Ecclesiastes 2
Vanity of Striving After Pleasure and Wealth
(vs. 1-11)
1 “I said
in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth,
therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is
vanity.”
Dissatisfied with the result of the pursuit of wisdom, Koheleth
embarks on a course of
sensual pleasure, if so be this may yield some effect
more substantial and permanent. I said in mine
heart, Go to now, I will
prove thee with mirth. The heart is
addressed as the seat of the emotions
and
affections. The Vulgate misses the direct address to the heart, which
the
words, rightly interpreted, imply, translating, Vadam
et offluam
delieiis. The Septuagint correctly gives, Δεῦρο δὴ πειράσω
σε ἐν
εὐφροσύνῃ - Deuro dae peiraso se en euphrosunae –
Come now, I
will test you with mirth. It is like the
rich fool’s language in Christ’s parable,
“I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for
many years;
take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry” (Luke 12:19). Therefore
enjoy
pleasure; literally, see
good (ch. 6:6). “To see” is often used
figuratively in the sense of “to experience, or enjoy.” Compare the
expressions, “see death”
(Luke 2:26), “see life” (John 3:36).
We
may
find the like in Psalm 34:13; Jeremiah 29:32; Obadiah 1:13
(compare ch.9:9). The king now
tries to find the summum
bonum in pleasure, in
selfish enjoyment without thought of others.
Commentators, as they saw Stoicism in the first chapter, so
read
Epieureanism into this. We shall have occasion to refer to this idea further
on
(see on ch.3:22). Of this new experiment the
result was the same as before.
Behold, this also
is vanity. This experience is
confirmed in the next verse.
2 “I said
of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth
it?”
I said of
laughter, It is mad. Laughter and mirth are
personified, hence treated
as
masculine. He uses the term “mad” in
reference to the statement in ch.1:17,
“I gave my heart
to know madness and folly.” Septuagint, “I
said to laughter,
Error (περιφοράν – periphoran - foolishness);” Vulgate, Risum reputavi errorem.
Neither of these is as
accurate as the Authorized Version. Of mirth, What
doeth it?
What does it effect towards real happiness
and contentment? How does it help to
fill the void, to give
lasting satisfaction? So we have in Proverbs 14:13,
“Even in laughter
the heart is sorrowful; and the end of mirth is heaviness;”
though the context is different. The Vulgate renders loosely, Quid
frustra
deeiperis?
3 “I
sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine
heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly,
till I might see what was that
good for the sons of men, which they should do
under the heaven all the
days of their life.” I sought in mine heart; literally, I spied out (as ch.1:13)
in my heart. Having
proved the fruitlessness of some sort of sensual pleasure,
he
made another experiment in a philosophical spirit. To give myself unto wine;
literally, to draw (mashak) my
flesh with wine; i.e.
to use the attraction of the
pleasures of the table. Yet acquainting my heart with wisdom. This is a
parenthetical clause, “While my heart was acting [guiding] with wisdom.”
That is, while, as it were, experimenting with pleasure, he
still retained
sufficient control over his passions as not to be wholly given over
to vice;
he was
in the position of one who is being carried down an impetuous
stream, yet has the power of stopping his headlong course before
it
becomes fatal to him.
(However, not everyone has such an ending!
Consider the countless misfortunate souls whose life became
shipwreck
after taking the first drink!
- CY – 2013).
Such control was given by wisdom.
Deliberately to enter upon a course of self-indulgence,
even with a possibly
good intention, must be a most perilous
flirting with sin, and one which would
leave indelible
marks upon the soul; and not one
person in a hundred would be
able to stop short of ruin, The historical Solomon, by his experiment,
suffered infinite loss, which nothing could compensate. The
Septuagint
renders not very successfully, “I examined whether my heart would
draw
(ἑλκύσαι - elkusei
- a forceful pulling that
overcomes any resistance) my flesh as
wine; and my heart guided me in wisdom.”
The Vulgate gives a sense entirely
contrary to the writer’s intention; “I thought in my heart to
withdraw my flesh
from wine, that I might transfer my mind to wisdom.” And to lay hold on folly.
These words are dependent upon “I sought in my heart,” and
refer to the sensual
pleasures in which he indulged for a certain object. Till I might see. His purpose
was
to discover if there was in these things
any real good which might
satisfy
men’s cravings, and be a
worthy object for them to
pursue all the days of their life.
An Experiment: Riotous Mirth (vs.
1-3)
Solomon had found that wisdom and knowledge are not the
means by
which the search after happiness is brought to a successful
issue. He then
resolved to try if indulgence in sensual delights would yield any
lasting
satisfaction. This, as he saw, was a course on which many entered, who
like him desired
happiness, and he would discover for himself whether or
not they were any
nearer the goal than he was. And so he resolved to enjoy
pleasure — “to give his heart to wine,” and “to
lay hold of folly.” Like the
rich man in the parable, who said to his soul, “Soul, thou hast much goods
laid up for many years; take thine
ease, eat, drink and be merry” (Luke
12:16-21),
so
did he address his heart, “Come, I will prove thee with mirth.”
He had tried
wisdom, and found it fruitless for his purpose, and now would try
folly. He
lays aside the
character and pursuits of a student, and enters the company
of fools, to join in their revelry and mirth. The conviction that his learning
was
useless, either to satisfy his own cravings or to remedy the evils that
exist in the world, made it easy for him to cast away, for a
time at any rate,
the
intellectual employments in which he had engaged, and
to live as others
do who give themselves up to sensual pleasures. Wearied of the toil of
thought, sickened of its illusions and of its fruitlessness, he
would find
tranquility and health of mind in frivolous gaiety and mirth. This was
not an
attempt to stifle his cravings after the highest good, for he
deliberately
determined to analyze his experience at every point, in order to
discover
whether any permanent gain resulted from his search in this new
quarter. “I
sought,” he says, “in
mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting
mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might
see what was
that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the
heaven all
the days
of their life.” For the sake of others
as well as for himself, he
would try this pathway and see whither it would lead. But the
experiment
failed. In a very short time he discovered that vanity was here
too. The
laughter of fools was, as he says elsewhere (ch.
7:6), like the
crackling of burning thorns; the blaze lasted but for a moment, and
the
gloom that followed was but the deeper and more enduring. Where the fire
of
jovial revelry and boisterous mirth had been, there remained but cold,
gray ashes. The mood of reckless enjoyment was followed by that of
cynical satiety and bitter disappointment. He said of laughter, “It
is mad,”
and
of mirth, “What doeth it?” In his moments of calm reflection, when he
communed with his own heart, he recognized the utter folly of his
experiment, and felt that from his own dear-bought experience he could
emphatically warn all in time
to come against seeking satisfaction FOR THE
SOUL in sensual pleasures. Not in this way can the hunger and thirst with
which the spirit of man is consumed be allayed. At most, a short
period of
oblivion can be secured, FROM WHICH THE
AWAKENING IS ALL
THE MORE TERRIBLE! The
sense of personal
responsibility, the feeling
that we are called
to seek the highest good and are doomed to unrest and
misery until we find
it, the conviction that our failures only make ultimate
success the more
doubtful, is not to be quenched by any such coarse anodyne
(drug or medicine). Various reasons may be found to explain why this kind of
experiment FAILED AND MUST
FAIL.
·
In the first place,
it consisted in AN ABUSE OF NATURAL
FACULTIES AND APPETITES. Some measure of joy and
pleasure is
needed for health of mind and body. Innocent gaiety, enjoyment of the gifts
God has bestowed upon us,
reasonable satisfaction of the appetites
implanted in us, have all a rightful place in our life. But
over-indulgence in
any one of them violates the harmony of our nature. They were
never
intended to rule us, but to be under our control and to minister to
our
happiness, and we cannot allow them to govern us WITHOUT THROWING
OUR WHOLE LIFE INTO
DISORDER!
·
In the second place,
THE
PLEASURE EXCITED IS ONLY
TRANSITORY. From the very
nature of things it cannot be kept up for
any long time by mere effort of will; the brain grows weary
and the bodily
powers become exhausted. A jest-book is proverbially very
tiresome
reading. At first it may amuse, but the attention soon begins to
flag, and
after a little the most brilliant specimen of wit can scarcely
evoke a smile.
The drunkard and the glutton
find that they can only carry the pleasures of
the table up to a certain point; after that has been reached
the bodily
organism refuses to be still further stimulated. (When I taught United
States History in high school,
of the roaring twenties and loose sexual
behavior, I remember this point:
If sex is a pleasure of a moment,
is it
any wonder that it is a “momentary pleasure.” CY -
2021)
·
In the third place,
SUCH
PLEASURE CAN ONLY BE GRATIFIED
BY SELF-DEGRADATION. It is inconsistent with the full exercise of the
intellectual faculties which distinguish man from the brute, and
destructive
of those higher and more spiritual faculties by which God is
apprehended,
served, and enjoyed. Self-indulgence in the gross pleasures of
which we are
speaking actually reduces man below the level of the beasts that
perish, for
they are preserved from such folly by the natural instincts
with which they
are endowed. (Of which
chapter 2 of II Peter is very explicit. CY - 2021)
·
In the fourth place,
THE INEVITABLE RESULT OF SUCH AN
EXPERIMENT IS A DEEPER AND MORE ENDURING GLOOM. Self-
reproach, enfeeblement of mind and body, satiety and disgust, come
on
when the mad fit is past, and, what is
still worse, the apprehension of evils
yet to come — the
knowledge that the passions excited and indulged will
refuse to die down; that they have a life and power of their own,
and will
stimulate and almost compel THEIR SLAVE to enter again on the
evil courses
which he first tried of his own free will and with a light
heart. The prospect
before him is that of bondage to habits which he
knows will yield him no
lasting pleasure, and very little of the fleeting
kind, and must involve the
enfeeblement and destruction of all his powers. Mirth and laughter and
wine did not banish Solomon’s melancholy; but after the
feverish
excitement they produced had passed away, they left him in a deeper
gloom than ever. “Like phosphorus
on a dead man’s lace, he felt that it was
all a trick, a lie; and like the laugh of a hyena among the
tombs, he found
that the worldling’s
frolic CAN NEVER reanimate the joys which guilt has
slain and buried.” “I
said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth
it?’
The well-known story of the
melancholy patient being advised by a doctor
to go and see Grimaldi, and
answering, “I am Grimaldi,” and that of
George Fox being recommended by
a minister whom he consulted to dispel
the anxieties which his spiritual fears and doubts and
aspirations had
excited within him, by “drinking beer and dancing with the girls”
(Carlyle,
‘Sartor Resartus,’
3:1), may be used to illustrate the teaching of our
text.
Some stanzas, too, of Byron’s last
poem give a pathetic expression to the
feelings of satiety and disappointment which are THE RETRIBUTION
OF SENSUALITY!
“My days
are in the yellow leaf;
The
flowers and fruits of love are gone;
The worm,
the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone!
“The fire that
on my bosom preys
Is lone as some volcanic isle;
No torch
is kindled at its blaze —
A funeral pile.
“The hope,
the fear, the jealous care,
The
exalted portion of the pain
And power
of love I cannot share,
But wear
the chain.”
The chains of habit are too light to be
felt until they are too strong to be broken!”
(I
saw this somewhere once upon a time but it is true for the ages! CY - 2021)
4 “I made
me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me
vineyards:”
This commences a new experience in the pursuit of his
object.
Leaving this life of self-indulgence, he takes to art and culture, the details
being drawn from the accounts of the historical Solomon. I made me
great works; literally, I made great my works; Septuagint, Ἐμεγάλυνα ποίημά μου
- Emegaluna poiaema mou) - Vulgate, Magnificavi opera mea.
