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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Of the relation of true wisdom in the internal and external life of man
(Ecc_8:16 to Ecc_12:7)
A. The unfathomable character of the universal rule of God should not frighten the wise man from an active part in life, but should cheer and encourage him thereto
(Ecc_8:16 to Ecc_9:16)
1. It cannot be denied that the providence of God in the distribution of human destiny is unfathomable and incomprehensible
(Ecc_8:16 to Ecc_9:6)
Ecc_9:1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love 2or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not; as is the good, Song of Solomon 3 is the siuner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
(Ecc_9:7-10)
Ecc_9:11-16
[Ecc_8:17.— áְּùֶׁì equivalent to áàùø ì , “in that which to”—“in proportion to;” Vulgate well renders it quanto plus. LXX. ὅóá ἐὰí ; “in proportion to that which one shall labor”—or “the more he labors.” It is found elsewhere only in Jon_1:7, or, in composition, áְּùֶׁìְîִé and áִּùֶׁìּé . It is certainly not a Chaldaism, but it is said “to belong to the later Hebrew,” and the argument runs in this way: Koheleth must belong to the later Hebrew, because this word is elsewhere found only in Jonah; and Jonah must belong to the later Hebrew, because this word is elsewhere found only in Koheleth. It is also called a Rabbinism in Koheleth; but it is rather a Kohelethism much employed, with other Kohelethisms, by the earliest Rabbins, because that book was a great favorite with them, and regarded by them as a specimen of the more elegant and courtly, as well as the more philosophical Hebrew.—Ecc_9:1, åְìָáåּø ; it has the same meaning here with áøø , Ecc_3:18, to explore—prove, by exploring—primary sense, separate, purify. It is an example of the affinity, or of the interchange of meanings, in verbs ain wau and double ain.—T. L.]
First Strophe, first division. Ecc_8:16-17.The universal rule of God is unfathomable.—When I applied mine heart.—Lit., “gave;” comp. Ecc_8:9, ëַּàֲùֶׁø introduces the longer primary clause, to which then, in Ecc_8:17, a still longer secondary clause corresponds, introduced by åְ or åְøָàéúִé There is no closer connection with the preceding, such as is affirmed by Rosenmueller, Hitzig, hengstenberg and hahn, according to the example of most old authors. The commendation of pleasure in Ecc_8:15, like the earlier praise of cheerfulness [Ecc_2:24; Ecc_3:22; Ecc_5:18; Ecc_5:20], fittingly closes the preceding, whilst this clause, as is shown by ëִּé Ecc_9:1, serves as a basis and preparation for the subsequent reflections. To know wisdom, and see the business—Comp. Ecc_1:13; Ecc_1:17. The word òִðְéָï is here as there the travail caused by a zealous searching after the grounds and aims of human action, fate, and life. For also there is that neither day nor night. ëִּé here gives the nature and operation of the travail; or is inferential, “so that,” as Gen_40:15; Exo_3:11, etc. [comp. Vaihinger]. The parenthetical interpretation of this third clause [Ewald, Elster, hahn,etc., is also unnecessary.] comp. Gen_31:40; Pro_6:4; Psa_132:4 (Lat. somnum videre).
Ecc_8:17. Then I beheld all the work of god. àֶúÎëָּìÎîַòֲùֵׂä àֱìֹäִéí is the accusative of relation: “I saw in relation to all the work of god”. The work that is done under the sun, that we find in the subsequent clause, is the same as the “work of god,” the universal rule of the most High; and the inability to find this work, its incomprehensibility and inscrutability [comp. Psa_147:5; Rom_11:33] form from the beginning the principal theme of the assertion. To “find” is used in the sense of “to comprehend, to fathom;” comp. Ecc_3:11; Ecc_7:24—Because though a man labour to seek it out.—That is, however much he may try, in spite of all his toil, etc. áְּùֶׁì àֲùֶׁø is equivalent to— áַּàֲùֶׁø — ìַàֲùֶׁø [comp. the similar crowding of relations in Jon_1:7-8; Jon_1:12, and also the Aramaic áְãִéì ãִ ], and signifies, when taken together with the following verb éַòֲîֹì “with that which is in it,” etc.; that is, “with that which there is in his labor,” or “with that zeal and talent perceptible in it.” Compare Hitzig on this passage, who correctly rejects as unnecessary Ewald’s emendation áְּëָì àֲùֶׁø in place of áְּùֶׁì àֲùֶׁø , although the 70., Vulgate, and Syriac seem to have so read it.—Yea further, though a wise man think to know it.— àִí éֹàîַø “should he presume,” “should he attempt;” comp. Exo_2:14; 2Sa_21:16.
