His days be prolonged - i. e., in his wickedness Ecclesiastes 8:8.

"I" is emphatic, as if to mark the opposition to the "sons of men" Ecclesiastes 8:11.

Though a sinner do evil a hundred times - If God bear so long with a transgressor, waiting in his longsuffering for him to repent and turn to him, surely he will be peculiarly kind to them that fear him, and endeavor to walk uprightly before him.

Though a sinner do evil an hundred times,.... That is ever so many times, a certain number for an uncertain; though he lives in a continued course of sin, being resolved upon the above consideration to give himself a swing to his lusts. The Targum renders it a hundred years; though be should live so long in sin, yet at last should be accursed Isaiah 65:20. This and what follows are said to check the boldness and presumption of the sinner upon the patience of God; and to make the people of God easy under the delay of justice, and the prosperity of the wicked;

and his days be prolonged: or rather, "and he prolongs unto him" (o); that is, God prolongs unto him, not days only, but the execution of the sentence against his evil works; or defers his wrath and punishment; so Jarchi,

"and the holy blessed God prolongs to him, and does not take vengeance on him;''

and to this purpose is the Targum,

"and from the Lord is given to him space to return;''

yet surely I know; from the word and promise, and from experience, having observed it in a multitude of instances, which have abundantly confirmed the truth;

that it shall be well with them that fear God; not with a servile but filial fear, with a holy, humble, fiducial, affectionate, and an obediential fear; not through any terrible apprehension of his majesty, his judgment, his wrath now and hereafter; but under a sense of his being and perfections, and especially his mercy, grace, and goodness: it is well with such persons in all things; with respect to things temporal they shall not want what is proper for them; and with respect to things spiritual they are interested in the love, grace, and mercy of God; have much made known to them; are remembered by him; the sun of righteousness rises upon them; the eye of God is on them, and his heart towards them, and his hand communicates every needful supply to them; and they are guarded, not only by his angels, but by himself; and it is well with them at all times; in times of public calamity they are either taken from it beforehand, or preserved in it; all afflictions are for their good; it goes well with them at death and judgment; and they will be happy both in the millennium state and in the ultimate glory, So the Targum,

"it shall be well in the world to come with them that fear the Lord;''

see Psalm 34:7; with this compare Isaiah 3:10; it is added,

which fear before him: whose fear is not hypocritical, but sincere and hearty; not in show only, but in reality; not the precepts of men, and as before them, but as the sight of God; having always a sense of omniscience and omnipresence before them; and especially this fear is exercised by them when they are his house, in the assembly of his saints, attending his word and ordinances: or "which fear at his presence"; which fills them with a holy awe, as wall as with joy and gladness. The Targum is,

"which fear before him, and do his will.''

(o) "et prolongans ei", Montanus; "et prolongat in Deus dies", Pagninus; so Mercerus, Junius & Tremellius, supply it; "et prorogat dei Deus poenam", Piscator; "et differt Deus iram suam propter illium", Vatablus.

"Because a sinner doeth evil an hundred times, and he becometh old therein, although I know that it will go well with them that fear god, that fear before Him: but it will not go well with the wicked, and he shall not live long, like a shadow; because he feareth not before God." Ewald (whom Heiligst., Elst., and Zckl. follow), as among the ancients, e.g., Mendelssohn, translates Ecclesiastes 8:12 : "Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and live long, yet I know," etc. That an antecedent may begin with asher is admissible, Leviticus 4:22; Deuteronomy 18:22; but in the case lying before us, still less acceptable than at Ecclesiastes 8:11. For, in the first place, this asher of the antecedent cannot mean "although," but only "considering that;" and in places such as Ecclesiastes 6:3, where this "considering that" may be exchanged with "although," there follows not the part., but the fut. natural to the concessive clause; then, in the second place, by this antecedent rendering of asher a closer connection of Ecclesiastes 8:12 and Ecclesiastes 8:12 is indeed gained, but the mediation of Ecclesiastes 8:12 and Ecclesiastes 8:11 is lost; in the third place, גם כי, in the meaning "however" (gam, ὃμως, with affirmative ki), is not found; not asher, but just this ki gam,

(Note: That גּם is pointed גּם, has its reason in the disjunctive Jethîb with כי, which is not interchanged with the conjunctive Mahpach. Thus, Ecclesiastes 8:1, כּ מי, and Ecclesiastes 8:7, כּ כּי.)

signifies, in the passage before us, as at Ecclesiastes 4:14, εἰ καί, although, - only a somewhat otherwise applied gam ki, Ewald, 362b, as כי על־כן is a somewhat otherwise applied על־כן כי. Rightly, Hitzig: "In Ecclesiastes 8:12, Ecclesiastes 8:11 is again resumed, and it is explained how tardy justice has such a consequence." The sinner is thereby encouraged in sinning, because he does evil, and always again evil, and yet enjoys himself in all the pleasures of long life. Regarding חטא for חטא, vid., above, p. 641, 1. מאת is equals פעמים מאה, an hundred times, as אחת, Job 40:5, is equals אחת פעם; Hengst. and others, inexactly: an hundredfold, which would have required the word מאתים; and falsely, Ginsburg, with the Targ.: an hundred years, which would have required מאה, scil. שׁנה, Genesis 17:17. This centies (Jerome) is, like מאה, scil. בנים, Ecclesiastes 6:3, a round number for a great many, as at Proverbs 17:10, and frequently in the Talm. and Midrash, e.g., Wajikra rabba, c. 27: "an hundred deeply-breathed sighs (מאה פעיות) the mother gave forth."