Among these works the temple,
with all its wonderful structural preparations,
is
not specially mentioned, perhaps because no
one could think of Solomon
without connecting his name with this magnificent building, and it
was
superfluous to call attention to it; or else because the religious
aspect of his
operations is not here in question, but only his taste and pursuit of
beauty. I
builded me houses. Solomon had a passion for erecting
magnificent
buildings. We have various accounts of his works of this nature in I
Kings
7. and 9.; II Chronicles 8. There
was the huge palace for himself, which
occupied thirteen years in building; there was the “house of the forest of
pillars; the hall of judgment; the harem for the daughter
of Pharaoh. Then
there were fortresses, store-cities, chariot-towns,
national works of great
importance; cities in distant lands which he founded, such
as Tadmor in the
wilderness. I
planted me vineyards. David
had vineyards and olive yards
(I Chronicles 27:27-28), which passed into the possession
of his son;
and we read in Song of Solomon 8:11 of a vineyard that
Solomon had
in Baal-hamon, which some
identify with Belamon (Judith 8:3), a place
near Shunem, in the
Another Experiment: Refined
Voluptuousness (luxury and sensual behavior)
(v. 4)
Riotous mirth having failed miserably to give him the
settled happiness
after which he sought, our author records another and more
promising
experiment which he made, the search for happiness in a life of
culture —
“the pursuit of beauty and
magnificence in art.” More promising it was,
because it brought into play higher and purer emotions than those
to which
ordinary sensuality appeals; it cultivated the side of the nature
which
adjoins, and almost merges into, the spiritual. The Law of Moses,
forbidding as it did the making of images or representations of
natural
objects or of living creatures for purposes of worship, had
prevented much
advance being made in sculpture and painting; but there were still
extensive
fields of artistic development left for cultivation. Architecture
and
gardening afforded abundant scope for the exhibition and
gratification of a
refined taste. And so Solomon built splendid palaces, and planted
vineyards, and laid out parks and gardens, and filled them with the
choicest
fruit trees, and dug pools for the irrigation of his plantations
in the time of
summer drought. Nothing was omitted that could minister to his
sense of
the
beautiful, or that could enhance his splendor and dignity. A large
household, great flocks of cattle, heaps of silver and gold,
precious
treasures from distant lands, the pleasures of music and of the
harem are all
enumerated as being procured by his wealth and power, and employed
for
his
gratification. All that the eye could rest on with delight, all that the
heart could desire, was brought within his reach. And all the
time wisdom
was
with him, guiding him in the pursuit of pleasure, and not abandoning
him
in the enjoyment of it. Nothing occurred to prevent the experiment
being carried through to the very end. The delights he
enumerates were in
themselves lawful, and therefore were indulged in without any uneasy
sensation of transgressing against the Law of God or the dictates of
conscience. Nay, the very fact that he had a moral end in view when
he
began the experiment seemed to give a high sanction to it. He
was not
interrupted by the intrusion of other thoughts and cares. No foreign
enemy
disturbed his peace; sickness did not incapacitate him; his wealth
was not
exhausted by the large demands made upon it for the support of his
magnificence and luxury. And so he went to the utmost bounds of refined
enjoyment, and found much that for a time amply rewarded him for the
efforts he put forth. “My heart,” he says, “rejoiced
in all my labor” (v.10).
His busy mind was kept occupied; his senses were charmed by
the
beauty and richness of the treasures he had gathered together,
and of the
great works which gave such abundant evidence of his taste and
wealth.
His experiment was not quite fruitless, therefore. Present
gratification he
found in the course of his labors; but when they were completed,
the
pleasure they had yielded passed away. The charm of novelty was
gone.
Possession did not yield the joy and delight which
acquisition had done.
When the palaces were finished, the gardens planted, the
gems and rarities
accumulated, the luxurious household established, and nothing left to
do
but
to rest in the happiness that these things had been expected to secure,
the
sense of defeat and disappointment again fell upon the king. “Then I
looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the
labor that I
had
labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and
there was no profit under the sun.” He does not try to explain the cause of
his
failure, but simply records the fact that he did fail. “He does not
moralize, still less preach; he just paints the picture of his soul’s sad
wanderings, of the baffled effort of a human heart, and passes on.” But we
may
find it highly profitable to inquire what were the causes why the life of
culture — which, without harshness, may be called a refined
voluptuousness — fails to give
satisfaction to the human soul.
·
In the first place,
IT IS A LIFE OF ISOLATION FROM GOD.
As
Solomon represents the course he
followed, we see that the thought of
God was excluded
from his mind. The Divine gifts were
enjoyed, the love
of the beautiful which is implanted in the soul of man was
gratified, every
exquisite sensation of which we are capable was indulged, but the one
thing needed to sanctify the happiness obtained and render it
perfect WAS
OMITTED. “God,” says
cannot rest until we rest in
Him.” Emotions of gratitude, adoration,
humility, and self-consecration to His service cannot be suppressed
without
great loss — the loss even of that security and tranquility of spirit which
are essential to true happiness. All the resources upon which Solomon
drew may furnish helps to happiness, but none of them, nor
all of them
together, could, apart from God, secure it. Compare with the failure of
Solomon the success of those who
have often, in circumstances of extreme
discomfort and suffering, enjoyed the peace of God that passeth
all
understanding. (Philippians
4:7) The
sixty-third psalm, written by David
in the time of exile and hardship, illustrates the truth that
in communion with
God the soul enjoys a happiness
which cannot be found elsewhere. “A man’s life
does not consist in the abundance of the things
which he possesseth.”
(Luke 12:15) Apart from the favor of God and
the service of God, the richest
possessions and the most skilful employment of them can secure no lasting
satisfaction. For we are so
constituted as creatures that our life is not complete
IF WE ARE SEVERED FROM OUR
CREATOR!
·
In the second place,
IT IS A SELFISH LIFE. All that Solomon
describes are his efforts to secure certain durable results for
himself; to
indulge his love for the beautiful in nature and art, and to
surround himself
with luxury and splendor. He
would have been more successful in his
search for happiness if he had endeavored to relieve the wants of
others —
to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to comfort the
afflicted, and to
instruct the ignorant. Self-denial and
self-sacrifice for the sake of others
would have brought him nearer the gem of his desire. The penalty
of his
selfish pursuit fell heavily upon him. He could not live at a
height above
mankind, in the enjoyment of his own felicity, for long; “the
riddle of the
painful earth” filled him with thoughts of self-loathing and
despair, which
shattered all his happiness. Do what he might, old age, disease, and
death
were foes he could not conquer, and
all about him in human society he
could discern moral evils and inequalities which he could not
set right nor
even explain. Such
selfish isolation as that into which for a time he had
withdrawn himself failed to secure the object he had in view, for he
could
not really dissever his lot from that of his fellows, or
escape the evils which
afflicted them. The idea of
a life of luxurious ease, undisturbed by the sight
or thought of the miseries and hardships of life, was a vain
dream, from
which he soon awoke. In his poem, ‘The Palace of Art,’ Tennyson
has
given a most luminous and suggestive commentary upon this
portion of the
Book of
Ecclesiastes. In it he represents the
soul as seeking forgiveness for
the sin of selfish isolation by penitence, prayer, and
self-renunciation, and
as anticipating a resumption of all the joys of culture and
art in
companionship with others. In communion with God, in fellowship with
others, all things that are noble and pure and lovely are taken
into holy
keeping, and form a lasting source
of joy and happiness.
5 “I made
me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all
kind of fruits:” I made me gardens
and orchards. Solomon’s love of
gardens
appears throughout the Canticles (Song of Solomon 6:2,
etc.). He had
a king’s garden on the slope of the hills south of the city
(II Kings
25:4); and Beth-hacchemm, “the
House of the Vine,” at Ain Karim,
about
six miles east of
extensive vineyard (Song of Solomon 8:11). The word
rendered
“orchard” (parder) occurs
also in Song of Solomon 4:13 and
Nehemiah 2:8. It is a Persian word, and passed into the
Greek form
παράδειος – paradeios) (Xenophon, ‘Anab.,’ 1:2.7),
meaning “a park”
planted with forest and
fruit trees, and containing herds of animals. It is
probably derived from the Zend oairidaeza,” an
enclosure.” (For the trees in
such parks, see Song of Solomon 4:13-14; and for an estimate of Solomon’s
works, Josephus, ‘
6 “I made
me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that
bringeth forth trees:” Pools of water. Great care was exercised by Solomon
to provide his capital with water, and vast operations were
undertaken for this
purpose. “The king’s
pool,” mentioned in Nehemiah 2:14, may have
been constructed by him (Josephus, ‘
celebrated work ascribed to him is the water-supply at Etham, southwest
of
modern travelers have described these pools. They are three
in number,
and, according to Robinson’s measurement, are of immense
size. The first,
to the east, is 582 feet long, 207 wide, and 50 deep; the
second, 432 by
250, and 39 feet deep; the third, 380 by 236, and 25 feet
deep. They are all,
however, narrower at the upper end, and widen out
gradually, flowing one
into the other. There is a copious spring led into the
uppermost pool from
the north-east, but this supply is augmented by other
sources now choked
and ruined. The water from the pools was conveyed round the
ridge on
which
Land and the Book,’ p. 326) says, “Near that city it was
carried along the
west side of the
Pool of Gihon, where it crossed
to the east side, and, winding round the
southern declivity of
corner of the temple area, where the water was employed in
the
various services of the sanctuary.” Etham
is, with good reason, identified
with the beautiful
the immediate neighborhood of the pools of Solomon. The
fountain near
the present village watered the gardens and orchards which
were planted
here, the terraced hills around were covered with vines,
figs, and olives,
and the prospect must have been delightful and refreshing
in that thirsty
land. To water
therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees; Revised
Version, to water therefrom
the forest where trees were reared; literally, in
order to irrigate a wood sprouting forth trees; i.e. a nursery of saplings. So
we read how the Garden of Eden was watered (Genesis 2:10;
13:10)
— a most necessary feature in Eastern countries, where
streams and pools
are not constructed for picturesque reasons, but for
material uses.
7 “I got
me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house;
also I had great possessions of great and
small cattle above all that
were in
and maidens. These
are distinct from those mentioned immediately afterwards,
servants born in my house; Septuagint, οἰκογενεῖς – oikogeneis called in the
Hebrew, “sons of the
house” (Genesis 15:3). They were much more esteemed by
their masters, and showed
a much closer attachment to the family than the
bought slaves or the conquered aboriginals, who were often
reduced to this
state (I Kings
9:20-21). The number of Solomon’s attendants excited
the wonder of the Queen of Sheba (I Kings 4:26, etc.;
10:5), and with
good reason, if Josephus’s account is to be believed. This
writer asserts
that the king had some thousand or more chariots, and
twenty thousand
horses. The drivers and riders were young men of comely
aspect, tall and
well-made; they had long flowing hair, and wore tunics of Tyrian purple,
and powdered their hair with gold dust, which glittered in
the rays of the
sun (‘
to betake himself to his “paradise” at Etham,
to enjoy the refreshing
coolness of its trees and pools. Great and small cattle; oxen and sheep.
The enormous amount of Solomon’s herds and flocks is proved
by the
extraordinary multitude of the sacrifices at the
consecration of the temple
(I Kings 8:63), and the lavish provision made daily for the
wants of his
table (Ibid. ch.4:22-23). The cattle of David were very
numerous, and
required special overlookers (I
Chronicles 27:29-31). Job (Job 1:3)
had, before his troubles, seven thousand sheep, three
thousand camels, five
hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and these
items were all
doubled at the return of his prosperity (Job
42:12-17). Among Solomon’s
possessions, horses are not here mentioned, though they
formed no
inconsiderable portion of his live stock, and added greatly
to his magnificence.
Koheleth, perhaps, avoided boasting of this extravagance in
consideration of
the religious sentiment which was strongly opposed to such
a feature. That
were in
may not necessarily be to kings, but to chieftains and rich
men, who were
celebrated for the extent of their possessions.
8 “I
gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and
of the provinces: I gat me men singers and
women singers, and the delights
of the sons of men, as musical instruments,
and that of all sorts.”
I gathered me also
silver and gold. Much is said of the
wealth
of the historical Solomon, who had all his vessels of gold,
armed his bodyguard
with golden shields, sat on an ivory throne overlaid with
gold, received tribute and
presents of gold from all quarters, sent his navies to
distant lands to import precious
metals, and made silver as common in
II Chronicles 1:15; 9:20-27). The peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces.
The word rendered “the
provinces” (hammedinoth), in spite of the
article,
seems to mean, not the twelve districts into which Solomon
divided his
kingdom for fiscal and economical purposes (I Kings 4:7,
etc.), but
countries generally exterior to
political relations, and which sent to him the productions
for which they
were each most celebrated. So the districts of the
required to furnish the monarch with a certain portion of
their chief
commodities. His friendship with Hiram of Tyre brought him into
connection with the Phoenicians, the greatest commercial
nation of
antiquity, and through them he accumulated riches and
stores from distant
and various lands beyond the limits of the
מְדִינָה (medinah) occurs again in
ch. 5:7 and in I Kings 20:14, etc.; but is
found elsewhere only in exilian
or post-exilian books (e.g. Lamentations 1:1;
Esther 1:1; Daniel 2:48, etc.). The “kings” may be the tributary monarchs, such
as those of
imply simply such treasure as only kings, and not private
persons, could possess.
Men singers and women
singers. These, of course, are not the choir of the
temple, of which women formed no part, but musicians
introduced at
banquets and social festivals, to enhance the pleasures of
the scene. They
are mentioned in David’s days (II Samuel 19:35) and later
(see Isaiah 5:12;
Amos 6:5. The females
who took part in these performances were generally of an
abandoned class; hence the,
warning of Ben-Sira, “Use not much the company of
a woman that is
a singer, lest thou be taken with her attempts” (Ecclesiasticus. 9:4).
Such exhibitions were usually accompanied with dancing, the
character of which in
Eastern countries is well known. The Jews, as time went on,
learned to tolerate
many customs and practices, imported often from other
lands, which
tended to lower morality and self-respect. And the delights of the sons of
men; the sensual pleasures that men enjoy. The expression is euphemistic
(compare Song of Solomon 7:6). Musical instruments, and that of all
sorts (shiddah veshiddoth). The word (given here first in the singular
number and then in the plural emphatically to express
multitude) occurs
nowhere else, and has, therefore, been subjected to various
interpretations.