3. First strophe, second division. Ecc_9:1-3. All men, the just, as well as the unjust, are subject to the same fate, especially to the law of mortality.—For all this I considered in my heart. Namely, when I applied my heart to know wisdom, Ecc_8:16. “All this” refers to what immediately follows.—Even to declare all this. The infinitive construct with ìָáåּø Óìְ continues the finite verb, as elsewhere the infinitive absolute; comp. Isa_38:20; Isa_10:32, áּåּø equivalent to áøø (Ecc_3:18) is found only in this passage in the O. T.—That the righteous and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God. That is, wholly dependent, on Him, not capable, in any manner, independently to shape their life; so that their best actions may be followed by the saddest fate. Comp. Hengstenberg on this passage, who correctly shows that there is affirmed an unconditional dependence, not of human action in itself, but of its results on God.—No man knoweth either love or hatred. That is, no man knoweth in advance whether God will grant him love or hatred (i.e., happiness or unhappiness); (Michaelis, Knobel, Vaihinger, and Hengstenberg are correct). Others read: “No man knoweth whether he will love or hate;” [Hitzig, Elster]. But this interpretation is not in harmony with the text, and would give a sense which is foreign alike to the passage and the book, and for which Ecc_2:5 cannot be quoted as proof, as is done by Hitzig.—By all that is before them. That is, not as affirmed by Hieronymus, Geier, and Rosenmueller,—all their destinies are clear, and as it were visible before their eyes, but the reverse: all their destinies lie in the dark uncertain future before them; they have yet everything to experience, happiness as well as unhappiness, good as well as evil. Comp. Ecc_7:14, where àַäֲøָéå “behind him” signifies just the same as here ìִôְðֵéäֶí “before them.” Knobel unnecessarily insists that ëּì here means: Everything is before them, everything can occur to them—even great misfortune—a sense that would need to be more clearly indicated by the context than is here the case.
Ecc_9:2.—All things come alike to all. That is, every thing happens to the wise and just as to all others; the just have no special fortune, they share the common fate of all (in this world of course). Knobel, Ewald, Heiligstedt, Umbreit, and Hengstenberg correctly take this position, whilst Hitzig and Elster include the following words îִ÷ְøֶä àֶçָã , and so bring out this somewhat obscure and distorted thought: “All are as all, they meet one fate;” but Vaihinger takes äַëֹּì at the beginning of the verse as an elliptical repetition from Ecc_9:1 : “Yes all! Just as all have the same destiny,” etc.—There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked. Not that they are the offspring and the victims of one and the same blind power of chance [Hitzig], but they are subjected to one and the same divine providence as regards the issue of their life. Hengstenberg justly says: “Chance ( îִ÷ְøֶä ) just as in Ecc_3:19 (comp. Ecc_2:14-15), does not form the counterpart to divine providence, but to the spontaneous activity on the part of the just.”—To the good and to the clean and to the unclean. In order that one may not take clean and unclean in the levitical or externally legal sense, but in the moral sense, the kindred thought of èåֹá (good) precedes that of èָäåֹø (pure) as explanatory.—He that sweareth as he that feareth an oath. That is, the frivolous swearer, and he that considers an oath sacred. That this is the sense is plainly seen in Ecc_8:2, from which passage it appears that, it does not enter the author’s mind to condemn the oath in general as something immoral. Vaihinger is of opinion that by him that feareth an oath, as by him that does not sacrifice, is meant an Essene, or at least a representative of growing Essenianism. But the designation is by no means clear enough for this; and the one not sacrificing seems clearly to be a wicked contemner of the levitical laws concerning the temple and sacrifices, and not an unreasonably conscientious ascetic in the sense of Essenianism.
Ecc_9:3.—This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun. øַò áְּëֹì åְâå cannot mean the worst of all, etc. (Rosenmueller, Vaihinger) but in the absence of the article before øַò (comp. the Son_1:8; Jos_14:15, etc.), simply bad, evil among all things, or in all things; therefore an evil accompanying and dwelling in every earthly occurrence.—That there is one event unto all. Namely, that befalls all. îִ÷ְøֶä must be taken as in verse 2, and points out, therefore, not what one meets with in life, but its issue, its end. The equal liability of all to death, even the good and the just, is designated by Koheleth as that evil, that evil thing that is mixed with every earthly occurrence; (comp. Rom_5:14; Rom_5:21; 1Co_15:55 f.; Heb_2:15). Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil; namely, in consequence of this their liability to the power of death, which, therefore, also in addition exerts a demoralizing effect on them; comp. Ecc_8:11.—And after that they go to the dead. The suffix to àַçֲøָéå is to be considered as neuter, (“and after this condition,” comp. Jer_51:46), not masculine as if the sense were “and after it” (i.e., after this life) as in Ecc_6:12; Ecc_10:14. The preposition of motion ( àֶì in àֶì äַîֵּúִéí ) “indicates that the sense of ‘it goes,’ is to complete the sentence,” Hitzig.
