Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Ecclesiastes 1:6 - 1:6
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; the wind also sometimes blows from one quarter of the world, and sometimes from another; all of them being synecdochically comprehended under these two eminent quarters. But because this word, the wind, is not expressed in the Hebrew, but is only borrowed or understood from the latter clause of the verse, this first clause is by other judicious interpreters understood of the sun, of whom he last spake; the words being thus rendered according to the Hebrew, He (the sun) goeth towards the south, (which he doth one half of the year,) and turneth about unto the north, which he doth the other half. And so here is the whole motion of the sun towards the four quarters of the world particularly described; his daily motion from east to, vest, and back again, Ecc_1:5; and his yearly motion from north to south, between the signs of Cancer and Capricorn.
The wind returneth again according to his circuits: this clause is by all understood of the wind, which is fitly mentioned immediately after the sun, because it hath its rise from the sun, who is therefore called the father of winds, and the winds do usually rise with the sun, and are laid when he sets. But then it is rendered thus, and that very agreeably to the Hebrew, the wind goeth continually whirling or compassing about, and he returneth again to his circuits, being sometimes in one, and sometimes in another quarter, and successively returning to the same quarters in which he had formerly been.