The Septuagint gives, οἰνοχόον καὶ οἰνοχόας - oinochoon kai oinochoas
–
male and female
singers
and so the Syrian and. Vulgate, Scyphos
et urceos in
ministerio ad vina fundenda
— which introduces rather a bathos into
the
description. After the clause immediately preceding, one
might expect
mention of Solomon’s numerous harem (I Kings 11:3; Song of
Solomon 6:8),
and most modern commentators consider the word to mean
“concubine,” the
whole expression denoting multiplicity, “wife and wives.”
The Authorized Version is not very probable, has, σύστημα καὶ συστήματα
-–
sustaema kai sustaemata - a musical term signifying “combination of tones,” or
harmony. Other interpretations are “captives,” “litters,” “coaches,” “baths,”
“treasures,”
“chests,” “demons.” Connecting the two clauses together, we
should render, “And
in a word, all the delights of the sons of men in abundance.”
This seems a more appropriate
termination to the catalogue than any specification
of further sources
of pleasure; but there is no very strong etymological reason to
recommend it; and we can hardly suppose that, in the enumeration
of
Solomon’s prodigalities, his multitudinous seraglio would be
omitted.
Rather it comes in here naturally as the climax and
completion of his
pursuit of earthly delight.
9 “So I
was great, and increased more than all that were before me in
ch.1:16). This refers to the magnificence and extent of his
possessions and luxury,
as the former
passage to the surpassing excellence of his
wisdom. We may compare
the mention of Abraham (Genesis 26:13), “The man waxed great, and grew
more and more until
he became very great” (compare Job 1:3). Also my
wisdom remained
with me; perseveravit
mecum (Vulgate); ἐστάθη μοι –
estathae moi – my wisdom remained with me - (Septuagint). In accordance
with the purpose mentioned in v. 3, he retained
command of himself, studying
philosophically the effects and nature of the pleasures of which he
partook, and
keeping ever in view the object of his pursuit. Voluptuousness was
not the end
which he sought, but one of the means to obtain the end; and
what he
calls his
wisdom is not pure Divine wisdom that comes from above, but an earthly
prudence and self-restraint.
10 “And
whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld
not my heart from any joy; for my heart
rejoiced in all my labor:
and this was my portion of all my labor.” Whatsoever mine eyes desired.
The lust of the eyes (I John 2:16), all that he saw and desired, he took
measures
to obtain. He
denied himself no gratification, however foolish
(v. 3). For my heart
rejoiced in all my
labor; i.e.
found joy in what my labor procured for it
(compare Proverbs 5:18). This was the reason why he withheld not his
heart from any joy; kept it, as it were, ready to taste any pleasure which
his exertions might obtain. This was my portion of all my labor. Such joy
was that which he won from his labor, he had his reward,
such as it was
(Matthew 6:2; Luke 16:25). This term “portion” (cheleq) recurs
often (e.g. v. 21; ch.3:22; 5:18) in the
sense of the result obtained by labor
or conduct. And what a
meager and unsatisfying result it was which
he gained! Contrast the
apostle’s teaching, “All that is in
the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the
Father, but is of the world. And the
world
passeth away,
and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever”
(I John 2:16-17).
11 “Then I
looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on
the labor that I had labored to do: and,
behold, all was vanity and
vexation of spirit, and there was no profit
under the sun.” Then I looked on –
I turned to
contemplate — all the works which my hands had wrought.
He examined carefully the effects of the conduct and proceedings mentioned in
vs. 1-10, and he now gives his matured
judgment concerning them. They had
contributed nothing to his anxious inquiry for man’s real
good. His
sorrowful conclusion again is that all was vanity,
a hunting of wind; in all the
pursuits and labors that men undertake there is no real profit (ch.1:3), no
lasting happiness, nothing to satisfy the cravings of the spirit.
(It
is very obvious to me that God purposefully created us this way, TO
WHERE WE CANNOT, NOR EVER WILL BE CONTENT,
WITHOUT HIM AND WITHOUT DOING HIS WILL! CERTAINLY,
HELL WILL BE INCAPABLE OF SATISFYING THIS CRAVING! –
CY – 2013)
The Vanity of Pleasure — an Experiment in
Three Stages (vs. 1-11)
stage Solomon, whether the real
or the personated king, may be viewed as
the representative of mankind in
general, who, when they cast aside the
teachings and
restraints of religion:
THOUGHT OF A
DIVINE BEING,
saying, “Enjoyment, be thou my
god;” prescribing to themselves as
the foremost task of their lives
to minister to their own gratification, and
adopting as their creed the
well-known maxim, “Let us eat and
drink;
for to-morrow we die” (I Corinthians 15:32).
Ø
The investigation was vigorously conducted. The Preacher was in
earnest, not merely
thinking in his heart, but addressing it, rather like the
rich farmer in the parable
(Luke 12:19) than like the singer in the psalm
(Psalm 16:2), and stirring
it up as the brick makers of
another: “Go to now!”
(Genesis 11:3-4). That the investigation was so
conducted by the real
Solomon may be inferred from the preserved
details of his history
(I Kings 10:5; 11:1, 3); that it has often
been so
conducted since, not
merely in fiction, as by Goethe’s ‘Faust,’ but in
actual life, as by
‘Abelard and Heloise’ in the eleventh century, admits
of demonstration; that it is being at present so conducted by many
whose principal aim
in life is not to obey the soul’s noblest
impulses, but to hamper the body’s lower
appetite, is palpable
without demonstration.
Ø
The result has been clearly recorded. The Preacher found the way of
pleasure as little fitted
to conduct to felicity as that of wisdom; discovered,
in fact, that laughter occasioned by indulgence in sensual delights
was only A SPECIES
OF INSANITY, a kind of delirious
intoxication which
stupefied the reason
and overthrew the
judgment, if it did not lead to SELF-DESTRUCTION,
and that no solid happiness ever came out of it, but only VANITY
and STRIVING AFTER WIND. So has EVERY
ONE who has
sought his chief good in
such
enjoyment found. They who live in pleasure
are dead
while they live (I
Timothy 5:6) — dead to all the soul’s higher
aspirations; are
self-deceived (Titus 3:3); and will in the
end have A
RUDE AWAKENING, when they find that THEIR SHORT-
LIVED PLEASURES (Hebrews 11:25) have
only been
NOURISHING THEM
FOR SLAUGHTER! (James 5:5).
second stage of the experiment,
neither Solomon nor the Preacher (if he
was different) stood alone. The
path on which the ancient investigator now
depicts himself as entering had
been and still is:
Ø
Much traveled. The number of those who abandon themselves to wine
and wassail, drunkenness
and dissipation, chambering and wantonness,
may not be so great as that
of those who join in the pursuit of pleasure,
many of whom would disdain
to partake of the intoxicating cup; but still
it is sufficiently large to
justify the epithet employed.
Ø
Appallingly fatal. Apart altogether from the rightness or the
wrongness of total
abstinence, which the Preacher is not commending
or even thinking of, this
much is evident, that no one need hope to
secure true happiness by surrendering himself
without restraint to
the appetite of
intemperance. Nor is the issue different when the
experiment is conducted
with moderation, i.e. without losing one’s
self-control, or abandoning
the search for wisdom. Solomon and
the Preacher found that the result was, as before VANITY and
A STRIVING AFTER THE
WIND.
Ø
Perfectly avoidable. One requires not to tread in this way in order to
perceive whither it leads.
One has only to observe the experiment, as
others are unfortunately
conducting it (“Surely in vain the net is
spread in the sight of any bird” (Proverbs
1:17), to discern
that its goal is not
felicity.
·
THE WAY OF CULTURE AND REFINEMENT. (vs. 4-11.) In
the third stage of this experiment
the picture is drawn from the experiences
of Solomon — whether by Solomon
himself or by the Preacher is
immaterial, so far as didactic
purposes are concerned. Solomon is
introduced as telling his own
story.
Ø
His magnificence had been most resplendent.
o
His works were
great. He had prepared for himself
buildings
of architectural beauty,
such as “the house of the
the palace intended
for himself and the daughter of
Pharaoh” (I Kings
7:1-12); he had strengthened his
kingdom by the erection of
such towns as Tadmor in the
wilderness, the
store-cities of Hamath and Baalath,
with
the two fortresses of
Beth-heron the Upper and Beth-heron
the Nether (II Chronicles
8:3-6); he had planted vineyards,
of which Baal-hamon, with its choicest wine, was one
(Song of Solomon 8:11), and
perhaps those of Engedi
(Ibid. ch.1:14) others; he
had caused to be constructed,
no doubt in connection with
his palaces, gardens and
orchards, with all kinds of
fruit trees, and “pools of water
to water therefrom the forest
where trees were
reared” (Ibid.
ch.4:13; 6:2).
o
His possessions
were varied. In addition to those
above
mentioned, he had slaves,
male and female, purchased with
money (Genesis 37:28), and
born in his house (Ibid. ch.15:3;
17:12), with great
possessions of flocks and herds. The number
of the former was so large
as to excite the Queen of Sheba’s
astonishment (I Kings
10:5), while the abundance of
the latter was proved both
by the daily provision for Solomon’s
household (Ibid.
ch.4:22-23), and by the hecatombs sacrificed
at the consecration of the
temple (Ibid. 8:63).
o
His wealth was
enormous. Of silver and gold, and the
peculiar treasure of the
kings and of the provinces, he had
amassed a heap. The ships
of Hiram had fetched him from
Ophir four hundred and twenty talents of gold (I Kings 9:28);
the Queen of Sheba
presented him with one hundred
and twenty talents of gold
(Ibid. ch.10:10); the weight of
gold which came to him in
one year was six hundred and
sixty-six talents (Ibid.
v.14); while as for silver “the king
made it to be in
“The peculiar treasure of
kings and of the provinces”
may either signify such rare
and precious jewels as were
prized by foreign
sovereigns and states and presented to
him as tribute; or describe
Solomon’s wealth as royal and
public, in
contradistinction from that of private citizens.
o
His pleasures were
delicious. He had singing-men and
singing-women to regale his jaded senses with music
at court banquets, after the manner of Oriental sovereigns;
while over and above he had
“the delights of the sons
of men,” or “concubines very many “ — “a love and loves”
“mistress and mistresses” Clearly Solomon had conducted
the experiment of extracting happiness from worldly glory
under the most favorable
circumstances; hence special interest
attaches to the result he
obtained. What was it?
Ø
His misery was most pronounced. Although he had
had every
gratification that eye could desire, heart wish, or hand
procure,
he had found to
his chagrin THAT TRUE HAPPINESS
ELUDED HIM LIKE
A PHANTOM; that all was VANITY
and A STRIVING AFTER THE WIND; that, in fact, there
was NO PROFIT OF A LASTING KIND TO BE
DERIVED
FROM PLEASURE in its highest any
more than in its lowest forms.
Ø
The way of pleasure,
however inviting, is not the way of safety or the
way of peace.
Ø
While it cannot
impart happiness to any, it may lead to
EVERLASTING MISERY
AND SHAME!
Ø
The pursuit of pleasure is not only incompatible
with religion,
but even at
the best its sweets are not to be compared with
GOD’S CHOICEST
BLESSINGS AND JOYS!
The Vanity of Wealth, Pleasure, and
Greatness (vs. 1-11)
There is certainly a strange reversal here of the order of
experience which
is usual and expected. Men,
disappointed with earthly possessions and
satiated with sensual pleasures, sometimes turn to the pursuit of some
engrossing study, to the cultivation of intellectual
tastes, But the case
described in the text is different. Here we have a man,
convinced by
experience of the futility and disappointing character of
scientific and
literary pursuits, applying himself to the world, and seeking
satisfaction in
its pleasures
and distractions. Such experience as is
here described is
possible only to one in a station of eminence; and if
Solomon is depicted as
disappointed with the result of his experiment, there is no
great
encouragement for others, less favorably situated, to hope
for better results
from similar endeavors.
(If a man robs a bank and gets put in jail for thirty
years, why should I attempt the same and expect different
results? – CY – 2013)
and life can derive from the
gifts and enjoyments of this world. Man’s
nature is impulsive,
acquisitive, yearning, aspiring. He is ever seeking
satisfaction for his wants and
desires. He turns now hither and now thither,
seeking in every direction that
which he never finds in anything earthly, in
anything termed “real.”
satisfaction be found? The world
presents itself in answer to this question,
and invites its votary to
acquisition and appropriation of its gifts. This
passage in Ecclesiastes offers a
remarkable and exhaustive catalogue of the
emoluments and
pleasures, the interests and occupations, with which
the world PRETENDS
TO SATISFY the yearning spirit of man.
There are enumerated:
Ø
Bodily pleasure,
especially the pleasure of abundance of choice wine.
Ø
Feminine society,
Ø
Riches, consisting
of silver and gold, of flocks and herds.
Ø
Great works, as
palaces, parks, etc.
Ø
Household
magnificence.
Ø
Treasures of art, and
especially musical entertainments.
Ø
Study and wisdom,
associated with all diversions and distractions
of every kind.
It seems scarcely credible that
one man could be the possessor of so many
means of enjoyment, and it is
not to be wondered at that “Solomon in
all
his glory” should be
mentioned as the most amazing example of this
world’s greatness and delights.
