one28 PodcastThe Words of the Wise
Ecclesiastes 12:9-12
2008.05.11
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The teacher-student relationship is an old one. For as long as there have been humans, some of those humans knew more than others and took it upon themselves to teach. Whether the teacher learned from revelation, experience, study, or all of the above, the teacher seeks to pass that knowledge on to others.
Solomon often took the teacher’s role. It’s kind of hard to believe in light of how busy he must have been. Think about how many responsibilities a king would have; the daily decisions, the internal and international politics, the palace to do and the laws of Israel to shape and enforce. Then remember how much more Solomon in his time as king. The palace was built under his supervision. Even more than the palace, the temple was built with his oversight.
Certainly he had many people doing work for him, but the temple was attributed to Solomon. He arranged to get supplies from other countries; he probably did regular walk-throughs and gave his opinion on how things were coming together. Beyond the palace and the temple were all sorts of additional architectural and agricultural projects he commissioned that were all part of his resume.
Besides his work, there was apparently a lot of partying and feasting. More than that were 1000 women–wives and others–all demanding his time. He had a lot on his plate and I wonder how he got it all done. Because in his spare time, when he wasn’t running the country, he was reading and ruminating and writing about wisdom. He was a teacher, even more than that he was a preacher–the Qohelet–gathering and sharing words of the wise, much of which is recorded in Ecclesiastes.
In today’s paragraph we’re not going to find out more about his search for life under the sun; the body of Ecclesiastes that described Solomon’s search and observations about the vanity of life ended in 12:8. What remains in chapter 12 is a brief description of his work as a teacher (12:9-12) and a final exhortation to fear God (12:13-14).
9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. 10 The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. 11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. 12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Before we look closely at the verses, I want to interact with the many people (scholars and commentators) who use these verses as their reason for saying someone other than Solomon wrote the beginning and end of Ecclesiastes, if not the entire book.
The primary reason they suggest is the third person reference to “the Preacher.” They assert that this is awkward and that if Solomon wrote this himself there’s no way he would have talked about himself like this.
SKH thinks these people are fools. SKH thinks they are almost all liberal Bible teachers who are looking for another way to avoid believing the Bible by attempting to discredit the authorship. SKH thinks that’s wrong. SKH thinks there’s no reason we’re forced into a corner where we musth conclude that Solomon didn’t write these verses.
It is not irregular, especially in written material, for an author to refer to himself in the third person. Just this last week I started a book written in the late 1800s written by an author who refers to himself as “the Writer” throughout his introduction. When I was growing up I remember in English class that we were almost never allowed to write in the first or second person. It was hard, but obviously it was acceptable.
I understand that it’s awkward, it sounds funny, to talk in third person about yourself like SKH did earlier. But in written form it’s quite appropriate. And there are numerous parts of the Bible where an author refers to himself in third person, perhaps most notably the apostle John writing about “the disciple whom Jesus loved” as a way to describe himself. He did so in a way that was more formal and that took the focus off himself.
Back in Ecclesiastes 12 I think it requires more work to see someone other than Solomon as the author. It would be like any author writing his own “about he author” page at the end of a book without drawing extra attention away from the substance of the book.
So in Ecclesiastes 12:9-12 we see the preacher’s work, his words, and his warning. And as we consider those three things we ought to appreciate and appropriate even more all the things we’ve learned from Solomon up to now, they are words from the wise.
The Preacher’s Work vv. 9-10
As I said before, Solomon was a busy, and wise, king. He worked hard when it came to his wisdom and he had a good reason for working so hard.
His Activity v.9
Public teaching requires a lot of private study.
9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.
Not everyone who has wisdom is eager to share it. More than likely in Solomon’s day there were some schools for sages that felt it was beneath them to mess with the ignorant. They considered themselves in an elite class of the educated, above those who were untaught and unsophisticated.
Not so with Solomon. Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge. It wasn’t that he was wise only for himself, he desired to transfer that wisdom.
Sometimes it’s tempting to make a clear distinction between wisdom and knowledge, as those who define knowledge as the facts and wisdom is knowing how to us those facts to make good decisions. I suppose there is a place for that kind of clarification, but in verse 9 Solomon isn’t keeping back the better thing for himself. He’s not holding on to wisdom and only giving the people knowledge.
The Hebrew word knowledge (da’at) includes the idea of skill, knowledge with moral quality, so it is a synonym for wisdom and understanding and discernment. Solomon wanted the people to get it.
