It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.
It has been observed concerning those who have pretended to search for the philosophers' stone that, though they could never find what they sought for, yet in the search they have hit upon many other useful discoveries and experiments. Thus Solomon, when, in the close of the foregoing chapter, he applied his heart to know the work of God, and took a great deal of...
Commenting on Ecclesiastes 9:1-3
All things come alike to all,.... That is, all outward things in this life, good and bad men share in alike; which proves that neither love nor hatred can be known by them: so the emperor Mark Antonine, in speaking of life and death, of honour and dishonour, of pain and pleasure, riches and poverty, says (s), all these things happen alike to good men...
All things . . . alike--not universally; but as to death. Ecc 9:2-10 are made by HOLDEN the objection of a skeptical sensualist. However, they may be explained as Solomon's language. He repeats the sentiment already implied in Ecc 2:14; Ecc 3:20; Ecc 8:14. one event--not eternally; but death is common to all. good--morally. clean--ceremonially.