Ecclesiastes 4

8. not a second--no partner.
child--"son or brother," put for any heir ( Deuteronomy 25:5-10 ).
eye--( Ecclesiastes 1:8 ). The miser would not be able to give an account of his infatuation.

9. Two--opposed to "one" ( Ecclesiastes 4:8 ). Ties of union, marriage, friendship, religious communion, are better than the selfish solitariness of the miser ( Genesis 2:18 ).
reward--Advantage accrues from their efforts being conjoined. The Talmud says, "A man without a companion is like a left hand without the right.

10. if they fall--if the one or other fall, as may happen to both, namely, into any distress of body, mind, or soul.

12. one--enemy.
threefold cord--proverbial for a combination of many--for example, husband, wife, and children ( Proverbs 11:14 ); so Christians ( Luke 10:1 , Colossians 2:2 Colossians 2:19 ). Untwist the cord, and the separate threads are easily "broken."

13. The "threefold cord" ( Ecclesiastes 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 ( 1 Kings 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 ( 1 Kings 3:14 , 9:2-9 ), he forsook God.
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 ( 1 Kings 11:11-13 ).

14. out of prison--Solomon uses this phrase of a supposed case; for example, Joseph raised from a dungeon to be lord of Egypt. His words are at the same time so framed by the Holy Ghost that they answer virtually to Jeroboam, who fled to escape a "prison" and death from Solomon, to Shishak of Egypt ( 1 Kings 11:40 ). This unconscious presaging of his own doom, and that of Rehoboam, constitutes the irony. David's elevation from poverty and exile, under Saul (which may have been before Solomon's mind), had so far their counterpart in that of Jeroboam.
whereas . . . becometh poor--rather, "though he (the youth) was born poor in his kingdom" (in the land where afterwards he was to reign).

15. "I considered all the living," the present generation, in relation to ("with") the "second youth" (the "legitimate successor" of the "old king," as opposed to the "poor youth," the one first spoken of, about to be raised from poverty to a throne), that is, Rehoboam.
in his stead--the old king's.

16. Notwithstanding their now worshipping the rising sun, the heir-apparent, I reflected that "there were no bounds, no stability ( 2 Samuel 15:6 , 20:1 ), no check on the love of innovation, of all that have been before them," that is, the past generation; so
also they that come after--that is, the next generation,
shall not rejoice in him--namely, Rehoboam. The parallel, "shall not rejoice," fixes the sense of "no bounds," no permanent adherence, though now men rejoice in him.