(Note: Vid., Jac. Reifmann in the Zeitsch., המגיד, 1874, p. 342.)

The meaning of לו וּמעריך לו is in general clear: he becomes therein old. Jerome, improbable: et per patientiam sustentatur, as Mendelssohn: he experiences forbearance, for they supply 'pow (Isaiah 48:9), and make God the subject. לּו is in any case the so-called dat. ethic.; and the only question is, whether the doing of evil has to be taken from רע עשׂה,

(Note: We expect these two words (cf. Genesis 31:12) with the retrogression of the tone; but as this ceases, as a rule, with Mercha before Tifcha and Pashta, Genesis 47:3; Exodus 18:5; Deuteronomy 4:42; Deuteronomy 19:4; Isaiah 10:14 (cf. the penult. accent of יאכל, Leviticus 22:10, Leviticus 22:10, Leviticus 22:19, and בּנה, Genesis 4:17, with the ult. accent Leviticus 22:14; Habakkuk 2:12), so with Mercha sometimes also before other disjunctives, as here before Tebr.)

as obj. to ומא: he practises it to him long, or whether, which is more probable, ימים is to be supplied after Ecclesiastes 8:13, so that האריך signifies to live long, as at Proverbs 28:2, to last long; the dat. ethic. gives the idea of the feeling of contentment connected with long life: he thereupon sins wantonly, and becomes old in it in good health.

That is the actual state of the case, which the author cannot conceal from himself; although, on the other hand, as by way of limitation he adds ki ... ani, he well knows that there is a moral government of the world, and that this must finally prevail. We may not translate: that it should go well, but rather: that it must go well; but there is no reason not to interpret the fut. as a pure indic.: that it shall go well, viz., finally, - it is a postulate of his consciousness which the author here expresses; that which exists in appearance contradicts this consciousness, which, however, in spite of this, asserts itself. That to ליר האל the clause אשׁר מלּ, explaining idem per idem, is added, has certainly its reason in this, that at the time of the author the name "fearers of God" [Gottesfrchitige] had come into use. "The fearers of God, who fear before (מלּפני, as at Ecclesiastes 3:14) Him," are such as are in reality what they are called.

In Ecclesiastes 8:13, Hitzig, followed by Elster, Burg., and Zckl., places the division at ימים: like the shadow is he who fears not before God. Nothing can in point of syntax be said against this (cf. 1 Chronicles 29:15), although אשׁר כּצּל, "like the shadow is he who," is in point of style awkward. But that the author did not use so rude a style is manifest from Ecclesiastes 6:12, according to which כצל is rightly referred to ימים ... ולא־. Is then the shadow, asks Hitzig, because it does not "prolong its days," therefore ימים קצר? How subtle and literal is this use of ימים! Certainly the shadow survives not a day; but for that very reason it is short-lived, it may even indeed be called קצר ימים, because it has not existence for a single day. In general, qetsel, ὡς σκιά, is applicable to the life of all men, Psalm 144:4, Wisd. 2:5, etc. It is true of the wicked, if we keep in view the righteous divine requital, especially that he is short-lived like the shadow, "because he has no fear before God," and that in consequence of this want of fear his life is shortened by his sin inflicting its own punishment, and by the act of God. Asher, Ecclesiastes 8:13, as at Ecclesiastes 8:11, Ecclesiastes 8:12, is the relative conj. Also in Ecclesiastes 8:14, אשׁר (שׁ) as a pronoun, and אשׁר (שׁ) as a conj., are mixed together. After the author has declared the reality of a moral government of the world as an inalienable fact of human consciousness, and particularly of his own consciousness, he places over against this fact of consciousness the actual state of things partly at least contradicting it.

Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:

Margin fear

See Scofield Note: "Ps 19:9"

12. He says this, lest the sinner should abuse the statement (Ec 7:15), "A wicked man prolongeth his life."

before him-literally, "at His presence"; reverently serve Him, realizing His continual presence.

8:9-13 Solomon observed, that many a time one man rules over another to his hurt, and that prosperity hardens them in their wickedness. Sinners herein deceive themselves. Vengeance comes slowly, but it comes surely. A good man's days have some substance; he lives to a good purpose: a wicked man's days are all as a shadow, empty and worthless. Let us pray that we may view eternal things as near, real, and all-important.