in darkness.] He hath neither sight nor light, but is acted and agitated by the prince of darkness, who holds his black hand before the eye of such men’s minds and blinds their understandings - dealing with them as Pliny saith the eagle deals with the hart; she lights upon his horns, and there flutters up and down, filling his eyes with dust borne in her feathers, that at last he may cast himself from a rock, and so be made a prey unto her.

One event happeneth to them all.] As did to Josiah and Ahab in the manner of both their dying in battle. They may be all wrapped up together in a common calamity, and sapientes sapienter in gehennam descendant, {d} the world’s great wise men go very wisely down to hell; there, for want of saving grace, fools and wiser men meet at one and the same inn, though by several ways, at one and the same haven, though from several coasts.

{a} Pροσσω και οπισσω.

{b} Description of the World, Ec. Of China.

{c} Heyl., Geog.

{d} Augustine.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ecc_2:14

The wise mans eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness.

The advantage of wisdom over folly

Wisdom possesses the same advantage over folly that sight does over blindness. The man of wisdom, having all his wits about him, in the full possession and the appropriate exercise of all his faculties, guides his affairs with discretion, looks before him, thinks maturely of what he is doing, and by his knowledge of men and things, is directed to the adoption of plans which promise to be profitable, and to the prudent and successful prosecution of them. He foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself. He aims at worthy ends, and employs suitable means for their accomplishment. But the fool--the ignorant, and inconsiderate, and improvident man--is continually in danger of stumbling, or of going astray, like a person overtaken by darkness, who knoweth not whither he goeth. He is ever prone to run blindly and heedlessly into absurd and injurious projects, or to destroy such as are in themselves good, by blundering in the execution of them. The fools eyes, it is elsewhere said, are in the ends of the earth, roaming vainly and idly abroad, without serving his present and needful purposes; gazing, as the organs of a vacant mind, on far-off objects, and allowing him to stumble over what is immediately in his way. Without foresight to anticipate probable evils, without even sagacity to avoid such as are present, the fool is in perpetual hazard of iniuring and ruining both himself and all who are so unfortunate as to stand connected with him, or to be exposed to his influence. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

The wisdom of the eye

I. To understand this proverb, notice, first, the contrasts which it suggests. One of these is expressed in the context; the other is to be readily and clearly inferred.

1. First, there is a contrast between persons. We have before us the believer in God and the unbeliever, the child of light and the child of darkness, the converted and the unconverted, the spiritual and the natural. Whatever may be their relative state of knowledge or ignorance, of wealth or poverty, in the sense of the Bible of truth, and in the judgment of the God of truth, the one is wise and the other a fool.

2. Secondly, there is a contrast implied: The wise mans eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness. And why is his path in darkness? Because, unlike the wise man, his eyes are not in his head; if they had been there, he would have walked in light, surely, safely. But they are in his heart, and so he walks foolishly, erringly, darkly. The eye in the head--the wise mans eye, sees under the direction of reason, and faith, and of right understanding. The eye in the heart--the fools eye, sees under the direction of the affections, the disposition and the feelings. And so, while the one man walks in light, the other man walks in darkness.

II. But now let me more pointedly and practically set out the meaning of this verse. Let us take by itself each part of this proverb and consider it.

1. First, then, it is implied that the fools eyes are in his heart. He sees all things through the medium of his own wishes and inclinations; his reason and conscience do not control, but they are possessed by his inclinations.

(1) Hence I believe, because the eye of many is in the heart, the scepticism which obtains in our day, especially the scepticism which obtains in the minds of young men. No man, I believe, ever became an infidel against his will. Inclination, not evidence, has been deficient to the man. The evil heart of unbelief is at the root of scepticism.

(2) Hence I believe the prejudice with which many professed Christians turn away from the doctrines of evangelical religion. They do not question their reality, but they just dislike their practical consequences.

(3) A fools eyes are in his heart, because his bondage is to things present and temporal, and he is indifferent to thinks unseen and eternal. The Bible, though not a fable, is as another book to him, and nothing more. Truth, if not a fiction, is not a fact. Earth is a loved present, possessed; heaven is a forgotten, distant future.

2. But the wise mans eyes are in his head. The light of a holy knowledge shines upon them, and in this light the eye of reason and of faith, the eye, not of blind inclination, but of Christian consciousness and confidence, sees light.

(1) Hence a Christian man feels the right and the responsibility of private judgment on the truth and the service of God. The authority of Christ is supreme authority unto him. He will allow no interference with it; he will allow no usurper to take its place.

(2) Hence the Christian man prays for the light of Divine teaching, The possession of truth has taught him the possibility and the peril of error. He would be found never trusting in man, but he would always pray--That which I know not, Lord, teach Thou me!