4. First strophe, conclusion. Ecc_9:4-6. In spite of the presentation just given, the condition of the living is ever to be preferred to that of the dead—For to him that is joined (Zöckler, taking the reading éְáֻçַø translates it, “who is it that is preferred?”—T.L.). Thus according to the reading éְáֻçַø , pual of áçø “to choose, prefer,” does Vaihinger more correctly give the sense: “There is no one who would be here preferred and accepted, or who would have a choice, who would be exempted from death; since dying is a common fate; each one must go to the dead; but in death there is nothing more to hope.” In the same way, substantially, does Elster translate, except that he punctuates éִáְçַø , and therefore gives it actively; “For who has any choice ?” Many later commentators adhere to the k’ri éְçֻáַּø , which the 70. read ( ôßò ὅò êïéíùíåῖ ðñὸò ðÜíôáò ôïὺò æῶíôáò ) together with Symmachus and the Targum. They translate, therefore, with Ewald, “who is joined to the living has hope,” or, with Hitzig, interrogatively, “who is it who would be joined to all the living?” But the sense thus arising makes a very forced connection; and the translation of Hahn, who takes the word çáø in the sense of “charming,” is open to very weighty linguistic objections.—To all the living there is hope. Literally, “for all living,” for all as long as they live. The grammatical expression does not accord with Hengstenberg’s interpretation: “One may trust to all living;” for àֶì is used with the verb áèç (Psa_4:6; Psa_31:7), but not with the substantive áִּèָּçåֹï for the introduction of the one in whom the confidence is placed. Comp. Job_11:18.—For a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the most contemptible and hateful thing that lives (comp. for the proverbial use of the dog in this relation, 1Sa_17:43; 2Sa_9:8; Isa_66:3; Mat_15:26; Rev_22:15, etc.) is more valuable than the most majestic of all beasts if it is dead; (for the majesty and glory of the lion as the king of beasts, consult Isa_38:13; Hos_13:7; Lam_3:10; Job_10:16). This proverb is also known to the Arabs. See Golius, Adag. Cent. 2, n. 3.
Ecc_9:5.—For the living know that they shall die. The consciousness of the necessity of death, is here presented not as the only, but yet as the characteristic superiority of the living over the dead, just as if only the necessity of death were the object of human knowledge—an individualizing statement of an ironical and yet most serious nature.—Neither have they any more reward. Not that they have had their share (Hitzig) but that God no longer exercises retributive justice towards them, because they are wanting in conscious, personal life. The fact of a retribution in a world beyond, is only apparently denied here, for the author now sees only the conditions of this world; on the subsequent fate of a spirit returned to God he is for the present entirely silent (Ecc_12:7; comp. Ecc_11:9).—For the memory of them is forgotten. So entirely do the dead remain without reward; not even the smallest thing that could profit them here below, not even the preservation of their memory with their posterity, is granted to them. Comp. Psa_31:12; Job_14:21. It is doubtful whether æֶëֶø “memory” is intended to rhyme with the preceding ùָׂëָø “reward” (as Hitzig supposes). It is more probable that such a rhyming is made in the following verse between ùִׂðְàָúָí and ÷ִðְàָúָí .
Ecc_9:6. A continued description of the sad fate of the dead; “from the very beginning with touching depth of tone, a strain of lamentation overpowering the author” (Hitzig). Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished. That is, not that they are deprived of the objects of their love, hatred, or envy (Knobel), but these sentiments and activities themselves have ceased for them; as øôàéí they are destitute of all affections, interests, and exertions, and lead rather a merely seeming life. (Rosenmueller, Hitzig). The sad existence of departed souls in Scheol, as described in Job_14:11 ff., seems here to hover before the author, just as in ver 10 below, he expressly speaks of it. It is significant that he denies them love as well as hatred, and would seem thereby to mark their condition as one extremely low.
5. Second strophe, Ecc_9:7-10. On account of this superiority of life, compared with the condition of the dead, and the uncertainty of human fate in general, it behooves us to enjoy life cheerfully (Ecc_9:7-9), and to use it zealously in the activity of our vocations (Ecc_9:10).—Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. (Comp. Ecc_2:24; Ecc_5:19). This collective triad, “eat, drink, and be merry,” is here, as it were, increased to a quartette; joy being doubly designated, first as it finds its expression in cheerful adornments of the body and appropriate ornament, and then in loving unison with a wife.—Wine is used as a symbol and producer of joy, and also in Ecc_10:19; Gen_27:25; Psa_104:15, etc. For áְּìֶáÎèåֹá “of joyful heart, gay,” comp. 1Sa_25:38; also Ecc_7:3 of the foregoing.—For God now accepteth thy works. That is, not that God finds pleasure in just this eating, drinking, etc. (Hitzig), but, thy moral conduct and efforts have long pleased Him, wherefore thou mayst hope in the future surely to receive thy reward from Him. (Hengstenberg correctly takes this position).