It needed a many-sided nature to appreciate
so vast a variety of possessions
and occupations; the largeness of heart
which is ascribed to the Hebrew
monarch must have found abundant scope
in the palaces of
so just a view of
human nature, should record a
position so exalted and
opulent and a career so splendid as those of Solomon.
THE USE OF THE MEANS DESCRIBED.
Ø
All such
gratifications as are here enumerated are in
themselves
insufficient to
satisfy man’s spiritual nature. There
is a
disproportion between the soul
of man and the pleasures of sense
and the gifts of fortune.
Even could the wealth and luxury, the delights
and splendor, of an
Oriental monarch be enjoyed, the result would
not be the satisfaction
expected. There would still be “the ACHING
VOID the world can
never fill.”
Ø
It must also be
remembered that, by a law of our constitution, even
pleasure is not best
obtained when consciously and deliberately
sought. (For example, one
can get sick by eating too much ice
cream. – CY – 2013)
To seek pleasure is to miss it, whilst it
often comes unsought in the
path of ordinary duty. (One chases
a butterfly and never can
catch it, but by sitting still, it will come
and light on your
nose. – CY – 2013)
Ø
When regarded as the
supreme good, worldly possessions
and
enjoyments may HIDE
GOD FROM THE SOUL! They obscure
the shining of the Divine
countenance, as the clouds conceal the sun
that shines behind
them. (“In whom the god of this world
hath
blinded the minds
of them which believe not, lest THE LIGHT
OF THE GLORIOUS
GOSPEL OF CHRIST, WHO IS THE
IMAGE OF GOD,
SHOULD SHINE UNTO THEM.”
(II Corinthians 4:4)
The works of God’s hand sometimes absorb
the interest and attention
which are due to their Creator; the bounty
and beneficence of the
Giver are sometimes lost sight of by those
who partake of His
gifts. (“worship and served the creature
[creation] more
than the Creator” (Romans 1:25)
Ø
The good things of
earth may legitimately be accepted and enjoyed
when received as God’s gifts,
and held submissively and gratefully
“with a light hand.” (“But seek ye first the
and His
righteousness; and ALL THESE THINGS shall
be added to
thee” - Matthew 6:33). (“Every
good gift and
every perfect gift
is from above, and cometh down from the
Father of lights,
with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning”
- James 1:17) (“For the Lord is a
sun and
shield: the Lord will give grace and
glory:
no good thing will
He withhold from them that WALK
UPRIGHTLY” - Psalm 84:11)
Ø
Earth’s enjoyments
may be a true blessing if, failing to satisfy the soul,
they induce the
soul to turn from them TO THE LIVING GOD,
in whose favor is life! (Psalm 30:5)
The
Trial of Pleasure (vs. 1-11)
We have to consider:
·
THE CONSTANT QUESTION OF THE HUMAN HEART. In what
shall we find the good which will make our life precious to us? What is
there that will meet the cravings of the human
heart, and cover our whole
life with the sunshine of success and of
contentment?
·
A VERY NATURAL RESORT.
We have recourse to some kind of
excitement. It may be that:
Ø
which acts upon the senses (vs. 3, 8).
Ø
that which gratifies the
mind; the sense of possession and of power
(vs. 7-9). Or
Ø
it may be found in agreeable and inviting activities (vs.
4-6).
·
ITS TEMPORARY SUCCESS.
“My
heart rejoiced” (v. 10). It
would be simply false to contend that there is no delight, no
satisfaction, in
these sources of good. There is, for a while. There is a space
during which
they fill the heart as the wine fills the cup into which it is
poured. The
heart
rejoices; it utters its joy in song; it declares
itself to be completely happy.
It “sits in the sun;” it rolls
the sweet morsel between its teeth. It flatters itself
that it has found its fortune, while the angels of God weep
over its present
folly and its coming doom.
·
ITS ACTUAL AND UTTER INSUFFICIENCY. (v. 11.) Pleasure
may be coarse and condemnable; it may go down to fleshly
gratifications
(vs. 3, 8); it may be refined and
chaste, may expend itself in designs and
executions; it may be moderated and regulated with the finest
calculation,
so as to have the largest measure spread over the longest
possible period; it
may “guide itself with wisdom” (v. 3).
But it will be a failure; it will
break down; it will end in a
dreary exclamation of “Vanity!” Three things
condemn it as a solution of the great quest after human good.
Ø
Experience. This proves, always and everywhere, that the deliberate and
systematic pursuit of pleasure fails to secure its end. Pleasure is
not a
harvest, to be diligently sown and reaped; it is a plant that
grows,
unsought and uncultivated, all along the path of duty and of
service. To
seek it and to labor for it is to miss it. All human experience
shows that it
soon palls upon the taste, that it fades fast in the hands of
its devotee; that
there is no company of men so utterly weary and so wretched as the
tired
hunters after pleasurable excitement.
Ø
Philosophy. This teaches us that a being made for something so much
higher than pleasure can never be satisfied with anything so low;
surely
we cannot expect that the heart which is capable of worship,
of service,
of holy love, of heroic consecration, of spiritual nobility,
will be filled
and satisfied with “the delights of
the sons of men.”
Ø
Religion. For this introduces the sovereign claims of the Supreme
One;
it places man in the presence of God; it shows a life of
frivolity to be a
life of culpable selfishness, of sin, of shame. It summons to a purer
and a wiser search, to a
worthier and a nobler course; it promises the
peace which waits on rectitude; it offers the joy which ONLY GOD
CAN GIVE and which no man can take away.
Vanity of Wisdom
(vs. 12-26)
Section
3. Vanity of wisdom, in view of the fate that awaits the wise man
equally
with the fool, and the uncertainty of the future of his
labors, especially as man
is
not master of his own fate.
12 “And I
turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for
what can the man do that cometh after the
king? even that which
hath been already done.” And I turned myself to behold
wisdom, and
madness, and folly (ch.1:17). He studied the three in their mutual
connection and relation, comparing them in their results
and effects on
man’s nature and life, and deducing thence their real
value. On one side he
set wisdom, on the other the action, and habits which he
rightly terms
“madness and folly,” and examined them calmly and critically. For what
can the man do that
cometh after the king? even that which hath been
already done. Both the Authorized Version and Revised Version render
the passage thus, though the latter, in the margin, gives
two alternative
renderings of the second clause, viz. even him whom they
made king long
ago, and, as in the
Authorized Version margin, in those things which have
been already done. The
Septuagint, following a different reading, gives, “For
what man is there
who will follow after counsel in whatsoever things he
employed it?” Vulgate, “What is
man, said I, that he should be able to
follow the King,
his Maker?” Wright, Delitzsch,
Nowack, etc., “For
what
is the man that is
to come after the king whom they made so long ago?”
i.e. who can
have greater experience than Solomon made king in old time
amid universal acclamation (I Chronicles 29:22)? or, who
can hope to
equal his fame? — which does not seem quite suitable, as it
is the abnormal
opportunities of investigation given by his unique position
which would be
the point of the query. The Authorized Version gives a
fairly satisfactory
(and grammatically unobjectionable) meaning — What can any one effect
who tries the same
experiment as the king did? He could not do so under
more favorable
conditions, and will only repeat the same process and reach
the same result. But the passage is obscure, and every interpretation has
its
own difficulty. If the ki
with which the second portion of the passage
begins (“for what,” etc.) assigns the reason or motive of
the first portion,
shows what was the design of Koheleth
in contrasting wisdom and folly,
the rendering of the Authorized Version is not
inappropriate. Many critics
consider that Solomon is here speaking of his successor,
asking what kind
of man he will be who comes after him — the man whom some
have
already chosen? And certainly there is some ground for this
interpretation
in vs. 18-19, where the complaint is that all the king’s
greatness and
glory will be left to an unworthy successor. But this view
requires the
Solomonic authorship of the book, and makes him to refer to Rehoboam or
some illegitimate usurper. The wording of the text is too
general to admit
of this explanation; nor does it exactly suit the immediate
context, or duly
connect the two clauses of the verse. It seems best to take
the successor,
not as one who comes to the kingdom, but as one who pursues
similar
investigations, repeats Koheleth’s
experiments.
13 “Then (and) I saw that wisdom excelleth
folly, as far as light
excelleth darkness.” or, there
is profit, advantage (περίσσεια – perisseia –
excels - Septuagint, 1:3) to
wisdom over folly, as the advantage of light over
darkness. This result,
at any rate, was obtained — he learned that wisdom
had a certain value, that it was as much superior to folly,
in its effects on
men, as light is more beneficial than darkness. It is a
natural metaphor to
represent spiritual and intellectual development as light,
and mental and
moral depravity as darkness (compare Ephesians 5:8; I
Thessalonians 5:5).
14 “The
wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh
in
darkness: and I myself perceived also that
one event happeneth to
them all.”
The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh
‘in darkness. This clause is
closely connected with the preceding verse,
showing how wisdom excelleth
folly. The wise man has the eyes of his
heart or understanding enlightened (Ephesians 1:18); he
looks into the
nature of things, fixes his regard on what is most
important, sees where to
go; while the fool’s eyes are in the ends of the earth
(Proverbs 17:24);
he walks on still in darkness, stumbling as he goes, knowing
not whither
his road shall take him. And I
myself also (I even I) perceived that one
event happeneth to them all.
“Event” (mikreh); συνάντημα - sunantaema -
(Septuagint); interitus (Vulgate); not chance, but death,
the final event.
The word is translated “hap”
in Ruth 2:3, and “chance” in I Samuel
6:9; but the connection here points to a definite
termination; nor would it
be consistent with Koheleth’s religion
to refer this termination to fate or
accident. With all his experience, he could only conclude
that in one
important aspect the observed superiority of wisdom to
folly was illusory
and vain. He saw with his own eyes, and needed no
instructor to teach,
that both wise and fool must succumb to death, the
universal leveler.
Sagacity and
Stupidity (vs. 12-14)
The “wisdom” and the “folly”
of the text are perhaps best represented by
the
words “sagacity” and “stupidity.” The distinction is one of the head
rather than of the heart; of the understanding rather than of the
entire spirit.
We are invited, therefore, to consider:
·
THE WORTH OF SAGACITY.
Ø
It stands much lower
down than heavenly wisdom; that is the direct
product of the Spirit of God, and makes men blessed with a good
which
cannot be taken away. It places them above the reach of
adversity, and
makes them invulnerable to the darts of death itself (see v.
14).
Ø
It has its own
distinct advantages. “The wise man’s eyes are in his
head;” he sees whither he is going; he
does not delude himself with the
idea that he can violate all the laws of his nature with impunity. He
knows that the wages of
sin is death, that
if he sows to the flesh he
will reap corruption; he understands
that, if he would enjoy the
esteem of men and the favor of God, he must subdue his
spirit,
control his passions, regulate his life according to the standards
of truth and virtue. This sagacity of the wise will therefore:
o
save him from some of
the most shocking and fatal blunders;
o
keep him
sufficiently near to the path of virtue to be saved from the
darker excesses and more crushing sorrows of life;
o
secure for himself and
his family some measure of comfort and respect,
and place some of the purer
pleasures within his reach;
o
keep him within
hearing of the truth of God, where he is more likely
to find his way into the
assembling of yourselves together...”
(Hebrews 10:25)
·
THE PITIFULNESS OF STUPIDITY. “The fool walketh blindly.”
Ø
He has no eye to see
the fair and the beautiful around him, no heart to
appreciate the nobility that might be within him or the glories that
are
above him.
Ø
He fails to discern the real wretchedness of his present
condition
— his destitution, his condemnation, his exile.
Ø
He does not shrink
from the evil which impends. He is walking toward
the precipice, below
which is utter ruin, ETERNAL DEATH.
Truly
“the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom, and to depart from
evil, that is
understanding” (ch. 28:28)
15 “Then
said I in my heart, As it happeneth
to the fool, so it happeneth
even to me; and why was I then more wise?
Then I said in my
heart, that this also is vanity.” Then (and) said
I in my heart (ch.1:16),
As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me. He applies the
general statement of v. 14 to his own case. The end that
overtakes the
fool will ere long overtake him; and he proceeds, Why was I then more
wise? “Then” (אז), may be understood either logically, i.e.
in this case,
since such is the fate of wise and foolish; or temporally,
at the hour of
death regarded as past. He puts the question — To what end,
with what
design, has he been so excessively wise, or, as it may be,
wise overmuch
(ch. 7:16)? His wisdom has, as it
were, recoiled upon himself
— it taught him much, but not content; it made him
keen-sighted in seeing
the emptiness of human things, but it satisfied not his
cravings. Then I said
in my heart, that
this also is vanity. This similarity of fate for
philosopher and fool makes life vain and worthless; or
rather, the meaning
may be, if the superiority of wisdom over folly conduces to
no other end
than this, that superiority is a vanity. The Septuagint has
glossed the passage,
followed herein by the Syriac,
“Moreover, I spake in my heart that indeed
this is also vanity, because the fool speaks out of his
abundance” — v. 16
giving the substance of the fool’s thoughts. Vulgate, Locutusque cum
mente mea, animadverti quod hoc quoque esset vanitas.
