Teks -- Ecclesiastes 3:16 (NET)

The Problem of Injustice and Oppression

3:16 I saw something else on earth: In the place of justice, there was wickedness, and in the place of fairness, there was wickedness.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Ecc 3:16 - Moreover

This is another argument of the vanity of worldly things, and an hindrance of that comfort which men expect in this life, because they are oppressed by their rulers.

Wesley: Ecc 3:16 - Judgment

ln the thrones of princes, and tribunals of magistrates. Solomon is still shewing that every thing in this world without the fear of God is vanity. In these verses he shews, that power, of which men are so ambitious, and life itself, are worth nothing without it.

JFB: Ecc 3:16

Here a difficulty is suggested. If God "requires" events to move in their perpetual cycle, why are the wicked allowed to deal unrighteously in the place where injustice ought least of all to be; namely, "the place of judgment" (Jer 12:1)?

Clarke: Ecc 3:16 - The plate of judgment, that wickedness was there

The plate of judgment, that wickedness was there - The abuse of power, and the perversion of judgment, have been justly complained of in every age of the world. The following paraphrase is good: -

"But what enjoyment can our labors yield

When e’ en the remedy prescribed by heave

To cure disorders proves our deadliest bane

When God’ s vicegerents, destined to protec

The weak from insolence of power, to guar

Their lives and fortunes, impious robbers turn

And, or by force or fraud, deprive of both? -

To what asylum shall the injured fl

From her tribunal, where perverted la

Acquits the guilty, the innocent condemns?

C.

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TSK: Ecc 3:16

Ecc 4:1, Ecc 5:8; 1Ki 21:9-21; Psa 58:1, Psa 58:2, Psa 82:2-5, Psa 94:21, Psa 94:22; Isa 59:14; Mic 2:2, Mic 7:3; Zep 3:3; Mat 26:59; Act 23:3; Jam 2:6

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Ecc 3:16 - I saw // The place of judgment // Wickedness was there // The place of righteousness

This is mentioned, either,

1. As another vanity, to wit, the vanity of honour and power, which is so oft an instrument of injustice and oppression. Or rather,

2. As another argument of the vanity of worldly things, or a hinderance of that comfort which men expect in this life, because they are oppressed by their rulers.

I saw I perceived it by information from others, and by my own observation.

The place of judgment in the thrones of princes and tribunals of magistrates, where judgment should be duly executed.

Wickedness was there judgment was perverted, the guilty acquitted, and the innocent condemned.

The place of righteousness in which righteousness should be found and should dwell, if it were banished from all other places.

Gill: Ecc 3:16 - And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment // that wickedness was there // and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there

And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment,.... Courts of judicature, where judges sit, and, causes are brought before them, and are heard and tried; such as were the Jewish sanhedrim, of which the Midrash and Jarchi interpret it;

that wickedness was there, wicked judges sat there, and wickedness was committed by them; instead of doing justice they perverted it; condemned the righteous, and acquitted the wicked; and oppressed the widow, fatherless, and stranger, whose cause, being just, they should have defended. So the Targum,

"in which lying judges condemn the innocent.''

Well does the wise man say he saw this "under the sun", for there is nothing of this kind above it; nor approved of by him that is above it;

and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there; this signifies the same as before, only it is expressed in different words. The Midrash and Jarchi interpret this of the middle gate in Jerusalem, where Nergal Sharezer, and other princes of the king of Babylon, sat, and which Solomon foresaw by a spirit of prophecy; but the better sense is, that Solomon had observed a great deal of this kind in reading the histories and annals of nations; knew that much of this sort was practised in other countries, and had seen a great deal of it in his own, done in inferior courts, and by subordinate officers; and though he was a wise and righteous prince, yet was not able to rectify all these abuses, for want of sufficient proof, which yet he lamented, and it gave him a concern; compare with this Isa 1:21.