Ecc_9:8. Let thy garments be always white. White garments are the expression of festive joy and pure, calm feelings in the soul, comp. Rev_3:4 f.; Ecc_7:9 ff. Koheleth could hardly have meant a literal observance of this precept, so that the conduct of Sisinnius, Novatian bishop of Constantinople, who, with reference to this passage, always went in white garments, was very properly censured by Chrysostom as Pharisaical and proud. Hengstenberg’s view is arbitrary, and in other respects scarcely corresponds to the sense of the author: “White garments are here to be put on as an expression of the confident hope of the future glory of the people of God, as Spener had himself buried in a white coffin as a sign of his hope in a better future of the Church.”—And let thy head lack no ointment. As in 2Sa_12:20; 2Sa_14:2; Isa_61:3; Amo_6:6; Pro_27:9; Psa_45:8, so here appears the anointing oil, which keeps the hair smooth and makes the face to shine, as a symbol of festive joy, and a contrast to a sorrowing disposition. There is no reason here for supposing fragrant spikenard (Mar_14:2), because the question is mainly about producing a good appearance by means of the ointment, comp. Psa_133:2.
Ecc_9:9.—Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest. That is, enjoy life with her, comp. Ecc_3:1; Psa_34:12; and also Ecc_7:28, above, to which expression, apparently directed against all intercourse with women, the present one serves as a corrective.—All the days of the life of thy vanity. This short repetition of the preceding (“all the days of thy vain life, which he has given thee under the sun”) is left out of the Septuagint and Chaldaic, but is produced in the Vulgate, and should be by no means wanting, because it points with emphasis to the vanity of life as a principal motive to joy.—For that is thy portion in this life and in thy labor, etc. That is, for this cheerful and moderate enjoyment of life shall, according to the will of God, compensate thee for the toil and labor which this life brings with it; comp. Ecc_2:10; Ecc_3:22; Ecc_5:18.
Ecc_9:10.—Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, The word áְּëçֲֹêָ is by the Vulgate and most modern authors joined to òֲùֵׂä , whilst according to the accents and the collocation, it belongs to what precedes. But it is a vigorous doing, nevertheless, that is here recommended; for the sense is clear: whatsoever presents itself, is to be performed with thy strength, whatsoever offers itself to thee as an object for thy exertion, that do ! For the expression, “whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,” comp. 1Sa_10:7; 1Sa_23:8;. Jdg_9:33; also Isa_10:13-14.—For there is no work nor device, etc., in the grave whither thou goest. comp. Ecc_9:6. As Koheleth gives a motive here in his admonition to an active life, by pointing to the lifeless and inactive condition of departed souls in the realm of death, so speaks Christ in Joh_9:4 : ἐìὲ äåῖ ἐñãáæåóèáé ἕùò ἡìÝñá ἐóôßò . ἔñ÷åôáé íýî ὅôå ïὐäåὶò äýíáôáé ἐñáãÜæåóèáé . Since the íýî (night) mentioned in Joh_9:4 and elsewhere, is clearly something else than the ùְׁàåֹì of this passage, there is no definite reference to the latter, as Hengstenberg affirms, but between the two assertions there is a certain analogy.
6. Third strophe, Introduction. Ecc_9:11-12. Human actions in this world depend entirely on divine fate, and their success, therefore, is too often in no comparison with the real ability and strength of the actor.—I returned.—Comp. Ecc_4:1. For the infinitive absolute åְøָàäֹ comp. Ecc_8:9.—That the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. These remarks serve only to illustrate what follows: “Neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill.” çֵï favor, as in Exo_3:22; Exo_11:3; Exo_12:36, etc.—But time and chance happeneth to them all.—That is, the success of human actions depends wholly on that higher power which controls the change of seasons, and permits men to be met sometimes by this, sometimes by that ( ôֶּâַò ) which “happens, meets;” (comp. 1Ki_5:18). A New Testament parallel is found in Rom_9:16, where, instead of time and chance, divine mercy is called the highest power in all human affairs.
Ecc_9:12. For man also knoweth not his time. A conclusion, a majori ad minus. “Even over his time itself, over his person and his life, to say nothing of his actions (Ecc_9:11), there is a controlling power outside of him” (Hitzig). The “time” of a man is here clearly equivalent to the time of his destruction; as elsewhere the “day,” of Job_18:20; or the “hour,” Job 12:27; Mar_14:41. Comp. also Ecc_7:17 preceding.—As the fishes that are taken. For net, and noose, and trap, as symbols of the judgments overtaking men, comp. Hos_7:12; Eze_12:13; Eze_32:3; Pro_7:23; Luk_21:35.—So are the sons of men snared. éåּ÷ָùִׁéí Part. Pual see Ew. § 169. d. The word strikingly represents the helpless condition of men in the presence of divine destiny, that can put an end to their life at any moment, as the fowler who suddenly robs† of its life the bird caught in the snare. An allusion to the catastrophe threatened to the Persian kingdom by a new universal monarchy, the Macedonian, is not found in the passage, as Hengstenberg supposes.