Our Hebrew text
does not confirm this interpretation or addition.
16 “For
there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for
ever; seeing that which now is in the days
to come shall all be
forgotten. And how dieth
the wise man? as the fool.” For there is no
remembrance of the wise more than of the fool forever; Revised Version,
more emphatically, for of the wise man, even as
of the fool, there is no
remembrance forever. This, of course, is not absolutely true. There are men
whose names are history, and will endure as
long as the world lasts; but speaking
generally, oblivion is
the portion of all; posterity soon
forgets the wisdom of
one and the folly of another. Where the belief in the future life was not a
strong
and animating motive, posthumous fame exercised a potent attraction for
many minds.
To be the founder of a long line of descendants, or to leave a
record which
should be fresh in the minds of future generations, these
were objects of
intense ambition, and valued as worthy of highest
aspirations and best
efforts. But Koheleth shows the vanity of all such hopes; they are based
on sounds which experience PROVES
TO BE UNSUBSTANTIAL!
Though Solomon’s own
fame gives the lie to the statement received without
limitation, yet his reflections might well have taken this
turn, and the writer is
quite justified in putting the thought into his mouth, as
the king could not
know how subsequent ages would regard his wisdom and
attainments.
Seeing that which
now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten.
The clause has been variously translated. Septuagint,
“Forasmuch as the
coming days, even all the things, are forgotten;” Vulgate,
“And future
times shall cover all things equally with oblivion.” Modern
editors give,
“Since in the days that are to come they are all
forgotten;” “As in time past,
so in days to come, all will be forgotten.... In the days
which are coming [it
will be said by-and-by], The whole of them are long ago
forgotten.’” This
is a specimen of the uncertainty of exact interpretation,
where the intended
meaning is well ascertained. “All” (הכל) may refer either to wise and
foolish, or to the circumstances of their lives. And how dieth the wise
man? as the fool. Better taken as one
sentence, with an exclamation, How
doth the wise man die with (even as) the fool! (For “with” (ira),
equivalent
to “as,” compare 7:11; Job 9:26; Psalm 106:6.) “How” (אֵידּ) is sarcastic, as
Isaiah 14:4, or sorrowful, as II Samuel 1:19. The same
complaint falls from a
psalmist’s lips, “He seeth that wise men die; the fool and the brutish together
perish” (Psalm 49:10). So David
laments the death of the murdered leader,
“Should Abner die as a fool dieth?” (II Samuel 3:33). Plumptre
considers that
the author of the Book of Wisdom
expands this view with the design of exposing
its fallacy, and introducing a
better hope (vs.1-9). But that writer
would not have designated Solomon’s sentiments as those
of (ἀσεβεῖς – asebeis –
the ungodly), nor foisted these
utterances of sensualists and materialists upon
so honored a source. At the same time, it is only as being
victims, nil
miserantis Opel, the prey of the pitiless and indiscriminating grave, that
the
wise and foolish are placed in the same category. There is
the widest
difference between the death-beds of the two, as the
experience of any one
who has watched them will testify, the one happy with the consciousness of
duty done honestly, however imperfectly, and bright with the hope of
immortality; the other darkened by vain regrets and shrinking despair,
or
listless in brutish insensibility.
Wisdom
and Folly (vs. 12-16)
·
FOLLY AS GOOD AS WISDOM.
Three things seemed to proclaim
this:
Ø
The chances of life. These appeared to be as favorable to the fool as to
the wise man. The experiences of both were much alike; the lot
of each
little different. “I perceived,” said he, “that
one event happeneth to them
all’ (v. 14). “As
it happeneth to the fool, so will it happen even to me;
and why was I then more wise?” (v. 15). This observation
apparently had
struck him with much force, as he refers to it more than once
(ch.
8:14; 9:2). It was not an original observation, as long
before Job had remarked upon the seeming indifference with which
providential allotments were made to the righteous and the wicked (Job
9:22; 21:7). Nevertheless, it
was and is a true observation that, so far as
purely external circumstances are concerned, it may be doubtful
if the
wise man fares better than the fool.
Ø
The onrush of oblivion. With pitiless maw this devours the wise and the
fool alike (v. 16). If the human heart craves after one thing
more than
another, it is an assurance that name and memory shall not quite
perish
from the earth when one himself is gone. Such as are
indifferent to a
personal immortality beyond the grave in a realm of
heavenly felicity,
are often found to be supremely desirous of this lesser
immortality
which men call posthumous fame.
For this the Egyptian Pharaohs
erected pyramids, temples, mausoleums; for this men strive to set
themselves on pinnacles of power, fame, wealth, or wisdom before
they die; yet the number of those who are remembered many weeks
beyond the circle of their immediate friends is small. Even of the
so-called great who have flourished upon the earth, how few are
rescued from oblivion!
“Their
memory and their name are gone,
Alike unknowing and unknown.”
Who beyond a few scholars knows
anything of the Pharaohs who built
the pyramids, or of Assurbanipal,
the patron of learning in
of Homer, of Socrates, or of Plato? If one thinks of it, the
amount
of remembrance accorded to almost all the leaders of mankind
consists in this — that their names will be found in dictionaries.
Ø
The descent of death. The wise man might have derived consolation
from the fact, — had it been a fact — that though after death
his fate
would be hardly distinguishable from that of the fool,
nevertheless before
and at death, or in the manner of dying, there would be a wide
distinction.
But even this poor scrap of
comfort is denied him, according to the
Preacher. “How doth the wise man die? as the fool!” (v. 16). To
appearance, at least, it is so, because in reality a difference wide
asunder
as the poles separates the dying of him who is driven away in
his
wickedness, and him who has hope in his death” (Proverbs 14:32). But
contemplating death from the outside, as a purely natural phenomenon,
it is the same exactly in the experience of the wise man as
in that of
the fool. In both the process culminates in the loosening of
the silver
cord and the breaking of the golden bowl (ch.
12:6).
·
WISDOM
wisdom excels folly. Three grounds of
superiority.
Ø
The path of wisdom a way of light; that of folly a way of darkness. That
the latter is essentially a way of darkness, and therefore of
uncertainty,
difficulty, and danger, had been declared by Solomon (Proverbs 2:13;
4:19). The Preacher adds an
explanation by likening the foolish man to a
person walking backwards, or “with his eyes behind;” so that he knows
neither whither he is going, nor at what he is stumbling, nor the
peril into
which he is advancing. Had the
Preacher said nothing more than this, he
would have been entitled to special thanks. Thousands live in
the delusion
that the way of pleasure, frivolity, dissipation, extravagance,
prodigality,
is the way of light, wisdom, safety, felicity — which, it. is not. The
traveler who would journey in comfort and security must walk with
his eyes to the front, considering the direction in which he
moves,
pondering the paths of his feet, and turning neither to the right
hand
nor to the left (Proverbs 4:25-27). In other words, the wise
man’s eyes
must be in his head, exercising at once forethought,
circumspection,
and attention.
Ø
The source of wisdom from above; that of folly from
beneath. As
the
light descends from the pure regions of the upper air, so this
wisdom of
which the Preacher speaks, like that to which:
o
Job (Job 28:23),
o
David (Psalm 51:6),
o
Solomon (Proverbs
2:6),
o
Daniel (Daniel 2:23),
o
Paul (1 Corinthians
1:30), and
o
James (James 1:5;
3:15) allude,
comes from God (v. 26). As the darkness may be said to spring from
the
earth, so folly has its birthplace in the heart. The individual
that turns
away from the light of wisdom presented to him in the moral
intuitions
of the heart, the revelations of scripture, or the teachings
of nature,
by that act condemns his spirit to dwell in darkness.
Ø
The end of wisdom,
safety; that of folly, destruction. The light of wisdom
illuminates the path of duty for the individual; the
darkness of folly
covers it with gloom. Specially true of heavenly wisdom as
contrasted
with wickedness and sin. Even with regard to ordinary wisdom,
its
superiority over folly is not to be denied. The wise man has at least
the
satisfaction of knowing whither he is going, and of realizing the
unsatisfactory character of the course he is pursuing. It may not be a
great advantage which the wise man has over the fool, that
whereas
the fool is a madman and knows it not, the wise man cannot
follow
after wisdom (in itself and for itself) without discovering that
it is
vanity; but still it is an advantage — an advantage like that
which
a man has who walks straight before him, with his eyes in
his head
and directed to the front, over him who either puts out his
eyes, or
blindfolds himself, or turns his eyes backward before he begins
to travel.
“If I willfully
keep my conscience in darkness and continue
in errors which I
might easily know to be such by a little
thought and
searching of God’s Word, then my conscience
can offer me no
excuse for I am guilty of
blindfolding
the guide which I have chosen and then
knowing him to be blindfolded, I am guilty of the folly of
letting him lead me into rebellion
against God.”
·
LESSONS.
1. Get wisdom, especially the best.
2. Eschew folly, more particularly that which is irreligious.
3. Learn to discriminate between the two; much evil will thereby be
avoided.
17 “Therefore
I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the
sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and
vexation of spirit.”
Therefore I hated
life; et idcirce taeduit
me vitae meae.
Be a
man wise or foolish, his life leads only to one end and is
soon forgotten;
hence life itself is burdensome and hateful. The bitter
complaint of Job
(Job 3:20-26; 6:8-9) is here echoed, though the words DO NOT
POINT TO SUICIDE as the solution of the riddle. (I recommend
II Samuel 17 – Notes on Suicide – this web site –
CY – 2013). It
is the
ennui and unprofitableness of
all life and action in view of the inevitable
conclusion, which is here lamented. Because the work that is wrought under
the sun is
grievous unto me; literally, for evil unto me is the work
which is done under the
sun. The toil and exertions of men
pressed upon him
like a burden too
heavy for him to bear. Septuagint, Πονηρὸν ἐπ ἐμὲ
τὸ ποίημα
–
Ponaeron ep eme to poiaema
– work was grievous. He repeats the
expression, “under
the sun,” as if to show that he was regarding human
labor only in its earthly aspect, undertaken and executed
for temporal and
selfish considerations alone. The apostle teaches a ‘better lesson, and the
worker who adopts his rule is saved from this crushing
disappointment:
“Whatsoever ye
do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the recompense
of the
inheritance: ye serve the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24). For all is
vanity. He comes back to the
same miserable refrain; IT IS ALL
EMPTINESS; A STRIVING AFTER THE WIND! (See my
comment after v. 11 – CY – 2013)
The Comparison between Wisdom and
Folly (vs. 12-17)
To the ordinary observer the contrast between men’s
condition and
circumstances is more expressive than that ‘between their character. The
senses are attracted, the imagination is excited, by the
spectacle of wealth
side by side with squalid poverty, of grandeur and power side by side with
obscurity and helplessness. But to the reflecting and reasonable there is far
more interest and
instruction in the distinction between the nature and life
of the fool,
impelled by his passions or by the influence of his associations;
and the nature and
life of the man who considers, deliberates, and judges,
and, as becomes a
rational being, acts in accordance with nature and well-
weighed convictions. Very noble are the words which the poet puts into
the
lips of Philip van Artevelde —
“All my
life long
Have I
beheld with most respect the man
Who knew
himself, and knew the ways before him;
And from
amongst them chose deliberately,
And with
clear foresight, not with blindfold courage;
And having
chosen, with a steadfast mind
Pursued his purposes.”
·
THE NATURAL CONTRAST BETWEEN WISDOM AND FOLLY.
Ø
The distinction is one
founded in the very nature of things, and is similar
to that which, in the physical world, exists between light
and darkness.
This is as much as to say that
God Himself is the All-wise, and that
reasonable beings, in so far as they participate in
His nature and
character, are distinguished by true wisdom; whilst, on the other
hand, departure from God
is the same thing as abandonment
to folly.
Ø
The distinction is
brought out by the just exercise or the culpable misuse
of human faculty. “The
wise man’s eyes are in his head,” which is a
proverbial and figurative way of saying that the wise man uses the
powers
of observation and judgment with which he is endowed. The position and
the endowments of the organs of vision is a plain indication
that they
were intended to guide the steps; the man who looks before him
will
not miss his way or fall into danger. Similarly, the faculties of the
understanding and reason which are bestowed upon man are
intended for the purpose of
directing the voluntary actions,
which, becoming habitual, constitute man’s moral
life. The
wise man is he who not only possesses such
powers, but
makes a right use of them, and orders his way
aright. The fool,
on the contrary, “walketh in
darkness;” i.e. he is as one who, having
eyes, makes no use of them — shuts his eyes, or walks
blindfold.
The natural consequence is that
he wanders from the path, and
probably falls into perils and into destruction.
·
THE APPARENT EQUALITY OF THE
AND THAT OF THE FOOL. The writer of this Book of Ecclesiastes was
impressed with the fact that in this world men do not meet with
their
deserts; that, if there is retribution, it is of a very incomplete
character; that
the fortune of men is not determined by their moral character.
This is a
mystery which has oppressed the minds of observant and reflecting
men in
every age, and has been to some
the occasion of falling into skepticism
and
even atheism.