(3) Hence the impression which he receives of the things around him and before him. The rule of duty, read by the eyes in his head, is just this--his Fathers will. The measure of goodness, admired by the eye in his head, is just this--his Saviours image.

(4) Lastly, when our eyes are in our head, under the government of an enlightened reason and a Christian faith, they will always be doing a holy and a godly service to our souls--never an injurious one. They will not, then, wander lustfully where they should not even steal a glance; they will be turned away from all vanities. Looking ever, will they be found, unto Jesus; ever, will they be found, setting the Lord before them; single will they ever be, full of light, turning the whole body into light also. (J. Eyre, M. A.)

One event happeneth to them all.--

Wisdom and folly compared

Looking simply at knowledge as such, and looking merely at the brief span of our existence under the sun, we must confess that the wise man is sometimes as powerless as the fool. Two men take their seats in a railway train. The one man is an accomplished scholar, or mathematician, or philosopher. He has disciplined his mental powers, and has amassed large stores of knowledge. He has even acquired, it may be a certain reputation as a man of learning, or as a leader of the thoughts of others. The man who is sitting beside him cares nothing for intellectual culture. Animal enjoyment is his ideal. Give him a good dinner, and you may keep your books to yourself! He could never see any good in racking his brains over hard problems. There sit these two men in the railway carriage, side by side: the one, perhaps, reading the latest book of science; the other, perhaps, glancing through some Sporting Gazette. Suddenly, in a moment, there comes the collision which it was utterly impossible for either of them to foresee: the train is a wreck; and these two lie together, crushed, mangled, and dead! One event, one chance, has happened to them both! Now, shut out the thought of God, and the thought of immortality, and what advantage has the one man over the other? The student has had his intellectual enjoyments: the votary of pleasure has had his enjoyments also. The scholar, along with his enjoyment, has had much fatiguing toil, and, it may be, painful thought; the pleasure-seeker also has doubtless, on his part experienced some of the penalties of self-indulgence. The lover of knowledge has, indeed, had this advantage, that his eyes have been in his head: he has had a wider and clearer vision; and he has lived a higher kind of life. But to what purpose? Where is the permanent advantage? These two men have lived their short span: and here has come Death, as the great leveller! For a few years, perhaps, the scholar may be spoken of; his name may even get into some biographical dictionary but, unless he is one of a very select few, it will be little more than a name, and, in the ages to come, he will be altogether forgotten. To what purpose, then, has he scorned delights, and lived laborious days? Can he be said to have made the best use of human life, if he has simply spent it in acquiring a wisdom which leaves him, in the end, indistinguishable from the fool? Thus, then, we seem to be driven to the same conclusion as Ecclesiastes. Whatever advantages earthly wisdom has, it cannot be regarded as the chief good for man. The amassing of knowledge as the one supreme object of human existence is a vain delusion: it is a feeding on wind: it fails to satisfy the deepest cravings of the human soul. (T. C. Finlayson.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The wise man"s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh "in darkness. This clause is closely connected with the preceding verse, showing how wisdom excelleth folly. The wise man has the eyes of his heart or understanding enlightened; (Eph_1:18) he looks into the nature of things, fixes his regard on what is most important, sees where to go; while the fool"s eyes are in the ends of the earth; (Pro_17:24) he walks on still in darkness, stumbling as he goes, knowing not whither his road shall take him. And I myself also (I even I) perceived that one event happeneth to them all. "Event" (mikreh); sunanthma (Septuagint); interitus (Vulgate); not chance, But death, the final event. The word is translated "hap" in Rth_2:3, and "chance" in 1Sa_6:9; but the connection here points to a definite termination; nor would it be consistent with Koheleth"s religion to refer this termination to fate or accident. With all his experience, he could only conclude that in one important aspect the observed superiority of wisdom to folly was illusory and vain. He saw with his own eyes, and needed no instructor to teach, that both wise and fool must succumb to death, the universal leveler. Horace, in many passages, sings of this: thus "Carm.," 2:3. 21

Divesne prisco natus ab Inacho, Nil interest, an pauper et infima De gente sub dive moreris, Victima nil miserantis Orci.

(Comp, ibid, 1:28. 15, etc.; 2:14. 9, etc.) Plato ("Phaedo," 57. p. 108, A) refers to a passage in "Telephus," a lost play of 2 Eschylus, which is restored thus

JAplh gantev eijv Aidou ferei.

A single path leads all unto the grave.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He forseeth things, which the fool cannot for lack of wisdom.

For both die and are forgotten as verse 16, or they both alike have prosperity or adversity.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 14. The wise man's eyes, c.] Well expressed by Choheleth: -

"The wise are circumspect, maturely weigh

The consequence of what they undertake,

Good ends propose, and fittest means apply

To accomplish their designs."