7. Third strophe. Conclusion. Ecc_9:13-16. In spite of that dependence of human destiny and success on a higher power, which often violently interferes with them, wisdom remains, nevertheless, a valuable possession, still able to effect great results with inconsiderable means of an external character, as is seen in the example of a poor and despised man, who, by his wisdom, became the deliverer of his native city from threatening danger of destruction. Whether this example is a purely feigned didactic story (thus think Hengstenberg, Luther, Mercerus, Starke, et at.), or whether it refers to an historical fact within the" experience of the author, must remain uncertain, on account of the general character of the description; and this so much the more so, because the only passage that could seem to refer to a definite fact from Persian history (Ecc_9:15) is of doubtful exposition.—This wisdom have I seen also under the sun. (Zöckler, this have I seen as wisdom). The words âַּí æäֹ øָàִéúִé çָëְîָä must clearly be thus translated (comp. the similar construction in Ecc_7:25), not, “thus also saw I wisdom,” etc. (thus usually), or, “this also have I seen: wisdom,” etc. (as Hitzig renders it,) changing æäֹ into æä .—And it seemed great unto me, i.e., it appeared large, comp. Jon_3:3.
Ecc_9:14.—There was a little city, and few men within it. That is, not few inhabitants in general, but few fighting men available for defence—a circumstance which shows the danger of the city to be so much greater, and the merits of its deliverer to be so much more brilliant.—And there came a great king against it. We cannot deduce from the expression that the great king was the Persian; because the predicate âָãåֹì attributed to the hostile king serves mainly to show the contrast to the smallness of the city, and the great size of the army led against it.—And built great bulwarks against it. îְöåֹãִéí (from îöåã “an instrument for seizure,” hence sometimes a “net;” e.g. Ecc_7:26) is here used only in the signification of bulwarks, and must therefore not here be confounded with the more customary îְöåֹøִéí Deu_20:20; Micah 4:14), as two manuscripts here read.
Ecc_9:15. Now there was found in it a poor wise man. Literal, “one found in it,” impersonal—not, “he, the king found.”—yet no man remembered that same poor man. [Zöckler renders in the pluperfect “had remembered,” etc., and then makes it the ground of the remarks that follow.—T. L.] We can neither urge against this pluperfect rendering of åְàָãָí ìֹà æָëָø the circumstance that the one in question is here designated as àִéùׁ îִñְëֵּï and not as çָëָí (for the predicate poor is clearly to point out why they did not remember him—), nor also the contents of the following verse. For in it the emphasis lies upon the commendation of wisdom contained in the first clause, not on the subsequent restrictive remark concerning the contempt and disregard that it often meets with. Vaihinger is correct in his deviation from Hitzig, Ewald, Elster, and most modern authors, who, like the Vulgate and Luther, translate: “no man remembered.” As certain as this sense, according to which the discussion would be concerning a deliverer of his country, rewarded with the ingratitude of his fellow-citizens, is approached neither through language nor connection, just so certainly may we not (with Ewald and some ancient authors) here find an allusion to Themistocles as deliverer of Athens from the hand of Xerxes; and this latter so much the less because Athens could scarcely have been designated by the author as òִéøֹ ÷ְèַðָּç . Hitzig is of opinion that the besieged city is the little sea-port Dora, vainly besieged by Antiochus the Great in the year 218 (Polyb. v. 66); but nothing is known of the deliverance of this city by a “poor wise man,” and for many reasons the epoch of this book cannot be brought down to so late an era as that of Antiochus Magnus. Comp. the Introduction, § 4, Obs. 3.
Ecc_9:16. The moral of the story, is given in the words of Koheleth uttered immediately after he had heard it.—Then said I, wisdom is better than strength. Comp. similar sentences in Ecc_7:19; Pro_14:29; Pro_16:32; Pro_21:22; Pro_24:5.—Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised. These words, which again limit the praise of wisdom expressed above, depend also on the expression, “Then said I.” They refer, according to Ecc_9:15, to the fact that in the beginning no one had thought of the wisdom of that deliverer of the city—and not even of the ingratitude afterwards shown to him, or of not having followed his wise counsels (which latter view however would be in antagonism with Ecc_9:15, according to which the sorely pressed city was really delivered).
(With Homiletical Hints)
Homily on the whole section. The thought of the brevity of human life, and the obscurity of that which awaits us in it, should not discourage but impel us to a ready and cheerful use of the blessings granted us hero below, as well as of the powers for a truly wise exertion; or more briefly: Of the blessing and value of reflections concerning death, as an impulse to the zealous fulfilment of the avocations of life.
