John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ecclesiastes 7:8
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof ,.... If the thing is good, other ways the end of it is worse; as the end of wickedness and wicked men, whose beginning is sweet, but the end bitter; yea, are the ways of death, Proverbs 5:4 ; and so the end of carnal professors and apostates, who begin in the Spirit, and end in the flesh, Galatians 3:3 ; but the end of good things, and of good men, is better than the beginning; as the end of Job was, both with respect to things... read more
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Ecclesiastes 7:7-10
Solomon had often complained before of the oppressions which he saw under the sun, which gave occasion for many melancholy speculations and were a great discouragement to virtue and piety. Now here, I. He grants the temptation to be strong (Eccl. 7:7): Surely it is often too true that oppression makes a wise man mad. If a wise man be much and long oppressed, he is very apt to speak and act unlike himself, to lay the reins on the neck of his passions, and break out into indecent complaints... read more