Eclesiastes 4
Ambrose of Milan · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Eclesiastes 4:1
We desire each day to know what is new, and what is knowledge itself but our daily sorrow and abasement? All things that are have already been, and "nothing is new under the sun," but "all is vanity. Therefore I hated the whole of this life," said Ecclesiastes. He who hated his life certainly commended death. And so he praised the dead rather than the living and judged him happy that did not come into this life nor take up this vain toil. "My heart took a circuit to know the joy of the impious man and to examine carefully and to seek wisdom and a mode of calculating and to know joy through the impious man and trouble and disquietude, and I find that it is bitterer than death"—not because death is bitter, but because it is bitter for the impious one. And yet life is bitterer than death. For it is a greater burden to live for sin than to die in sin, because the impious person increases his sin as long as he lives, but if he dies, he ceases to sin. — DEATH AS A GOOD 7:28
Eclesiastes 4:5
Let one who still doubts hear the testimony of the Gospel, for the Son of God said, "We have played for you, and you have not danced." The Jews who did not dance and knew not how to clap their hands were abandoned, but the Gentiles were called and applauded God in spirit. "The fool folds his hands together and eats his own flesh," that is, he becomes involved in the concerns of the body and eats his own flesh, just as does all-powerful death. And such a one will not find eternal life. But the wise person who lifts up his works that they may shine before his Father who is in heaven has not consumed his flesh; instead, he has raised it to the grace of the resurrection. This is the wise person's honorable dance which David danced, mounting by the loftiness of his spiritual dance to the throne of Christ that he may see and hear the Lord saying to his Lord, "Sit at my right hand." — Letters 51-60 (Letter to Bishop Sabinus)
Eclesiastes 4:10
Fittingly does Ecclesiastes say, "For if one falls, he raises up his companion." He himself is not raised up, for Christ was not raised up by another's help and power, but he himself raised himself. Indeed, he said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. This he said of the temple of his body." It is well that he who did not fall should not be raised by another, for one who is raised by another has fallen, and one who falls needs help to be raised up. Additional words also teach this when Scripture says, "Woe to him that is alone: for when he falls, he has none to lift him up. And if two lie together, they shall warm one another." We have died with Christ, and we live together with him. Christ died with us to warm us, and he said, "I have come to cast fire upon the earth." — Letters 81-91 (Letter LXXXI)
Eclesiastes 4:12
Paul fled too, that he might pass out through a window and be lowered in a basket. Yes, he knew that the triple-stranded rope could not break, but he fled so that he might preach the gospel of the Lord in the entire world, and consequently he was taken up into paradise. Let us also flee through the window while heeding the Lord's precepts and keeping them with steady vision and chaste eyes. — FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 9:54