Ecclesiastes 6:8

"For what hath the wise more than the fool; what the poor who knoweth to walk before the living?" The old translators present nothing for the interpretation, but defend the traditional text; for Jerome, like the Syr., which translates freely, follows the Midrash (fixed in the Targ.), which understands החיים, contrary to the spirit of the book, of the blessed future. The question would be easier if we could, with Bernst. and Ginsburg, introduce a comparat. min before יודע; we would then require to understand by him who knows to walk before the living, some one who acts a part in public life; but how strange a designation of distinguished persons would that be! Thus, as the text stands, יודע ,sdnat is attrib. to לעני, what preference hath the poor, such an one, viz., as understands (vid., regarding יודע instead of היודע, under Psa 143:10); not: who is intelligent (Aben Ezra); יודע is not, as at Ecc 9:11, an idea contained in itself, but by the foll. הח ... לה (cf. Ecc 4:13, Ecc 4:14; and the inf. form, Exo 3:19; Num 22:13; Job 34:23) obtains the supplement and colouring required: the sequence of the accents (Zakeph, Tifcha, Silluk, as e.g., at Gen 7:4) is not against this. How the lxx understood its πορευθῆναι κατέναντι τῆς ζωῆς, and the Venet. it's ἀπιέναι ἀντικρὺ τῆς ζωῆς, is not clear; scarcely as Grtz, with Mendelss.: who, to go against (נגד, as at Ecc 4:12) life, to fight against it, has to exercise himself in self-denial and patience; for "to fight with life" is an expression of modern coinage. הח signifies here, without doubt, not life, but the living. But we explain now, not as Ewald, who separates יודע from the foll. inf. להלך: What profit has then the wise man, the intelligent, patient man, above the fool, that he walks before the living? - by which is…

In this chapter, I. The royal preacher goes on further to show the vanity of worldly wealth, when men place their happiness in it and are eager and inordinate in laying it up. Riches, in the hands of a man that is wise and generous, and good for something, but in the hands of a sordid, sneaking, covetous miser, they are good for nothing. 1. He takes an account of the possessions and enjoyments which such a man may have. He has wealth (Ecc 6:2), he has children to inherit it (Ecc 6:3), and lives long (Ecc 6:3, Ecc 6:6). 2. He describes his folly in not taking the comfort of it; he has no power to eat of it, lets strangers devour it, is never filled with good, and at last has no burial (Ecc 6:2, Ecc 6:3). 3. He condemns it as an evil, a common evil, vanity, and a disease (Ecc 6:1, Ecc 6:2). 4. He prefers the condition of a still-born child before the condition of such a one (Ecc 6:3). The still-born child's infelicity is only negative (Ecc 6:4, Ecc 6:5), but that of the covetous worldling is positive; he lives a great while to see himself miserable (Ecc 6:6). 5. He shows the vanity of riches as pertaining only to the body, and giving no satisfaction to the mind (Ecc 6:7, Ecc 6:8), and of those boundless desires with which covetous people vex themselves (Ecc 6:9), which, if they be gratified ever so fully, leave a man but a man still (Ecc 6:10). II. He concludes this discourse of the vanity of the creature with this plain inference from the whole, That it is folly to think of making up a happiness for ourselves in the things of this world (Ecc 6:11, Ecc 6:12). Our satisfaction must be in another life, not in this.

6:8-9 are wise people really better off . . . being wise? Yes, as long as they enjoy and are content with what the Lord has provided.