Ecc_9:1-3. Brenz (Ecc_9:1):—There are those whom God loves and whom He hates. For He does not cast off the whole human race, though He might justly do so; neither does He embrace all men in His favor; but to some He deigns to grant His mercy, whilst others He leaves to their own destruction. There is, however, no one who can know by any external sign, whom God receives or rejects.—(Ecc_9:2-3). Whoeverin faith looks into the word of God may easily know that, though the wicked may now seem to have the same fortune with the pious, there shall come, at last, a clear discrimination between the good and the bad, adjudging the one class to eternal punishment, the others to the happiness of everlasting life.—Geier (Ecc_9:2-3). We cannot judge of the condition of the dead after this life, by our reason, but only by its accordance with the revealed word of God.—Hansen:—Wo are to ascribe it to the peculiarities of this present life, if the just suffer with the wicked; Sir_40:1 ff.
Zeyss:—A child of God should love this life not on account of temporal prosperity, but for the honor of God, and the welfare of his neighbor. Cramer:—So long as the wicked lives, it is better for him than if he is dead, since he has yet time to repent. But when he is dead then all hope for him is lost. Starke:—Atheists live in the foolish delusion that after death all is over and that the soul ceases with the death of the body; but they will receive the most emphatic contradiction on the great day of judgment.
Ecc_9:7-10. Luther (Ecc_9:7):—You live in a world where there is nothing but sorrow, misery, grief, and death, with much vanity: therefore use life with love, and do not make your own life sour and heavy with vain and anxious cares.—Solomon does not say this to the secure and wicked children of the world, but to those truly fearing and believing God. These latter he consoles, and desires that they may cheerfully take comfort in God. To the former He says rejoice, but does not bid those to drink wine, eat, etc., who are but too much inclined to do so, and pass their lives in idleness and voluptuousness as wicked and depraved men.
Zeyss (Ecc_9:7):—The believers have more claim to the gifts of God than the unbelievers (1Co_3:21-22), although they may enjoy them the least.—(Ecc_9:9). Marriage is a sacred and wise ordinance of God; therefore the Christian may use it with a good conscience; but it must be enjoyed in the fear of God, Eph_5:31. Starke (Ecc_9:8):—Arrogance, pride, and display in dress are very common vices in these latter times: the children of God find it very difficult to suppress these in themselves.—(Ecc_9:10). The obligations that you owe to the body, you owe doubly to the soul. O man neglect not the labor due to thy soul; the night of death is coming when no one can work.—Cramer (Ecc_9:10):—We should perform the work of our calling with a resolute and confident spirit, and never hesitate in our charge.—Hengstenberg (Ecc_9:10):—That we should do all that lies in our power is required by the facts that what we leave undone here below is never done, that the tasks placed upon us by God for this life, and which here remain unperformed, never find their performance, and that the gifts and powers conferred on us for this life must be used in this life.
Ecc_9:11-12. Tübingen Bible:—Even in temporal things it does not depend upon any one’s will or movements, but only on God’s mercy. Everything is derived from God’s blessing.—Starke (Ecc_9:12) :—By his skill man can calculate the rising and setting of the sun; but human wisdom does not extend so far that one can tell when the sun of his life will rise or set.—Hengstenberg:—If it seems sad with the people of God when the world triumphs, let us reflect that such result does not depend on the might, or the weakness of men; and that a sudden catastrophe may overwhelm the highest, and cast him to the ground. Have we God for our friend? it all comes to that as the only thing that can decide.
Ecc_9:13-16. Melanchthon:—Such a poor man, in a city, was Jeremiah, as he himself writes, a man who saved the church in the midst of disorder and confusion. At the same time the precept admonishes us that good counsels are listened to by the few, whilst the worst please the many. And thus he says; The poor man’s wisdom is despised.—Cartwright:—Wisdom, however splendid, if in lowly state, is so obscured by the cloud of poverty that in a brief time it has all eyes averted, and utterly falls from the memory.
Cramer:—Thou shouldst laud no one on account of his high estate, and despise no one on account of his low estate. For the bee is a very little creature, and yet gives the sweetest fruit.—Starke:—The heart of mail is by nature so corrupt that to its own injury it is inclined to run after folly, and be disobedient to wisdom.—But true wisdom always finds those who know and love her. Though a wise man may for a time dwell in obscurity, he will nevertheless be drawn forth from it before he is aware. Wisdom of Solomon Ecc_10:13-14.
The living know that they must die, the dead they nothing know;
For them there is no more reward—forgotten is their name;
Their love, their hate, their zeal, all perished now;
Whilst the world lasts, no portion more have they
In all the works performed beneath the sun.
