Rejoice, young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know that for all these [things] God will bring thee into judgment.
Ecclesiastes ends its long look at life "under the sun" by speaking to one listener: the young man, with his energy and his whole future ahead of him. The call to enjoy his youth sounds like permission to do as he likes, and then the last line warns of judgment.
The opening line reads like the Bible handing a young man the keys. Commentators differ over how to read it. One writer refuses three easy answers:
Can it be that the Spirit of God stoops to use irony here? The young man is urged forward to follow his heart's natural desires and to please his eye. Does this contradict the word of God, which condemns this very thing everywhere else? Can the sins that are everywhere denounced in the plainest terms be lawful here? No — there is neither irony, nor contradiction, nor allowance of sin. The line of thought changes — the stream is turned aside — by one little word.
Another writer does call it irony — a warning aimed at a man who takes sin lightly:
He winds up with a warning of grave, pointed irony. It is aimed at the man who in his lightness and pride overlooked sin and sorrow. For a moment he pulls back the veil from that man's coming into God's judgment. Youth and the prime of life, like everything else here, are vanity.
The verse names two guides, and both are the man himself. One writer points out what is missing:
He calls on the young man to rejoice in his youth. Have a good time! Walk in the ways of your heart — that heart out of which nothing but evil can come. Walk in the sight, not of the all-seeing eye of God, but of your own eyes. Do as you like!
Why live this way at all? One writer traces it to a refusal to look ahead:
It is the simple folly of the human heart to go on with an eternity in front of it. It hopes to get good out of things here. It does not like to think about what lies ahead, because it knows what is at the end of it — judgment, because there is guilt... This is where the careless young man who hates the light stands. He is cheerful the way a drunken man is cheerful. He does not know the weight of misery — well, he is drunk, morally drunk.
Even at its best, that cheerfulness does not hold. Commenting on the proverb that even in laughter the heart may ache, one writer links it straight to this verse:
So it is until a man receives Christ. Everything else is hollow, and the passing lightness leaves its sting behind.
One writer notes which name for God this book uses, and which it never uses:
The name Jehovah does not appear once in this book, while the name God appears over 40 times. Jehovah is the name that shows His grace and His relationship with men, especially with His covenant people Israel. Its absence here is a sign that the subject is not one man or one people in a certain relationship of covenant or faith to Him. It is rather man in general, who is responsible to his Creator-God.
That is why the appeal lands on everyone, believer or not:
It is not grace that he is charged to proclaim; it is not salvation he is empowered here to offer. But to God's creatures, responsible as such to Him who made them, he would speak. The Creator will take notice of, and make judicial inquiry into, the actions of His creatures. No one can escape this, and everyone needs reminding of it.
The judgment named at the end of the verse runs through the whole Bible. So does the way out:
It is clearly revealed that men will be judged according to their works. Old and New Testaments are equally clear... Such is man's portion — death, and after this judgment; for he is sinful and lost. But grace has stepped in after the sin and before the judgment. God has sent His Son to save all who by believing receive life in Him who died and bore their judgment on the cross... So the Lord who is to judge has Himself ruled that the believer does not come into judgment. Even while here he has passed out of death into life.
One writer answers the obvious objection — that this makes faith joyless:
It is not a question of pleasure. There is a region of joy outside the province of sin that throws the passing "pleasures of sin" into the shade. Whom do you think is happier — the worldling or the true Christian? The man whose conscience sin has scarred and stained? Or the man whose sins are pardoned, who can look death, judgment and eternity calmly in the face?
- Follow — the verse hands the young man his own heart and his own eyes as his guide. It leaves out God's all-seeing eye.
- But — one small word turns the whole verse; it is neither a contradiction of Scripture nor a licence to sin.
- Know — the Creator will make judicial inquiry into what His creatures do, and no one is outside that reach.
- Escape — grace stepped in after the sin and before the judgment. The one who believes does not come into judgment at all.
- Gain — the trade is not joy for gloom. It is a drunken cheerfulness swapped for a joy that can look death, judgment and eternity calmly in the face.
Then remove discontent from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh; for childhood and youth are vanity.
The Preacher's closing word to the young man is a double command: clear the heart, clear the body. His reason is blunt — youth and the dawn of life are as empty as everything else he has examined.
The verse closes the chapter with a verdict on the best years of life.
He begins with anyone, old or young. He ends with a warning of serious, biting irony to the man who in his lightness and pride ignored sin and sorrow, lifting the veil for a moment on his coming into God's judgment. Youth and the prime of life, like all the rest here, are vanity.
Commentators differ on how to read the invitation of verse 9 that leads into this one. Kelly hears irony. Another writer reads the sentence straight, with everything hanging on one small word.
Can it be that the Spirit of God stoops to use irony, when the young man is pushed on to follow his heart's natural desires and to please his eyes?… No, there is neither irony, nor contradiction, nor allowance of sin. At this point the line of thought changes. One little word turns the stream aside and assures the young man that "for all these things God will bring him into judgment."
The first command deals with the heart. What must go is "vexation" in one translation and "discontent" in another. One writer traces that ache to its root.
"Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of mirth is sadness." So it is until man receives Christ. Everything else is hollow, and the passing lightness leaves its sting.
Some translations read "put away evil from your flesh" — the body as the place where evil settles. One writer shows how youth becomes that place, and turns the negative command into a positive one.
Youth is usually a ready errand-runner for Satan. It is a nest for lust, cursing, drunkenness, blaspheming of God, lying, pride, and vanity. Oh, that you had such a heart as to fear the Lord, and to dedicate your soul and body to His service! A day is coming when your eyesight will fail, your face will grow pale, your legs and arms will tremble, and your breath will grow cold. Your poor soul will look out of its prison house of clay, waiting for freedom. On that day a good conscience and your Lord's favour will be worth all the world's glory.
Vanity is the word the book opened with, and the Preacher ends on it too.
Childhood and youth are vanity! The vanities of life, the doom and darkness of the grave, fill his mind. The last word he speaks before his closing lines is the same one he began his search with… "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, all is vanity." In all his reasoning he has come back to the place he started from.
The Preacher can only warn that days of darkness are coming. One writer sets revelation beside that view, and the verdict flips.
Yes, let him enjoy himself in the present, but there is "a dead fly in the ointment"… The dark future looms up, and days of darkness are coming for him. That future is the grave. Human reason, philosophy and science can bring no light into this baffling darkness. "All that comes is vanity!" Thank God, revelation tells us more. There are those who believe His revelation and believe on Him whom God has sent. He is the propitiation for our sins, and He conquered death and the grave. For them, "all that comes is glory!"
If youth is short, the answer is not despair but speed. One writer puts it to the young reader.
Many a grey-haired old man would give everything he owns for the chance to give God the best of his days. Yes, and strong men in the prime of life often regret that they did not turn to God in their youth. It is a privilege far beyond what you, my young reader, can understand at present, to be the Lord's while you are young!
- Vanity — the closing line puts youth and the prime of life in the same class as everything else the Preacher examined. The search ends where it began.
- Sorrow — the grief the young man must clear out of his heart is real, not imagined. Laughter leaves its sting, and it stays that way until a person receives Christ.
- Body — evil settles in the body, so the command is not just to stop. It is to dedicate soul and body to the Lord's service.
- Judgment — one little word overturns the enjoyment of verse 9. God will bring the young man into judgment for all of it. Commentators differ on whether the tone is irony or plain warning.
- Glory — the Preacher sees only days of darkness ahead. Revelation shows the believer that all that comes is glory. So give God the best of your days now.