Teks -- Ecclesiastes 4:13 (NET)

Labor Motivated by Prestige-Seeking

4:13 A poor but wise youth is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive advice.

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

Wesley: Ecc 4:13 - Better

More happy. Now he proceeds to another vanity, That of honour and power.

Wesley: Ecc 4:13 - Than a king

Who hath neither wisdom to govern himself, nor to receive the counsels of wiser men.

JFB: Ecc 4:13

The "threefold cord" [Ecc 4:12] of social ties suggests the subject of civil government. In this case too, he concludes that kingly power confers no lasting happiness. The "wise" child, though a supposed case of Solomon, answers, in the event foreseen by the Holy Ghost, to Jeroboam, then a poor but valiant youth, once a "servant" of Solomon, and (1Ki 11:26-40) appointed by God through the prophet Ahijah to be heir of the kingdom of the ten tribes about to be rent from Rehoboam. The "old and foolish king" answers to Solomon himself, who had lost his wisdom, when, in defiance of two warnings of God (1Ki 3:14; 1Ki 9:2-9), he forsook God.

JFB: Ecc 4:13 - will no more be admonished

Knows not yet how to take warning (see Margin) God had by Ahijah already intimated the judgment coming on Solomon (1Ki 11:11-13).

Clarke: Ecc 4:13 - Better is a poor and a wise child

Better is a poor and a wise child - The Targum applies this to Abraham. "Abraham was a poor child of only three years of age; but he had the spirit of prophecy, and he refused to worship the idols which the old foolish king - Nimrod - had set up; therefore Nimrod cast him into a furnace of fire. But the Lord worked a miracle and delivered him. Yet here was no knowledge in Nimrod, and he would not be admonished."The Targum proceeds:

TSK: Ecc 4:13 - is a poor // will no more be

is a poor : Ecc 9:15, Ecc 9:16; Gen 37:2; Pro 19:1, Pro 28:6, Pro 28:15, Pro 28:16

will no more be : Heb. knoweth not to be, 1Ki 22:8; 2Ch 16:9, 2Ch 16:10, 2Ch 24:20-22, 2Ch 25:16

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

Poole: Ecc 4:13 - Better // A poor child // An old king // Who will no more be admonished

Better more happy. Now he proceeds to another vanity, even that of honour and power, and of the highest places.

A poor child who is doubly contemptible, both for his age, and for his poverty.

An old king venerable both for his age and gravity, and for his royal dignity. So that the comparison is made with the greatest disadvantage that may be.

Who will no more be admonished who hath neither wisdom to govern himself, nor to receive the counsels or admonitions of wiser men, but is foolish, and wilful, and incorrigible.

Haydock: Ecc 4:13 - Foolish

Foolish. Great wisdom and prudence is required of kings; who, like others, are exposed to many vicissitudes.

Gill: Ecc 4:13 - Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king // who will no more be admonished

Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king,.... The wise man proceeds to show the vanity of worldly power and dignity, in the highest instance of it, which is kingly; and, in order to illustrate and exemplify this, he supposes, on the one hand, a person possessed of royal honour; who has long enjoyed it, is settled in his kingdom, and advanced in years; and who otherwise, for his gravity and dignity, would be venerable; but that he is foolish, a person of a mean genius and small capacity; has but little knowledge of government, or but little versed in the arts of it, though he has held the reins of it long in his hand; and, which is worst of all, is vicious and wicked: on the other hand, he supposes one that is in his tender years, not yet arrived to manhood; and so may be thought to be giddy and inexperienced, and therefore taken but little notice of; and especially being poor, becomes contemptible, as well as labours under the disadvantage of a poor education; his parents poor, and he not able to get books and masters to teach him knowledge; nor to travel abroad to see the world, and make his observations on men and things; and yet being wise, having a good genius, which he improves in the best manner he can, to his own profit, and to make himself useful in the world; and especially if he is wise and knowing in the best things, and fears God, and serves him; he is more happy, in his present state and circumstances, than the king before described is in his, and is fitter to take his place, and be a king, than he is; for though he is young, yet wise, and improving in knowledge, and willing to be advised and counselled by others, older and wiser than himself; he is much to be preferred to one that is old and foolish;

who will no more be admonished; or, "knows not to be admonished any more" ^d: he neither knows how to give nor take advice; he is impatient of all counsel; cannot bear any admonition; is stubborn and self-willed, and resolved to take his own way. The Jews, in their Midrash, Jarchi, and others, interpret it, allegorically, of the good and evil imagination in men, the principle of grace, and the corruption of nature; the one is the new man, the other the old man; the new man is better than old Adam: the Targum applies it to Abraham and Nimrod; the former is the poor and wise child, that feared God, and worshipped him early; the latter, the old and foolish king, who was an idolater, and refused to be admonished of his idolatry; and so the Midrash.