Ø
The wise man and the
fool in many cases meet with the same fortune
here upon earth: “One event happeneth
to them all.” Wisdom does not
always meet with its reward in earthly prosperity, nor does folly
always
bring down upon the fool the penalty of poverty, suffering, and
shame. A
man may be ignorant, unthinking, and wicked; yet by the
exercise of
shrewdness and cunning he may advance himself. A wise man may be
indifferent to worldly ends, and may neglect the means by which
prosperity may be secured. Moral means secure moral ends; but
there may be spiritual
prosperity which is not crowned by worldly
greatness and wealth.
Ø
The wise man and the
fool are alike forgotten after death. “All shall be
forgotten;” “There is no remembrance of the wise more than of the
fool for ever.” All
men have some sensitiveness to the reputation
which shall survive them: the writer of this
book seems to have been
particularly sensitive upon
this point. He was impressed by the fact
that no sooner has a wise and good man departed this
life than
straightway men proceed to forget him. A few years past, and
the memory of the dead itself dies, and good and bad alike are
forgotten by a generation interested only in its own affairs.
A common oblivion overtakes us
all such considerations led the
author of this book into distress and disheartenment. He was
tempted to hate life; it was grievous unto him, and all was vanity
and vexation of spirit. A voice within, plausible and
seductive,
urges — Why trouble as to the moral principles by which you are
guided? Whether you are wise or foolish, will it not soon be all
the same? Nay, is it not all the same even now?
·
THE REAL SUPERIORITY OF WISDOM OVER FOLLY, If we
were to look at some verses of this book only, we might infer
that the
author’s mind was quite unhinged by the spectacle of human-life;
that he
really doubted the superintendence of Divine providence; that he
did not
care to make aright for truth, righteousness, and goodness. But
although
he had doubts, and difficulties, though he passed through
moods of a
pessimistic character, it appears plain that when he came to state his
deliberate and reasoned convictions, he showed himself to be a
believer in
God, and not in fate; in
resolute and self-denying virtue, and not in self-
indulgence and cynicism. In this passage are brought together facts
which
occasion most men perplexity, which bring some men into skepticism.
Yet
the deliberate conclusion to which the author comes is this: “I saw that
wisdom excelleth folly.” He had, as we
all should have, a better and higher
standard of judgment, and a better and higher law of conduct, than
the
phenomena of this world can supply. It is not by temporal and earthly
results that we are to form our judgments upon
morality and religion;
we have a nobler and a truer standard, even our own reason
and conscience,
the voice of Heaven to which to listen, the candle of the Lord by which to
guide our steps. Judged as God judges, judged by the Law and the Word
of God, “wisdom excelleth
folly.” Let the wise and good man be afflicted
in his body, let him be plunged into adversity, let him be
deserted by his
friends, let him be calumniated or forgotten; still he has chosen
the better
part, and need not envy the good fortune of the fool. Even the
ancient
Stoics maintained this. How much
more the followers of Christ, who
Himself incurred the malice and
derision of men; who was despised and
rejected and crucified, but who, nevertheless, was approved and
accepted
of God the All-wise, and was exalted to everlasting dominion!
Wisdom
is
justified of her children.” (Luke
7:35) The wise man is not to be shaken
either by the storms of adversity or by the taunts of the
foolish. His is the
right path, and he will persevere in it; and he is not only sustained by the
approbation of his conscience, he is satisfied
with the fellowship of his
Master, Christ.
The Value and the
Futility of Wisdom (vs. 12-17)
Solomon had now made many experiments to try and discover
something
that was good in itself, that was an end for which one might labor, a goal
for
which one might make, a resting-place for the soul. The acquisition of
knowledge had first of all attracted him, but after a long course of
study, in
which he traversed the whole field of learning and reached the
limits of
human thought, the futility of his labors dawned upon him. Then he turned
to sensual
enjoyments, and gave himself up to them for a time, with the
deliberate purpose of seeking to discover if there were in this
quarter any
permanent gain; if it were possible so to prolong the pleasures of
life as to
silence, if not to satisfy, the cravings of the soul. The
experiment was but a
short one; he soon found out that pleasure is short-lived, and
that mirth and
laughter are followed by weariness and melancholy. His resources
were
not,
however, yet exhausted. A new course was open to him, and one
which his richly endowed nature qualified him for trying, and
his kingly
power and wealth laid open to him. This was the cultivation of
those arts
by
which human life is beautified; the gratification of those tastes that
distinguish man from the lower creatures, and that have something in
them
that is noble and pure. He built stately palaces, planted gardens and
forests;
he
surrounded himself with all the luxury and pageantry of an Oriental
court; he accumulated treasures such as kings only could afford
to procure;
music and song, and whatever could delight a refined taste, and
a love of
the
beautiful were diligently cultivated. But all in vain; aestheticism
proved as fruitless as the pursuit of knowledge, or the
indulgence of the
coarser appetites, to give rest to the soul. And now in sober
meditation he
reviewed all his experience; having come to the end of his
resources, he
inquires into actual results attained, and pronounces upon them.
First of all,
he
is convinced that he has given a fair trial to all the various means by
which men seek for the highest good. He had failed to find that
satisfaction, but it was not because he had been ill equipped for carrying
on
the
search. No one that came after him (v. 12) could surpass him by a
more complete and thorough investigation. God had given him “a
wise and
understanding heart,” and had
endowed him with wealth and power; and in
both particulars he excelled all his fellows. Accordingly, he has no
hesitation in laying down great general principles drawn from careful
observation of the phenomena of human life.
·
THE GREAT ADVANTAGE WHICH WISDOM HAS OVER
FOLLY. The wise
man walks in light, and has the use of his eyes; the fool
is blind, and walks in darkness. The wisdom here praised is
not that holy,
spiritual faculty which springs from the fear of God and obedience
to his
will (Job 28:28;
Deuteronomy 4:6; Psalm 111:10), and which is
so strikingly personified, almost deified, in the Book of
Proverbs and in
that of Job (Proverbs chps. 8 and 9.; Job 28:12-28); but is ordinary science,
knowledge of the laws of nature, and of the powers and limitations
of
human life. This wisdom can only be acquired by long and painful
labor,
and though by it we cannot discover God or find out the way of
winning
and retaining His favor, or provide for the wants of the soul,
it has, in its
sphere, high value. It gives some pleasure; it affords some
guidance and
direction to its possessor. It enables him to acquire some good; it
teaches
him to avoid some evils. Progress in civilization is only
possible by the
cultivation of this wisdom. Wider acquaintance with the laws of health,
for
example, has enabled men to stamp out certain forms of disease,
or, at any
rate, to prevent their frequent recurrence, and to alleviate
the sufferings
caused by others. Consider the immense benefit to the race the
progress of
medical science has secured. The inventions that we owe to the
cultivation
of natural knowledge are beyond number, and by them
incalculable benefits
have been brought within our reach — better cultivation of the
soil, less
exhausting labor, discovery of the uses of the metals stored up in
the
bowels of the earth, more rapid distribution of the productions
of nature
and of human industry, swifter means of communication between
one part
of the world and another. “The improvement of natural
knowledge,” says a
great authority, “whatever direction it has taken, and however
low the aims
of those who may have commenced it, has not only conferred
practical
benefits on men, but in so doing has effected a revolution in their
conceptions of the universe and of themselves, and has profoundly
altered
their modes of thinking and their views of right and wrong”
(Huxley, ‘Lay
Sermons’). Does not this amply justify Solomon’s assertion that “wisdom
excels folly, as light darkness; that the wise man hath the use
of his eyes,
the fool is blind”?
·
THE FUTILITY OF WISDOM.
All the delight in the charms of
wisdom is quenched by the thought of the leveling power of death,
which
overwhelms both the wise and the foolish indiscriminately (vs. 14b —17).
For a brief space there is a
distinction between them — the one
endowed with priceless gifts, the other ignorant and poor. But
what, after
all, was the use of the short-lived superiority? Like an
extinguished torch,
the wisdom of the sage is blown out by death, and the very
memory of his
attainments and triumphs is buried in oblivion. For a time, perhaps, he is
missed, but the gap is soon filled up, the busy world goes on
its way, and in
a very short time it forgets all about him. Thus even the posthumous fame,
after which the purest and noblest minds have longed, to secure
which they
have been content to endure poverty, hardship, and neglect in
their lifetime,
is denied to the vast majority, even of those who have richly
deserved it.
There were wise men before
Solomon (1 Kings 4:31), but no memorial
survives of them but their names; no illustrations of their wisdom
are given
to explain their reputation. And how faint is the impression
which the
wisdom of Solomon himself makes upon the actual life of the
present
world! Enshrined though it is in the sacred volume, it seems
foreign to our
modes of thought; its voice is not heard in our schools of
philosophy. The
fact of death is a certainty both to the wise and to the fool;
the manner of it
may be similar; the doubts and fears and anxieties concerning
the life to
come may perplex both. What can we suggest to relieve the sad
picture, or
to counteract the paralyzing
effect which the spectacle of the futility of
wisdom and effort is calculated to produce? The conviction that this life is
not all, that there is a life beyond the grave, is the great
corrective to the
gloom in which otherwise every thinking mind would be enwrapped.
This
present life is a state of infancy, of probation, in
which we receive
EDUCATION FOR
ETERNITY! And to ask in
melancholy tones what is the
use of acquiring wisdom if death is so soon to cut short our
career here, is as
foolish as to ask what is the use of a sapling growing vigorously
in a
nursery garden if it is to be afterwards transplanted. The place
from which
it was taken may soon know it no more. But the loss is
slight; the tree itself
lives and flourishes still under the eye and care of the Almighty
Husbandman. No fruitless regrets over the brevity and uncertainty of
human fame need interfere with present effort. We may soon be forgotten
on earth, but no
attainments in wisdom or holiness we have made will have
been in vain; they will have qualified us for a higher service
and a truer
enjoyment of God than we could otherwise have known.
18 “Yea, I
hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun: because
I should leave it unto the man that shall
be after me.” Such had been his
general view of men’s actions; he now brings the thought
home to his own case,
which makes his distress more poignant. Yea (and), I
hated all my labor which
I had taken under
the sun. He is disgusted to reflect upon all the trouble he has
taken in life, when he thinks
of what will become of the productions of his genius
and the
treasures which he has amassed. Because
I should leave it (my labor,
i.e. its results)
unto the man that shall be after me. It is impossible that
Solomon could thus have spoken of Rehoboam;
and to suppose that he
wrote thus after Jeroboam’s attempt (I Kings 2:26, etc.),
and in
contemplation of a possible usurper, is not warranted by
any historical
statement, the absolute security of the succession being
all along expected,
and the growing discontent being perfectly unknown to, or
contemptuously
disregarded by, the king. The sentiment is general, and
recurs more than
once; e.g. ch. 4:8;
5:14; 6:2.
19 “And
who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?
yet
shall he have rule over all my labor
wherein I have labored, and
wherein I have shewed
myself wise under the sun. This is also
vanity.”
Who knoweth whether he
shall be a wise man or a fool?
The bitter feeling that he has to leave the fruits of his
lifelong labor to
another is aggravated by the thought that he knows not the
character of
this successor, whether he will be worthy or not. As the
psalmist says, “He
heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them” (Psalm
39:6). Again in the parable, “The
things which thou hast prepared, whose
shall they be?” (Luke
12:20). Yet shall he have rule, etc.
Whatever may
be his character, he will have free use and control of all that I have gathered
by my labor directed by prudence and wisdom. Vulgate, Domina-bitur
in
laboribus meis quibus
desudavi et sollicitus fui.
20 “Therefore
I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor
which I took under the sun.” Therefore I went about to cause my heart
to despair; Ἐπέστρεψα ἐγὼ - epestrepsa ego – I began to cause; I
turned;
(Septuagint). in order to examine more closely. So
in v. 12 we had, “I turned
myself,” though the verbs are not the same in the two passages, and in the
former
the Septuagint has ἐπέβλεψα – epeblepsa – I turned myself. I turned from
my
late course of action to give myself up to despair. I lost
all hope
in labor; it had no
longer any charm or future for me. Septuagint, Τοῦ ἀποτάξασθαι
τὴν καρδίαν
μου
ἐν παντὶ
μόχθῳ μου
– tou apotaxasthai taen kardian mou
en panti mochtho mou –
to cause my heart to despair concerning all my
labor.
The
Vanity of Toil (vs. 17-20)
·
THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS LIES NOT IN BUSINESS. Granting
that one applies himself to business, and succeeds through
ability,
perseverance, and skill in building up a fortune, if he looks for
happiness
either in his labor or in his riches, he will find himself
mistaken. Three
things are fatal to a man’s chances of finding happiness in the
riches that
come from business success.
Ø
Sorrow in the getting of them. Toiling and moiling,
laboring and striving,
drudging and slaving, planning and plotting, scheming and
contriving,
rising up early and lying down late, hurrying and worrying — by
these
means for the most part are fortunes built up. How expressive is
the
Preacher’s language concerning
the successful man of business, that
“all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief,” or “all his days
are pains, and trouble is his occupation,” “yea,
even in the night his
heart taketh no rest” (v. 23)!