And he studied hard for that purpose. Even though he asked God for wisdom (1 Kings 3) and God graciously fulfilled his request by promising to make him the wisest man ever, that wasn’t magical, it included effort. Certainly it was a work of the Spirit to make Solomon wise, but part of the Spirit’s work included keeping Solomon’s rear in the chair while he studied. He worked weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The word weighing means to open one’s ears, pay attention, and ponder. The KJV translates “gave good heed.” It meant he thought things through, comparing and assessing truthfulness and importance.
Solomon was also studying, he “searched out” (NAS). That means he explored and examined what was out there. He devoted time and attention to acquiring information; he investigated to get insight.
And then he was arranging his findings. The word means putting something in order, making something straight. Solomon took the results of his study and put together many proverbs. Of course, proverbs are short, pithy statements of truth that compare something obvious to everyone. Solomon was busy with that. In 1 Kings 4,
32 He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. 33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. 34 And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.
He did this with great care. The ESV appears to be the only major translation that adds this phrase, but it’s an attempt to explain the word harbe after proverbs (meshalim). Harbe can mean “many” but it can alsoalso mean “make much to do, do in respect of” and so it may be better seen as qualifying this labor of study under much careful effort.
His Aim
By repeating “the Preacher” Solomon gives a grammatical clue that sets the stage for another description of his work, specifically the goal or aim of his work.
10 The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.
There are two parts to his aim. The first part is the Preacher sought to find words of delight, or “delightful words” (NAS). This is a description not necessarily of content, but of form, words that were pleasant to hear. He wanted to find words that were well-crafted, not just haphazardly, willy-nilly thrown together into a pot and dumped out on the table. Words that grab your throat, not lull you to sleep; words that wake you up from nap, not make you want to take one.
This was an issue of craftsmanship, artistry, and skill. He sought, he looked for better and more precise words. He explored his thesaurus (so to speak) to turn heads with a turn of a phrase. His preparation included the presentation; finding the right word for the right time.
But never at the expense of accuracy. The second part of his aim was “to write words of truth correctly” (NAS). I think that’s clearer than the ESV, uprightly he wrote words of truth, though they both come out the same in the wash.
The point is that correct content was crucial to him just as much as a smooth sentence. He didn’t sacrifice exactness for entertainment or precision to make something more palatable or memorable.
The Preacher’s Words v. 11
And there’s a reason he worked hard at this because he knew what the words of the wise can do.
The Effects of Wise Words vv. 11a-11b
Though there are many effects of wise words, the preacher mentions two very important ones.
1. Wise Words Stimulate v.11a
They get you moving in the right direction.
11 The words of the wise are like goads,
Not everything is a word of the wise. There’s plenty of bogus, fake, unhelpful material out there to fill your ears. But wise words work like goads.
A goad is a tool of the shepherd or rancher. It was a spiked stick used for driving cattle. If the big beast was lumbering along too slowly or in the wrong direction, the goad would poke and prod them.
Now as you might imagine, getting goaded was probably not that pleasant. Getting a sharp stick in the side was no fun. But it would be hard to ignore, even if it annoyed you. At least it would provoke you to do something.
It’s plenty possible to be goaded or provoked by the wrong things, but when wielded well, the words of the wise stimulate wise walking.
2. Wise Words Stabilize v.11b
Wise words also keep you planted in the right place.
and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings;
The second part of verse 11 is a further description of the effects of wise words and not as the NAS makes it sound, a description of those who know about wise words.
The NAS translates “and masters of these collections are like well driven nails,” like the editor or educator of proverbs is the point. But the teachers aren’t in view, and the final description in the last part of verse 11 is not referring to two things given by one Shepherd.
So with the ESV, like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. The collected sayings probably include the book of Proverbs, certainly Ecclesiastes, various other wisdom literature, and maybe even other parts of the Old Testament that had already been written by Solomon’s day. And these statements of truth are well-driven; they are wise words that nail down the truth in your mind. So they stabilize you. They keep you from being blown around or overturned. They have a securing effect.
It’s possible to translate the word nails as “pegs,” and perhaps Solomon is continuing the shepherding metaphor, thinking about driving down tent pegs to hold the tent down and keep it in place when the wind picked up. The words of the wise have that kind of effect, to motivate and to secure.