But the fool walketh in darkness]

"But fools, deprived

Of reason's guidance, or in darkness grope,

Or, unreflecting like a frantic man,

Who on the brink of some steep precipice

Attempts to run a race with heedless steps,

Rush to their own perdition."

One event happeneth to them all.]

"Though wide the difference, what has human pride

To boast? Even I myself too plainly saw,

That one event to both alike befalls

To various accidents of life exposed,

Without distinction: nor can wisdom screen

From dangers, disappointments, grief, and pain."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(14) Event.—Translated “hap,” or “chance” (Rth_2:13; 1Sa_6:9; 1Sa_20:26).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. The wise man’s eyes are in his head] The figurative language is so much of the nature of an universal parable that we need hardly look to any special source for it, but we are at least reminded of those that “walk on still in darkness,” who have eyes and yet “see not” in any true sense of seeing (Isa_6:10). In Pro_17:24 we have the opposite form of the same thought: “The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.” Comp. also Joh_11:10; Joh_12:33.

and I myself perceived also] Better, And yet I myself perceived. The thought of Ecc_2:13 which had given an apparent resting-place for the seeker, is traversed by another which sends him once more adrift. Wisdom is better than folly. True, but for how long? With an emphasized stress on his own personal reflections, he goes on, “Yes, I myself, learning it for myself, and not as a topic of the schools, saw that there is one event for the wise and for the fool.” In a few short years the difference in which the former exults will vanish, and both will be on the same level. So sang the Epicurean poet:

“Omnes una manet nox,

Et calcanda semel via lethi.”

“One dark black night awaits us all;

One path of death we all must tread.”

Hor. Od. i. 28. 15.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The wise man's eyes are in his head,.... And so are the eyes of every man; but the sense is, he makes use of them, he looks about him, and walks circumspectly; he takes heed to his goings, he foresees the evil, and avoids it; or the danger he is exposed unto, and guards against it. Some understand it, in a more spiritual and evangelical sense, of Christ, who is the head of the body the church, and of every true believer; of everyone that is wise unto salvation, whose eyes are on him alone for righteousness, salvation, and eternal life; or on whom Christ's eyes are; who is said to have seven eyes, with which he guides, guards, and protects his people;

but the fool walketh in darkness; his eyes are to the ends of the earth; he walks incautiously, without any circumspection or guard; he knows not where he is, nor where he is going, nor where he shall set his foot next, nor at what he may stumble; wherefore a wise man is to be preferred to a fool, as wisdom is to folly. The Midrash interprets the wise man of Abraham, and the fool of Nimrod;

and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all; the wise man and the fool; or, "but I myself perceived" (w), &c. though it is allowed that a wise man is better than a fool; yet this also must be owned, which Solomon's experience proved, and every man's does, that the same things befall wise men and fools; they are liable to the same diseases of body, and disasters of life; to poverty and distress, to loss of estate, children, and friends, and to death itself.

(w) "sed agnovi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "sed cognovi", Rambachius; "but I saw", Broughton.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Darkness and ignorance. He knows not whither he is going, Proverbs iv. 19., and xvii. 24. Wisdom is to be preferred before wealth, &c. (Calmet) --- Consideration directs a person to do good. --- Alike. Thus worldlings speak, who reflect not on the life to come. (Worthington) --- In many respects all resemble one another, though their sentence be very different. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Are in his head; in their proper place, and therefore they can see, which they could not do if they were out of his head. He hath the use of his eyes and reason, and sees his way, and orders all his affairs with discretion, and foresees, and so avoids, many dangers and mischiefs. Walketh in darkness; manageth his affairs ignorantly, rashly, and foolishly, whereby he showeth that his eyes are not in his head, but in his heels, or, as it is expressed, Pro 17:24, in the ends of the earth. And; or, yet; notwithstanding this excellency of wisdom above folly for our conduct in the matters of this life, yet at last they both come to one end.

One event happeneth to them all; both are subject to the same calamities, and to death itself, which utterly takes away all difference between them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. The wise man’s eyes are in his head — The Hebrew is more forcible: As for the wise man, his eyes, etc. The “wise man’s eyes” are where they belong, and can be used to some purpose. The reference is to the eyes of the understanding, the inward organ of spiritual knowledge.

Darkness — Better, blindness, as contrasted with the seeing eyes just named.

I myself — This declaration is of marked emphasis.

One event — The “event” here mentioned is evidently death, so often in the writer’s mind.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Head - In their proper place. He hath the use of his eyes and reason, and foresees, and so avoids many dangers and mischiefs. Yet - Notwithstanding this excellency of wisdom above folly, at last they both come to one end. Both are subject to the same calamities, and to death itself, which takes away all difference between them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The wise man has eyes in its beginning In the beginning of the matter, he observes what will be at its end.

and I too know Also, I, who praise the wise man over the fool, know that they both will die.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.