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Ecc_1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Ver. 1. The words.] Golden words, weighty, and worthy of all acceptation; grave and gracious apophthegms, or rather oracles, meet to be well remembered. Solomon’s sapiential sermon of the sovereign good, and how to attain to it; Solomon’s soliloquy, as some style it; others, his sacred retractations; others, his ethics, or tractate de summo bono, {a} of the chiefest good, compiled and composed with such a picked frame of words, with such pithy strength of sentences, with such a thick series of demonstrative arguments, that the sharp wit of all the philosophers, compared with this divine discourse, seems to be utterly cold, and of small account; their elaborate treatises of happiness to be learned dotages, and laborious loss of time. {b} How many different opinions there were among them concerning the chief good in Solomon’s days is uncertain. Various of them he confuteth in this book, and that from his own experience, the best school dame. {c} But Varro, the most learned of the Romans, reckoneth up two hundred and eighty in his time; and no wonder, considering man’s natural blindness, not unlike that of the Syrians at Dothan, or that of the Sodomites at Lot’s door. {d} What is an eye without the optic spirit but a dead member? and what is all human wisdom without divine illumination but wickedness of folly, yea, foolishness of madness? as our preacher, not without good cause, calleth it. "A spirit there is in man," saith Elihu - viz., the light of reason; and thus far the animal man goes, and there he makes a halt; {Ecc_7:15} he cannot transcend his orb - but "the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." {Job_32:8} God had given Solomon wisdom above any man; Abulensis saith above Adam in his innocence, which I believe not. He was ðáéäáñéïãåñùí - as Macarius was called - a man at twelve years old. {e} His father, had taught him; {Pro_4:3-4} his mother had lessoned him; {Pro_31:1} the prophet Nathan had had the breeding of him. But besides, as he was Jedidiah, loved of God, so he was èåïäéäáêôïò , taught of God. And being now, when he penned this penitential sermon, grown an old man, he had experimented all this that he here affirmeth; so that he might better begin his speech to his scholars than once Augustus Caesar did to his soldiers, Audite senem iuvenes, quem iuvenem senes audierunt, Young men, hearken to me, an old man, whom old men hearkened unto when I was yet but young. "Have not I written for you excellent things in counsel and knowledge?" {Pro_22:20} Or, have I not written three books for thee - so some read those words - proverbial, penitential, nuptial? See the note there.
“Nescis temerarie, nescis
Quem fugias, ideoque fugis.” - Ovid. Metam.
Surely, "if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that speaketh unto thee," {Joh_4:10} thou wouldst "incline thine ear and hear," {Isa_55:3} thou wouldst listen as for life itself. Knowest thou not that I am a preacher, a prince, son of David, king in Jerusalem, and so do come multis nominibus tibi commendatissimus, much commended to thee in many respects? But "need I, as some others, epistles of commendation" {2Co_3:1} to my readers, or letters of commendation from them? Is it not sufficient to know that this book of mine, both for matter and words, is the very work of the Holy Ghost speaking in me, and writing by me? {f} For "prophecy comes not by the will of man, but holy men of God speak it as they are moved by the Holy Ghost." {2Pe_1:21} And albeit this be proof good enough of my true, though late, repentance, whereof some have doubted, some denied it. {g} Yet take another.
Of the Preacher.] Or, Of a preaching soul (for the Hebrew word koheleth, is of the feminine gender, and hath nephesh, soul, understood), or of a person reunited and reconciled to the church, {h} and in token of reconciliation to God, readmitted by him to this office in his Church; like as Christ sealed up his love to Peter, after his shameful fall, by bidding him "feed his lambs"; and to the rest of the apostles that had basely forsaken him, by saying to them, after his resurrection, "Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost." {Joh_20:21-22} See the like mercy showed to St Paul. {1Ti_1:12} Howbeit, some learned men here observe, that it is no new thing in the Hebrew tongue to put feminine names upon men, as Ezra is called Sophereth, descriptrix, a she scribe, in the very same form as Solomon is here called Koheleth, a preacheress; and the gospel preachers, Mebaseroth, {Psa_68:11 Isa_52:7} either to set forth the excellence and elegance of the business, or else to teach ministers to keep themselves pure as virgins; whence they are also called Wisdom’s maids; {Pro_9:3} and Christ’s paranymphs; {Joh_3:29} to "present the church as a chaste virgin to Christ." {2Co_11:2}
The son of David.] So Christ also is said to be, {Mat_1:1} as if David had been his immediate father. "The glory of children are their fathers," {Pro_17:6} to wit, if they be godly and pious. The Jews made great boasts that they were "the seed of Abraham"; {Mat_3:9 Joh_8:33} and that wretch, Elymas the sorcerer, had surnamed himself Barjesus, {Act_13:6} or the son of Jesus, as if he had been of nearest alliance to our Saviour, of whom "the whole family of heaven and earth is named." {Eph_3:15} What an honour is it now accounted to be of the posterity of Latimer, Bradford, Ridley, &c.! How much more of David, that man of renown, the father of our princely Preacher, who himself took also not scorn to teach and do the office of a preacher, {Psa_32:9; Psa_34:11} though he were the governor of God’s people, {Psa_78:71} and head of many heathen! {Psa_18:43} The like may be said of Joseph of Arimathea, who of a counsellor of state became a Preacher of the gospel. So did Chrysostom, a noble Antiochian; Ambrose, lieutenant and consul of Milan; George, prince of Anhalt; Earl Martinengus; John a Lasco, a noble Polonian; and various others of like quality and condition. The Psalmist {Psa_138:4-5; Psa_119:72} shows by prophesying, that they that have tasted the joys of a crown shall leave the throne and palace to sing with the saints, and to publish the excelling glory of God and godliness.
King in Jerusalem.] And of Jerusalem. The Pope will allow the Duke of Milan to be king in Tuscany, but not King of Tuscany: {i} Solomon was both {Pro_1:1} {See Trapp on "Pro_1:1"} Hither came the Queen of Sheba from the utmost parts of the earth to hear him: here he wrote his excellent book, these "words of delight," which he had learned from that one Shepherd, the Lord Christ, {Ecc_12:10-11} and hath left them faithfully set down for the use of the Church; so honouring learning with his own labours, - as Sylverius said of Caesar. Here, lastly, it was that he sovereigned over God’s own peculiar, the people of his purchase, Israel, God’s firstborn, and in that respect "higher than the kings of the earth." {Psa_89:27} So that if Maximilian, the Emperor of Germany, could say, Rex hominum Hispanus, asinorum Gallus, regum ego {j} the Spaniard is king of men, the French is king of asses, and I am King of kings; how much better might Solomon have said so!
{a} Serranus.
{b} Tï ôïõ ÷ñïíïõ ðáñáíáëùìá . - Arist.
{c} Experientia optima magistra.
{d} Aug., De Civ. Dei, lib. xviii.
{e} Niceph.
{f} Regis epistolis acceptis, quo calamo scriptae sint, ridiculum est quaerere. - Greg.
{g} Bellarminus Solomonem inter reprobos numerat.
{h} Anima congregata, et cum ecclesia se colligens. - Cartwright.
{i} Spec. Europ.
{j} Joh. Manlius.