Ø
Sorrow in the keeping of them. A constant anxiety
besets the rich man,
night and day, lest the riches he has amassed should suddenly
take wings
and flee away; by day looking out for safe investments, and by
night
wondering if his ventures will prove good, if the money he has
painfully
collected may not some day disappear and leave him in the lurch. And
even should this not happen, how often is it seen that when a
man has
made his fortune, he finds there is nothing in it; that success
has been
too long in coming, and that now, when he has wealth, he wants
the
power to enjoy it (v. 22; compare ch.
6:2); as the duke says to Claudio
in the prison —
“And when
thou art old and rich,
Thou hast
neither heat. affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant.”
(‘Measure for
Measure,’ act 3. sc. 1.)
Ø
Sorrow in the parting with them. The results of all
his labor he must
leave to the man who shall be after him, without knowing whether
that
successor shall be a wise man or a fool (vs. 18-19; compare ch. 5:15);
and though this does not greatly trouble the Christian, who
knows
there is laid up for him a better and more enduring substance in
heaven,
yet for the worldly or insincerely religious man it is an
agitating thought.
Mazarin, the cardinal, and first minister of Louis XIV., was
accustomed,
as he walked through the galleries of his palace, to whisper
to himself,
“I must quit
all this;” and Frederick William IV. of
occasion, as he stood upon the
Bunsen beside him, and remarked,
as they looked out together on the
garden,” This too I must leave behind me” (see Plumptre, in loco).
·
BUSINESS MAY MINISTER TO MAN’S ENJOYMENT. The
Preacher does not wish to teach
that happiness lies beyond man’s reach,
but rather that it is attainable, if sought in the right
way. (Jesus gave the
key in Matthew 6:33 - “Seek ye first the
righteousness and all these things shall be added unto thee.”) He recognizes:
Ø That there
is nothing wrong in seeking after happiness,
or even earthly
enjoyment. He
admits there is nothing better, more permissible or
desirable, among men than that one “should eat and drink, and make
his
soul enjoy good in his labor” (v. 24). He even allows that this is from
the hand of God, which
makes it plain that he is not now alluding to
sinful indulgence of the bodily appetite, but speaking of that moderate
enjoyment of the good things of life God has so
richly provided for
man’s support and entertainment. It is not God’s wish, he says, that
man should be debarred or
should debar himself from all enjoyment.
Rather it is His earnest desire that man should eat and drink and enjoy
what has been furnished for his entertainment,
should not make of
himself an ascetic, under pretence of religion denying himself of
lawful pleasures and gratifications, but
should so use them as to
contribute to HIS HIGHEST WELFARE!
Ø That no man can
make a good use of life’s provisions unless in
connection with the thought of God. “Who can eat or have enjoyment,
apart from him [i.e. God]?” (Revised Version,
margin): This corrective
thought the Preacher lays before his readers, that while the world’s good
things cannot impart happiness by themselves and apart from God,
THEY CAN IF ENJOYED
IN CONJUNCTION WITH HIM, i.e. if
recognized as coming from Him (1 Chronicles 29:14; 1 Timothy 6:17;
James 1:17), and used for His glory (1
Corinthians 10:31). The last
passages show that this was THE NEW TESTAMENT
IDEAL OF
LIFE! (1
Timothy 4:4).
Ø
That he who seeks happiness in this way will succeed. “For
God giveth
to a man that is good in his sight [or, ‘that pleaseth Him’] wisdom,
and
knowledge, and joy” (v.
26). So far from pronouncing happiness a dream,
an unattainable good, a shadow without a substance, the
Preacher
believes that if a man will take God and religion with him into
the
world, and,
remembering
both the shortness of time and the certainty
of a future life, will enjoy the
world’s good things in moderation and
with thankfulness, he will derive therefrom, if not
absolute and
unmixed happiness, as near an approximation to
it as man can
expect to reach on earth.
God will graciously assist such a man to
gather the best fruits of wisdom and knowledge, both human and
Divine, and will inspire him with a joy the world can neither
give
nor take away (Job
22:21; Psalm 16:8-9; 112:1, 7-8; John 16:22). This,
if not happiness, is at least a lot immensely superior to
that God assigns
to the sinner, i.e. to the man who excludes
God, religion, and
immortality from his life. The lot of such a man is often as the Preacher
describes, to toil away in making money, to heap it up till it
becomes a
pile, and then to die and leave it to be scattered to the
winds, enjoyed
by he knows not whom, and not infrequently by the good
men he has despised (Job 27:16-17; Proverbs 13:22; 28:8).
·
LESSONS.
1. Be diligent in business (Romans 12:11). “Whatsoever
thy hand
findeth
to do,” etc. (ch.
9:10).
2. But be “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord”
(Romans 12:11).
3. Seek happiness
in God Himself rather than in His gifts
(Genesis 15:1;
Psalm 4:7; 9:2; 40:16; Luke 1:47;
Philippians 3:1).
21 “For
there is a man whose labor is in wisdom, and in knowledge,
and in equity; yet to a man that hath not
labored therein shall he
leave it for his portion. This also is
vanity and a great evil.”
For there is a man
whose labor is in wisdom. “In,” בְּ, “with,” directed
and performed with wisdom. The author speaks of himself
objectively, as
Paul (II Corinthians 12:2) says, “I know a man in
Christ,” etc. His complaint
now is, not that his successor may misuse his inheritance (v. 19), but that this
person shall have that on which he has bestowed no skill or toil, shall enjoy what
modern phraseology terms “unearned
increment.” This, which was set forth as
ONE OF THE BLESSINGS OF THE PROMISED LAND (Deuteronomy
6:10-11), Koheleth cannot bear to contemplate where it touches himself — not
from envy or grudging, but from the
feeling of dissatisfaction and want of energy
which it generates. In (with) knowledge and in (with) equity. Kishron,
translated “equity”
in the Authorized Version; ἀνδρεία – andreia – manliness –
in the Septuagint: and sollicitudine
in the Vulgate, seems rather here to signify
“skill” or “success.” It
occurs also in ch.4:4 and 5:10, and there only in
the Old Testament.
22 “For
what hath man of all his labor, and of the vexation of his heart,
wherein he hath labored under the sun?” What hath man of all his labor?
i.e.
what is to be the result to man? Γίνεται ἐν τῷ
ἀνθρώπῳ - ginetai en to
anthropo - for what has a man - (Septuagint); Quidenim proderit
homini? (Vulgate). There is,
indeed, the pleasure that accompanies the
pursuit of objects, and the successful accomplishment of
enterprise; but this
is poor and unsubstantial and embittered. And of the vexation of his
heart; the striving, the
effort of his mind to direct his labor to great ends.
What does all this produce? The answer intended is,”
Nothing.” This
striving, with all its wisdom and knowledge and skill (v.
21), is for the
laborer fruitless.
23 “For
all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart
taketh not rest in the night. This is also
vanity.” All his days are sorrow,
and his travail grief (compare ch.5:16-17).
These are the real results of his
lifelong efforts. All his days are pains and sorrows,
bring trouble with them,
and all his labor ends in grief. “Sorrows”
and “grief” are pretreated
respectively of
“days” and “travail.”
Abstract nouns are often so used. Thus
ch.10:12, “The words of
a wise man’s mouth are grace.” The free-thinkers
in Wisdom of Solomon 2:1 complain that life is short and
tedious (λυπηρὸς –
lupaeros). Yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. He cannot sleep
for thinking over his plans and hopes and disappointments.
Not for him is
the sweet sleep of the laboring man, who does his day’s
work, earns his
repose, and frets not about the future. On the one hand care,
on the other
satiety, murder sleep, and make the night torment.
Riches, though Obtained
by much Toil, are Vanity (vs. 18-23)
The thought of death, which sweeps away the wise man as
well as the fool,
and
of the eternal oblivion which swallows up the memory of them both,
was
very depressing; but a new cause for deeper dejection of spirit is round
in
the reflection that the man who has toiled in the accumulation of wealth
must leave it all to another, of whom he knows nothing, and who wilt
perhaps dissipate it in a very brief time.
·
The first mortifying thought is — HE BUT GATHERS
FOR A
SUCCESSOR. (v. 18.) He himself, when the moment of death comes,
must leave his possessions and depart into the world of shadows
as naked
as he was when he entered upon life. The fact that such a
reflection should
be bitter proves how
deeply the soul is corroded by covetous and selfish
aggrandizement. The heart is
absorbed in the things of the present, and the
anticipation of heavenly and spiritual joys grows faint and dies away.
To be
torn from the wealth and possessions acquired upon earth is
regarded as
losing everything; to be forced to leave them to another, even to
a son, is
almost as bad as being plundered of them by a thief. This feeling of
bitter
regret at having to give up all they possess at
the call of death, has often
been experienced by those who have found their
chief occupation and
happiness in life in the acquisition of earthly
treasures. “Mazarin
walks
through the galleries of his palace and says to himself, ‘Il taut
quitter tout
cela.’
Frederick William IV. of
stand on the terrace at
‘Das auch,
das soil ich lassen’ (‘This too! must leave behind me’)”
(Plumptre).
·
The second mortifying thought is — THAT IT IS QUITE
UNCERTAIN WHAT CHARACTER THE SUCCESSOR WILL BE OF,
AND WHAT USE HE WILL MAKE OF HIS INHERITANCE. (v. 19.)
He may be a wise man, or he may
be a fool; he may make a prudent use of
his inheritance, or he may in a very short time scatter it to
the winds. The
very change in his circumstances, the novelty of his new
situation, may turn
his head and lead him into courses of folly which otherwise he
might have
avoided. Some have thought that the character of the youthful Rehoboam
was already so far developed as to suggest this mortifying
reflection to
Solomon. But this is quite
conjectural. The early career of the headstrong,
arrogant sovereign whose folly broke up the
illustration of the truth of this general statement, and may have been
in the
thoughts of the writer, if he were not Solomon but some later sage.
The
special reference to this one historical example of an inheritance
dissipated
by an unworthy son need not be pressed. For, unfortunately,
in every
generation there are only too many instances of a like kind. So
frequent are
they, indeed, as to suggest very humiliating reflections to
every one who
has spent his life in acquiring riches or collecting treasures
of art. As he
sees fortunes squandered and collections of rarities broken up,
the thought
must recur to his mind whose are to be the things which he has
treasured
up so carefully (Psalm 39:6; Luke 12:20).
·
The third mortifying thought is — THAT THE CHARACTER
OF
THE SUCCESSOR MAY NOT BE A MATTER OF DOUBT; he may be
a man of a positively foolish and vicious disposition (v.
21). The case
presents itself of a man who has labored in wisdom and knowledge
and
equity having to leave to another who is devoid of these virtues,
who has
never sought to acquire them, all that his prudence and
diligence have
enabled him to acquire. There is thus a climax in the thoughts of
the writer.
First of all, there is some
matter for irritation, especially to a selfish mind,
in the idea of giving up to another what one has spent years
of laborious
toil m gathering together. Then there is the torturing doubt as
to the
possible character of the new owner, and the use he will make of
what is
left to him. But worst of all is the conviction that he is both
foolish and
vicious. This is enough to poison all present enjoyment, and to
paralyze all
further effort. Why should a man spend laborious days and
sleepless nights,
if this is to be the end of it all? What has he left to show
for all his
exertions? What but weariness and exhaustion, and the bitter
reflection that
all has been in vain? Yet a little time after he has been
forced by death to
part with his possessions, and they will be made to minister to
the frivolity
and vice of one who has never labored for them, and ultimately
will be
scattered like chaff before the wind. Thus a final discovery of the
vanity of
all earthly employments is made. The acquisition of wisdom and
knowledge,, the gratification of the pleasures of sense, the
cultivation and
indulgence of artistic tastes, had all been tried as possible avenues
to lasting
happiness, and tried in vain. To these must now be added the
accumulation
by prudent and lawful means, of great wealth. This, too, was
discovered to
be vanity. It could only be accomplished by years of toil,
and brought with
it fresh cares; and in the end all that had been gained must
be given up to
another. Mortifying though the experiments had turned out to be,
they had
at least been of negative value. Though they had not revealed where
happiness was to be found, they had revealed where it was not to be
found.
The last disappointment, the
discovery of the vanity of riches, taught the
great truth which might become a clue to lead to the
much-desired
happiness, that “a man’s life consisteth
not in the abundance of the things
which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15).
Concern for Posterity (vs. 18-23)
It is distinctive of man that he is a being that looks
before and after; he
cannot be satisfied to regard only the present; he
investigates the former
days, and the ancestry from which he has derived life and
circumstances
(witness the great interest today in genealogy – CY –
2013); he
speculates as to the days to come, and “all the wonder yet
to be.” It
appeared to the “Preacher” of
our posterity is an
element in the “vanity” which is characteristic of this life.
POSTERITY WITH INTEREST AND SOLICITUDE. Family life is so
natural to man that there is
nothing strange in the anxiety which most men
feel with regard to their
children, and even their children’s children. (This
is one of the obvious handicaps
of homosexuality and lesbianism that
should GET THEIR ATTENTION! – CY – 2013) Men
do not like the prospect of
their posterity sinking in the social scale.
