In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.
Solomon, in these verses, recommends wisdom to us as the best antidote against those distempers of mind which we are liable to, by reason of the vanity and vexation of spirit that there are in the things of this world. Here are some of the praises and the precepts of wisdom. I. The praises of wisdom.
Commenting on Ecclesiastes 7:11-22
All things have I seen in the days of my vanity,.... Or, "all these things" (u). What goes before and follows after, the various changes men are subject unto, both good and bad; these he had made his observations upon, throughout the course of his life, which had been a vain one, as every man's is, full of evil and trouble; see Ecc 6:12; perhaps...
An objection entertained by Solomon in the days of his vanity--his apostasy (Ecc 8:14; Job 21:7). just . . . perisheth-- (Kg1 21:13). Temporal not eternal death (Joh 10:28). But see on Ecc 7:16; "just" is probably a self-justiciary. wicked . . . prolongeth--See the antidote to the abuse of this statement in Ecc 8:12.