Stuart thinks that the Preacher “claims small merit for the living, merely the knowledge that they must die.” “Is this,” he asks, “better than not knowing any thing?” He argues, besides, that there is an inconsistency in such a view, made greater by the fact that this praise of life one of the cheering passages, whereas such declarations as Ecc_7:1; Ecc_4:2-3 are from the desponding mood. Is not this, however, a mistake ? The language here is gloomy, if not wholly desponding. Koheleth is perplexed and bewildered as he contemplates the apparent state of the dead, especially as it presents itself to the sense, inactive, motionless, silent, unheeding. He turns to the living, and surveys their condition, so full of vanity, with only the superiority of a little knowledge, one important element of which, is a knowledge that this vanity must come to an end. It is just the survey that would give rise to that touching irony already spoken of, that mournful smile at human folly, in which a just contempt is blended with deepest sympathy,—an irony, not sneering, but tenderly compassionate, such as we find in some other Scriptures. As, for example, in Gen_3:22, where God is represented as ironically repeating the wolds of Satan, but in a spirit how different from that of the fiend! Ah, poor wretch! he knows it now, the difference between good and evil! See Gen., p. 210. So here, as though he had said, “Alas, their boasted knowledge! They know that they must die,—this is the substance of it, the remotest bound to which their science reaches.” There is something of the same feeling in what is here affirmed of the state of the dead. It gloomily contemplates only the physical aspect, or the physical side of death, such as presents itself, sometimes, to the Christian, without any feeling of inconsistency, and without impairing that hope of future life which he possesses in a higher degree than Koheleth. We may even say that it is good for us, occasionally, to fix our minds on this mere physical aspect of our frail humanity.
O when shall spring visit the mouldering urn?
O when shall day dawn on the night of the grave?
It was not an infidel, but a devout believer, that wrote this. And so, too, there may be, at times, a sort of melancholy pleasure in thinking of death mainly in its aspect of repose from the toils and anxieties of the present stormy life; as in that mournful dirge so often sung at funerals—
Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb;
Take this new treasure to thy trust;
And give these sacred relics room
To slumber in the silent dust.
Nor pain, nor grief, nor anxious fear,
Invade thy bounds; no mortal woes
Can reach the peaceful sleeper, here.
We feel no inconsistency between such strains, even when they assume a more sombre aspect, and that brighter view which the Christian takes in contemplating the spiritual side of our strange human destiny, or even as it sometimes presented itself to the Old Testament believer (Psa_16:11; Psa_17:15; Psa_78:24). They no more jar upon our speculative theology than the language of our Saviour, Joh_9:4 : “The night cometh, when no man can work” [comp. Ecc_9:10; Ecc_11:8], or that touching language of the New Testament which represents death under the soothing conception of a sleep— êïßìçóéò —a lying down to rest. This term is not confined to the body, as the best exegesis would show, but would seem to denote also a most blessed state of quiescence for the spirit,—a state rudimental, imperfect, unfinished, anomalous, preparatory, yet most secure,—tranquil yet not torpid—inactive, yet not inert—a holy conscious rest, a lying “under the shadow of the Almighty,”—separate from the present world, away from all its busy doings, if not from all its memories, and thus cradled again, nursed and educated, we may say, for that higher finished life, when death shall be fully conquered. He is the last and greatest enemy [1Co_15:26] who, until that time, retains some dominion over all humanity,—even over those “who sleep in Jesus,” or “through Jesus,” as it should be rendered,—the saved, or rather, the being saved [present participle, ïἱ óùæüìåíïé ] the being healed, or made alive, as the Syriac has it, those in whom the redemptive life of Christ is overcoming death, and growing to the matured and perfect life of eternity. For it is clear, even from the New Testament, that this “state of death,” or reign of death, still continues, in a certain sense, and in a certain degree, until the resurrection. Its power is over all men, and over the whole man, soul and body, although for the Christian, whose “life is hid with Christ in God” [Col_3:3], its sting is taken quite away. There is no mistaking the language, 1Co_15:54 : ὅôáí äὲ ôὸ öèáñôὸí ôïῦôï ἐíäýóçôáé ἀöèáñóßáí ê . ô . ë . It is only when this corruption puts on incorruption, and this mortal puts on immortality, that there is brought to pass the saying, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Till then, Death and Hades go together. One is but the continuation of the other. Being in Hades is being in the kingdom of the dead. Till then, the Old Testament idea still holds of death, not as extinction, non-existence, or not being [see Genesis, Notes, pp. 273, 586], but as a state, a state of positive being, though strange and inexplicable,—a state of continued personality, real though undefined, utterly unknown as to its condition, or only conceived of negatively as something that differs, in almost every respect, from the present active, planning, toiling, pleasure-grasping, knowledge-seeking life “beneath the sun.” That there is something strange about it, something difficult to be thought, is intimated in our Saviour’s language respecting the Old Testament saints, Luk_20:38, ðÜíôåò ãὰñ áὐôῷ æῶóéí , “for they all live unto Him” [unto God],—as though what was called their life was something out of them, and could only be made dimly conceivable to us by this remarkable language. Compare the Jewish expression as we find it, 1Sa_25:29, and as it is interpreted and often quoted by Rabbinical writers, öְøåּøָä áִּöְøåֹø äַçַéִּéí “bound up in the bundle of life with Jehovah thy God,” or as the Vulgate renders it—anima custodita quasi in fasciculo viventium apud Dominum Deum tuum.
