Ecclesiastes 9:2 - Exposition

All things come alike to all ; literally, all things [are] like that which [happens] to all persons . There is no difference in the treatment of persons; all people of every kind meet with circumstances of every kind. Speaking generally, there is no discrimination, apparently, in the distribution of good and evil. Sun and shade, calm and storm. fruitful and unfruitful seasons, joy and sorrow, are dispensed by inscrutable laws. The Septuagint, reading differently, has, "Vanity is in all;" the Syriac unites two readings, "All before him is vanity, all as to all" (Ginsburg). There is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked. All men have the same lot, whether it be death or any other contingency, without regard to their naomi condition. The classes into which men are divided must be noted. "Righteous" and "wicked" refer to men in their conduct to others. The good. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac add, "to the evil," which is said again almost immediately. To the clean, and to the unclean . "The good" and "clean" are those who are not only ceremonially pure, but, as the epithet "good" shows, are morally undefiled. To him that sacrificeth ; i.e. the man who attends to the externals of religion, offers the obligatory sacrifices, and brings his free-will offerings. The good … the sinner ; in the widest senses. He that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath . He who takes an oath lightly, carelessly, or falsely (comp. Zechariah 5:3 ), is contrasted with him who regards it as a holy thing, or shrinks in awe from invoking God's Name in such a case This last idea is regarded as a late Essenic development (see Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' 2.8. 6); though something like it is found in the sermon on the mount, "I say unto you, Swear not at all," etc. ( Matthew 5:34-37 ). Dean Plumptre, however, throws doubt on the above interpretation, owing to the fact that in all the other groups the good side is placed first; and he suggests that "he who sweareth" may be one who does his duty in this particular religiously and well (comp. Deuteronomy 6:13 ; Isaiah 65:16 ), and "he who fears the oath" is a man whose conscience makes him shrink from the oath of compurgation ( Exodus 22:10 , Exodus 22:11 ; Numbers 5:19-22 ), or who is too cowardly to give his testimony in due form. The Vulgate has, Ut perjurus, its et ille qui verum dejerat ; and it seems unnecessary to present an entirely new view of the passage in slavish expectation of a concinnity which the author cannot be proved to have ever aimed at. The five contrasted pairs are the righteous and the wicked, the clean and the unclean, the sacrificer and the non-sacrificer, the good and the sinner, the profane swearer and the man who reverences an oath. The last clause is rendered by the Septuagint, "So is he who sweareth ( ὁ ὀμνύων ) even as he who fears the oath," which is as ambiguous as the original. A cautious Greek gnome says—

ὅρκον δὲ φεῦγε κᾶν δικαίως ὀμνύῃς

"Avoid an oath, though justly you might swear."