Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
Solomon sets the living who know they shall die and still think and understand over against the dead who know nothing, with continued conscious life and death as exact opposites. Death is blank unconsciousness and quiet sleep, with no work or planning or reasoning or knowledge or wisdom in the grave, and no memory in darkness and forgetfulness. With death all feeling and earthly fellowship end, for love and hatred and envy perish and the dead have no more portion forever in anything done under the sun and cannot act toward or speak with the living. It therefore denies that man has natural immortality that lives on consciously in heaven or in torment, leaving the dead dependent on the resurrection and with no purgatory to be aided by masses. Set in that brevity and silence, it calls the living to go on their way eating bread with joy and drinking with a merry heart, cultivating cheerful trust instead of gloom and using remaining life for loving and comforting words.
Death as Unconscious Sleep
Ecclesiastes 9:7 stands in Solomon's plain and authoritative contrast between the living and the dead, not as an argument that there is no future existence. The living know that they will die and retain intelligence and the exercise of the mind, while the dead know nothing. Life as continued conscious existence and death are exact opposites.
Death is blank unconsciousness and quiet sleep. There is no work or planning or reasoning or thought or knowledge or wisdom in the grave or Sheol. The dead remember nothing, and their thoughts have perished in darkness and forgetfulness.
With death, feeling and earthly relationship cease. Love and hatred and envy have ended, memory is forgotten, there is no further reward, and the dead have no more share forever in anything done under the sun. They therefore cannot love or hate or do anything whatever, nor communicate with the living.
This disproves natural human immortality and any continued conscious life in heaven or in torment. Without a resurrection even those fallen asleep in Christ would perish. It likewise rules out purgatory and the claim that masses can help the dead. What is said describes the dead themselves, not merely the body while an intelligent, immortal soul remains consciously alive.
Cheerful Enjoyment of Life
The verse directs eating bread with joy or gladness and drinking wine with a merry or cheerful heart. Eating with a cheerful heart is sound practice, and well relishing food so that it is well digested is practical dietetic counsel.
The believer is therefore to wash the face, anoint the head, and eat bread with joy, and not to be gloomy, desponding, forlorn and wretched with a sad countenance like Pharisees and hypocrites who disfigure their faces. Joyful trust in the Lord must be cultivated for the sake of others as well as for self. A gloomy Christian misrepresents the gospel and disparages the way of truth, gives enemies occasion to ask where God is, and does harm rather than good. By contrast, comforts that delight the soul make the whole life beautiful and attractive and commend the truth. This joy in the Lord is indispensable preparation for personal efforts to save souls.
Set amid teaching on life's brevity and death's silence, the verse urges using remaining life to speak loving, comforting words while life lasts.
Solomon sets the living who know they shall die and still think and understand over against the dead who know nothing, with continued conscious life and death as exact opposites. Death is blank unconsciousness and quiet sleep, with no work or planning or reasoning or knowledge or wisdom in the grave, and no memory in darkness and forgetfulness. With death all feeling and earthly fellowship end, for love and hatred and envy perish and the dead have no more portion forever in anything done under the sun and cannot act toward or speak with the living. It therefore denies that man has natural immortality that lives on consciously in heaven or in torment, leaving the dead dependent on the resurrection and with no purgatory to be aided by masses. Set in that brevity and silence, it calls the living to go on their way eating bread with joy and drinking with a merry heart, cultivating cheerful trust instead of gloom and using remaining life for loving and comforting words.
Death as Unconscious Sleep
Ecclesiastes 9:7 stands in Solomon's plain and authoritative contrast between the living and the dead, not as an argument that there is no future existence. The living know that they will die and retain intelligence and the exercise of the mind, while the dead know nothing. Life as continued conscious existence and death are exact opposites.
Death is blank unconsciousness and quiet sleep. There is no work or planning or reasoning or thought or knowledge or wisdom in the grave or Sheol. The dead remember nothing, and their thoughts have perished in darkness and forgetfulness.
With death, feeling and earthly relationship cease. Love and hatred and envy have ended, memory is forgotten, there is no further reward, and the dead have no more share forever in anything done under the sun. They therefore cannot love or hate or do anything whatever, nor communicate with the living.
This disproves natural human immortality and any continued conscious life in heaven or in torment. Without a resurrection even those fallen asleep in Christ would perish. It likewise rules out purgatory and the claim that masses can help the dead. What is said describes the dead themselves, not merely the body while an intelligent, immortal soul remains consciously alive.
Cheerful Enjoyment of Life
The verse directs eating bread with joy or gladness and drinking wine with a merry or cheerful heart. Eating with a cheerful heart is sound practice, and well relishing food so that it is well digested is practical dietetic counsel.
The believer is therefore to wash the face, anoint the head, and eat bread with joy, and not to be gloomy, desponding, forlorn and wretched with a sad countenance like Pharisees and hypocrites who disfigure their faces. Joyful trust in the Lord must be cultivated for the sake of others as well as for self. A gloomy Christian misrepresents the gospel and disparages the way of truth, gives enemies occasion to ask where God is, and does harm rather than good. By contrast, comforts that delight the soul make the whole life beautiful and attractive and commend the truth. This joy in the Lord is indispensable preparation for personal efforts to save souls.
Set amid teaching on life's brevity and death's silence, the verse urges using remaining life to speak loving, comforting words while life lasts.