There is yet a reserve to the doctrine of the immediate after life, still a veil cast over it, we may reverently say, even in the New Testament. The most modern notions of a sudden transition to the highest Heavens, and to the perfect life, are, perhaps, as far to the one extreme, as the descriptions of mortality which Koheleth gives us, in his gloomy mood, may be in the other. This idea of the dead passing straightway into a busy active state of existence, in these respects resembling the present life, with its proud talk of progress, was unknown to the early Church, as its liturgies and funeral hymns most evidently show. See especially the earliest Syriac hymns, much of whose language the modern notions would render almost unintelligible. Christ has indeed “brought immortality to light,” but it is chiefly by the doctrine of the resurrection, that great article so clear in the New Testament, though having its shadow in the Old. But there is another doctrine there, however little it is studied. We are taught that there was a work of Christ in Hades. He descended into Hades; he makes proclamation [ ἐêÞñõîåí ] in Hades (1Pe_3:19) to those who are there “in ward.” He is our Christian Hermes, belonging to both worlds. He is the øõ÷áãùãὸò , the conductor and guide of redeemed spirits in Hades, the “Shepherd and Bishop of souls” (1Pe_2:15), the “Good Shepherd” (Psalms 23), who leads his spiritual flock beside the still waters, in the Cetzalmaveth, the “valley of the death shade,” or terra umbrarum, and, at the same time, the great High Priest above, to whom is “given all power in Heaven and in earth.” He is the îìàê äâåàì the Redeeming Angel of the Old Testament, to whom the righteous committed their spirits [Psa_31:6] and the Mediator more clearly revealed in the New.
The doctrine of the immediate after life, as we have said, has still a shadow cast upon it. We should not, therefore, wonder to find Koheleth still more under the veil. His very language implies continuance of being, in some way, although presenting a state of inactivity, and, in a word, a want of all participation in the doings and even memories of the present “life beneath the sun.” It did not fall in the way of his musing to speak of differences, in this state, between the “righteous and the wicked;” but, in other passages of the Old Testament, it appears more clear, though still barely hinted, as in Pro_14:32; Psa_73:20; Psa_49:15. It is a state in which the one is “driven away,” whilst the other “has hope.” Elsewhere, however [Ecc_3:17; Ecc_12:13-14], Koheleth affirms his strong belief that at some time, and in some way, the two classes will be judged, and the difference between them most clearly manifested.
In the rhvthmical version of Ecc_9:10, çָëְîָä is rendered philosophy, because the writer seems, in this place, to take it in its more pretentious sense, or for human wisdom in distinction from the Divine,—speculative inquiry,
Very much as Paul uses óïößá , sometimes, in the New Testament. And so, perhaps, we would come nearer to the intended force of the other word ãַּòַú by rendering science, although not exactly corresponding to it in the most modern acceptation of the term. It is Paul’s ãíῶóéò , “curious knowledge,”—not mere knowing, as consciousness, whether Koheleth held to any such consciousness or not. Comp. it with çֶùְׁáּåֹï (plan, reckoning) in immediate connection. So, too, even when speaking of the perfect psychological state (1Co_13:8) Paul says of knowledge ( ãíῶóéò ), êáôáñãçèÞóåôáé —not, “it shall cease,” as rendered, but “it shall be deposed”—put one side—no longer made the highest thing, as in this fallen life, where the intellectual is placed above the moral nature. In the blessed and perfect life to come, moral or spiritual contemplation, pervaded by ἀãÜðç , shall be the highest exercise of the soul. Even the intermediate state is to be regarded as superior to the present existence in ontological rank, and the terms embryotic or rudimental, if applied to it, must be taken simply as denoting a formative state of repose, preparatory to the more glorious life that follows.—T. L.]
[II. The Alleged Epicureanism of Koheleth. Note on Ecc_9:7-10, in connection with Ecc_11:9-10. These passages have given rise to much comment. Stuart, with many others, regards the first of them as expressing the real advice which Koheleth would give in regard to the conduct of life, and then says: “In all this there is nothing Epicurean.” What then is Epicureanism ? Or how shall we distinguish? It would seem to be almost too sober a word. The language here used may almost be characterized as Anacreontic: “Eat with joy thy bread, and drink with mirth thy wine,—thy garments always white, and oil ne’er lacking to thy head:”
Ðßíùìåí , ὦ ðßíùìåí —
Ôὸ ῥüäïí ôὸ êá