The Source of Wise Words v.11c
In the last part of verse 11 we are reminded of something we cannot forget or separate from our opinion about, and response to, Ecclesiastes.
they are given by one Shepherd.
At issue here are “the words of the wise” and the “collected sayings.” As I mentioned, these include the many Proverbs Solomon collected and wrote, but they also include everything in Ecclesiastes, and probably all of the Law written up to that point in Israel.
Solomon says, they are given by one Shepherd. He continues the shepherding illustration and more than a few suggest this is a reference to himself again. In verses 9-10 he was the preacher, now the shepherd. But no where in the OT is Solomon called a shepherd of anything, including Israel or wisdom or sheep. In addition, Solomon was wise enough not to take credit for material that wasn’t his own work. Part of his work was reading and collecting and arranging other proverbs, not just writing original ones. That means he couldn’t claim to be the “one” shepherd.
The only way this phrase makes any sense is if the Shepherd is God, which means not only that Solomon believed wise words came from God, but that wise words came from God through him. He was writing what God wanted.
In some sense Solomon was conscious of God’s work of inspiration. He recognized that he was a channel of God’s Word. Not only is that amazing, that puts the weight of divine authority to everything we’ve read and studied. Ecclesiastes is not random raving from an old cynic, it is divine revelation.
We acknowledge that fact because Ecclesiastes is in the Bible. But do you realize that Solomon believed that as he was writing? It’s tempting to think maybe Solomon got a little off his rocker, but he recorded words of wisdom from God.
If you haven’t been paying attention for the previous 58 messages, not only are you missing the stimulating and stabilizing effect of the words of wisdom, you’re ignoring Scripture.
The Preacher’s Warning v.12
As is typical of wise words, the Preacher not only calls for our attention, but warns of something to avoid.
12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Occasionally wisdom seekers get carried away. So Solomon says, My son, beware of anything beyond these. He’s personally concerned that his son–a typical form of dialogue in wisdom literature–would get caught up in an endless search for newer, better material.
He’s claiming that the words of the wise and the collected sayings are sufficient in his book. He’s saying they are enough to goad and enough to firmly fix the truth.
He knows a lot is available, of making many books there is no end. Of course, they didn’t have bound books like we do. The word books referred to letters or certificates or documents; something written to preserve it for the future. Most of the written material would have been in the form of scrolls, so he may be making a play on words that there would be no end to the making and unrolling of these books.
Can you imagine what that says to us in 2008? Talk about endless book making and blog posting and email writing and Facebook commenting. People are writing and producing and publishing more stuff than at any other time in history thanks to technology, but it hasn’t made us any wiser, nor has it made us more satisfied under the sun. While access to lots of information can be a blessing, it’s also dangerous. It’s dangerous because we tend to depend on information instead of discernment. We read, but we don’t think. It’s also dangerous because we spend all our time gathering that info and never really learn or apply it.
It’s tiring, much study is a weariness of the flesh. There is some general truth here to consider but it has a particular context.
Reading and thinking and writing take a lot of work; to think about something to a conclusion and then think about how to communicate that something well is difficult. (The NAS translation, “devotion to books” doesn’t mean you’re a librarian or a book collector, it means you’re a book worm, always reading and studying.) It is wearisome. It’s a different kind of work than digging miles of ditches or building big bridges, but it is tiresome toil nonetheless. It will take everything you’ve got, and I don’t mean because you have to stay up all night because you didn’t start cramming for the exam or writing your research paper until the day before it was due.
Especially if you’ve ever had to teach something you know how this is true. It’s wearisome by itself, let alone when people don’t come or don’t care. But excessive study is not only exhausting, it’s exasperating if you never come to a conclusion and do something, and that’s what Solomon is talking about. There are people who are always learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth. Those who read the newest books and the hundreds of websites but they never digest it. They never actually get knowledge, they just keep trying to get it.
Worrying about the study of wisdom over a life of wisdom is exactly what Solomon is warning us to avoid. He isn’t saying don’t study or don’t read or write, he’s saying be careful that you don’t get so caught up reading about wisdom that you forget to put the book down and live it.
Conclusion
I’m not sure if Solomon would have appreciated or criticized me for the hundreds of pages I’ve written about Ecclesiastes. But I know this, Ecclesiastes is a word from the wise and you would be wise to weigh, study, and obey Solomon. This is book of wisdom, intended to make us stable and to goad us to fear God, which we’ll see in 12:13-14 as the end of the matters.
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