Prosperous men find a pleasure
and satisfaction in “founding a family,” in
perpetuating their name,
preserving their estates and possessions to their
descendants, and in the prospect
of being remembered with gratitude and
pride by generations yet unborn.
In the case of kings and nobles such
sentiments and anticipations are
especially powerful. (It is even so to
common folks like me – CY –
2013)
ANTICIPATIONS REGARDING POSTERITY ARE DISAPPOINTED.
The wide and accurate
observations of the author of Ecclesiastes
convinced him that such is the
case.
Ø
The rich man’s
descendants scatter the wealth which he has accumulated
by means of labor and
self-denial. It need not be proved, for the fact is
patent to all, that it is
the same in this respect in our own days as it was in
the Hebrew state. In fact,
we have an English proverb, “One generation
makes money; the second keeps it; the third spends it.” (Have you
ever seen the bumper sticker “Retired and spending my kids
inheritance.”
Ø
The wise man’s
descendant proves to be a fool. Notwithstanding what
has been maintained to be a
law of “hereditary genius,” the fact is
unquestionable that there
are many instances in which the learned, the
accomplished, the
intellectually great, are succeeded by those bearing
their name, but by no means
inheriting their ability. And the contrast is
one painful to witness, and
humiliating to those to whose disadvantage
it is drawn.
Ø
The descendants of the
great in many instances fall into obscurity and
contempt. History affords
us many examples of such descent; tells of the
posterity of the noble,
titled, and powerful working with their hands for
daily bread, etc.
DISTRESSES AND TROUBLES MEN, ESPECIALLY THE GREAT.
The “wise man” knew what it was
to brood over such a prospect as
opened up to his foreseeing
mind. He came to hate his labor, and to cause
his heart to despair; all his
days were sorrow, and his travail grief; his heart
took not rest in the night; and
life seemed only vanity to him. Why should I
toil, and take heed, and care,
and deny myself? is the question which many
a man puts to himself in the
sessions of silent thought. My children or my
children’s children may squander
my riches, alienate my estates, sully my
reputation; my work may be
undone, and my fond hopes may be mocked.
What is human life but
hollowness, vanity, wind?
SUCH FOREBODINGS. It
is vain to attempt to comfort ourselves by
denying facts or by cherishing
unfounded and unreasonable hopes. What
we have to do is to place all our confidence in a wise and gracious God,
and to leave the future to His providential care; and at the same time
to do
our own duty, not concerning
ourselves overmuch as to the conduct of
others, of those who shall come
after us. It is for us to “rest in the
Lord”
(Psalm 37:7), who has not promised
to order and overrule all things for our
glory or happiness, but who will
surely order and overrule them for the
advancement of His kingdom and
the honor of His Name.
From what has been said, in vs. 24-26, Koheleth
concludes that man
may indeed enjoy the good things which he has provided, and
find a certain
happiness therein, but only according to God’s will and
permission; and to
expect to win pleasure at one’s own caprice is vain.
24 “There
is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink,
and that he should make his soul enjoy good
in his labor. This also
I saw, that it was from the hand of God.” There is nothing better for a man,
than that he should eat and drink. The Vulgate makes the sentence interrogative,
which the Hebrew does not sanction, Nonne
melius est comedere et bibere?
Septuagint Οὐκ ἔστιν ἀγαθὸν
ἀνθρώπῳ ο{
φάγεται καὶ ο{ πίεται,
–
- Ouk estin agathon
anthropo ho phagetai kai ho pietai - “There is naught
good to a man to eat or drink;”
a man to eat,” etc. This and the Authorized Version, which are more or less
approved by most critics, make the writer enunciate a kind of modified
Epicureanism. It is not pretended that the present Hebrew text admits this
exposition, and critics have agreed to modify the original in order to express
the sense which they give to the passage.
As it stands, the sentence runs,
“It is not good in (בָּ) man that he should eat,” etc. This
is supposed to
clash with later statements; e.g. ch.
3:12-13; 8:15; and to condemn all bodily
pleasure even in its simplest form.
Hence commentators insert מ
(“than”)
before שֶׁיּלֺאכַל, supposing that the initial mere has dropped out after the
terminal of the preceding word, adam (compare ch.3:22). This solution of a
difficulty might be allowed were the Hebrew otherwise
incapable of
explanation without doing violence to the sentiments
elsewhere expressed.
But this is not the case. The great point lies in the
preposition ב,
and what
is stated is that it does
not depend on man, it is not in his power, he
is not at liberty to
eat and drink and enjoy himself simply
at his own will; his power
and ability proceed WHOLLY FROM
GOD! A higher authority than man decides the matter. The phrase,
“to eat and
drink,” is merely a periphrasis for living in comfort, peace,
and affluence. St.Gregory, who holds that here and in other places
Koheleth seems to contradict himself, makes a remark which is of
general
application, “He who looks to the text, and does not
acquaint himself with
the sense of the Holy Word, is not so much furnishing
himself with instruction
as bewildering himself in uncertainty, in that the literal
words sometimes
contradict themselves; but whilst by their oppositeness
they stand at
variance with themselves, they direct the reader to a truth
that is to be
understood” (‘Moral.,’ 4:1). They who read Epicureanism
into the text fall
into the error here denounced. They take the expression,
“eat and drink,”
in the narrowest sense of bodily pleasure, whereas it was
by no means so
confined in the mind of a Hebrew. To eat bread in the
take a place at the heavenly banquet, represents the
highest bliss of
glorified man
(Luke 14:15; Revelation. 19:9, etc.). In a lower degree it
signifies earthly prosperity, as in Jeremiah 22:15, “Did not thy father
eat and drink, and
do judgment and justice? then it was well with him.”
So in our passage we find only the humiliating truth that
man in himself is
powerless to make his life happy or his labors successful.
There is no
Epicureanism, even in a modified form, in the Hebrew text
as it has come
down to us. With other supposed traces of this philosophy
we shall have to
deal subsequently (see on 3:12; 6:2). And that he should make his soul
enjoy good in his labor; i.e. taste the enjoyment of his labor,
get pleasure
as the reward of all his exertions, or find it
in the actual pursuit.
This also I saw,
that it was from the hand of God. This
is the
point — the power of
enjoyment depends on the will of God.
The next
verse substantiates this assertion.
The
Complaint of the Successful (vs. 18-24)
The man who labors and who fails to acquire may be pitied,
and if he finds
his
life to have a large measure of vanity he may be excused for
complaining; but here is:
·
THE COMPLAINT OF THE SUCCESSFUL. The speaker (of the text)
is made (or makes himself) miserable because he has gained
much by the
expenditure of time and strength, and he has to leave it behind him
when he
dies; he has to leave it to one who “has not labored” (v. 21), and possibly
to a man who is not as wise as himself, but is “a fool” (v. 19), and he
may scatter or misuse it. And the thought of the insecurity of
life, together
with the certainty of leaving all behind to the man who comes
after,
whoever or whatever he may be, makes day and night wretched (v.
23).
·
WHEREIN IT IS SOUND.
It is quite right that a man should ask
himself what will become of his acquisition. To be satisfied with
present
pleasure is ignoble; to be careless of what is coming after us — “Apres moi
le deluge” (after me the deluge) is shamefully selfish. It becomes
every
man to consider what the long results of his labor
will be, whether
satisfactory or unfruitful.
·
WHEREIN IT IS UNSOUND.
Ø
There is nothing
painful in the thought of parting with our treasure. We
inherited much from those who went before us, and we may be well
content to hand down all we have to those who come after us. We
spent no
labor on that which we inherited: why should we be aggrieved
because our
heirs will have spent none on what they take from us?
Ø
If we did not hoard
our treasures, but distributed them while we lived,
putting them into the hands of the wise; or if (again) we chose
our heirs
according to their spiritual rather than their fleshly affinities,
we should
be spared the misery of accumulating the substance which a
fool will
scatter. But let us look at
a still better aspect of the subject.
·
THE LEGACY AND THE HOPE OF THE WISE.
Ø
His best legacy. We
may and we should so spend our time and our
strength that what we leave behind us is not wealth that can be
dissipated
or stolen, but worth that cannot fail to bless — Divine truth
lodged in
many minds, good principles planted in many hearts, a pure and
noble
character built up in many souls. This is what no fool can divert or
destroy; this is that which will live on, and multiply and bless,
when
we are far from all mortal scenes. Immeasurably better is the
legacy
of holy influence than that of “uncertain riches;” the
former must be
a lasting blessing, the latter may be an incalculable curse.
Ø
His best and purest
hope. What if the dying man feels that his grasp on
earthly gain is about to be finally relaxed? is
he not about to open his
hand in a heavenly sphere, where the Divine Father will enrich him
with a heavenly heritage, which will make all material treasures seem
poor indeed?
All Good is from God (v. 24)
Revelation ever presents to man a standard of conduct
equally removed
from selfish gratification and from proud asceticism. It
condemns the habit,
too common with the prosperous and fortunate, of seeking
all satisfaction
in the pleasures and luxuries of the world, in the
enjoyments of sense; and
it at the same time condemns the tendency to despise the
body and the
things of time and sense, as if such independence of earth
were of necessity
the means to spiritual enrichment and blessing. On the one
hand,
we are
invited to
partake freely and gladly of the gifts of Divine providence;
on the other hand, we are admonished to receive all things
as “from the
hand of God.”
EARTHLY LIFE IS ENRICHED. Food and drink are mentioned here as
examples of the good gifts of
the Eternal Father, who “openeth His hand,
and supplieth the wants of every living thing.” (Psalm 104:28; 145:16).
Manifold is the provision of
the Divine beneficence. The
whole material
world is AN APPARATUS by which the
bounty of the Creator
ministers to the wants of his creatures. And all God’s gifts have a
meaning and value beyond
themselves; they reveal the Divine character,
they symbolize
the Divine goodness. To despise them is to DESPISE
THE GIVER.
ENJOYMENT OF HIS GIFTS. (Witness taste; feeling; sight; hearing;
the ability to smell, etc. – CY
– 2013) The adaptation is obvious and instructive
between the bounties of God’s
providence, and the bodily constitution in
virtue of which man is able to appropriate and enjoy what God bestows.
Food and drink presuppose the
power to partake of them, and to use them
for the continued life, health,
and vigor of the body. (Just think of the
nutrients in food that are
necessary for health and strength, which God
provides every day! – CY –
2013) The correspondence may be traced
throughout the whole of our
physical nature; between the
eye and light, between hearing
and sound, between the lungs and the
atmosphere — in fact, between
the organism and the environment.
COMMANDS, AND FOR HIS GLORY. All Divine bestowments are a
kind of test and
trial for man, who does not of
necessity follow appetite,
but who can exercise his reason
and his will in dealing with the
circumstances of his being, with
the provisions of God’s bounty. All are
susceptible of use and of abuse.
The Preacher gives us the key to a right
use of providential bounties,
when he reminds us that ALL IS “from the
hand of God.” The man who sees the Giver in the gift, who partakes with
gratitude of that which is
bestowed, recognizing its spiritual significance,
and using it as the means to
spiritual improvement, — such a man fulfils his
probation aright,
and DOES NOT LIVE HIS EARTHLY LIFE IN
VAIN!
REQUIREMENT DEPENDS THE EFFECT OF GOD’S GIFTS UPON
US, WHETHER THEY SHALL BE A
BLESSING OR A
CURSE. It
would be very easy to read amiss
the teaching of this Book of Ecclesiastes.
Let a man read it when under the
influence of a hedonistic and optimistic
temper of mind, and he may be
encouraged to abandon himself to the
pleasures of life, to the joys
of sense, to seek his welfare and satisfaction in
what this world can give. Let a
man read the book when passing through
bitter experience of the ills
and woes and disappointments of life, in a
pessimistic mood, and he may be
encouraged to dejection, despondency,
and cynicism. But the true lesson of the book is this: Life is a Divine
discipline, and its purpose
should never be lost sight of; the gifts of
not for the satisfaction of
the spiritual nature; Divine wisdom summons us
to the
reverential service of THE ETERNAL HIMSELF; we should
then receive with joy what God bestows, and
give up without undue mourning
what God takes away, for all of life
is “FROM THE HAND OF GOD.”
The
Conclusion of Folly or the Faith of the Wise? (v. 24)
In what catalogue shall we place these words of the text?
On whose lips
are
they to be found? Are they:
·
THE REFUGE OF THE SKEPTIC? They may be such. The epicure
who has lost his faith in God says, “Let us eat and drink; for
to-morrow we
die.” There is no
sacredness in the present, and no solid hope for the
future. What is the use
of aiming at a high ideal? Why waste breath and
strength on duty, on aspiration, on piety? Why attempt to rise to
the
pursuit of the eternal and the Divine? Better lose ourselves in that which is
at hand, in that which we can grasp as a present certainty.
The best thing,
the only certain good, is to eat and drink and to labor; is
to minister to our
senses, and to work upon the material which is
visible to our eye and
responsive to our touch. So speaks the skeptic;
this is his miserable
conclusion; thus he owns himself defeated and (we may say)
dishonored.
For what is human
life worth when the element of sacredness is expunged,
when piety and hope are left out of it? It is no wonder that
the ages of
unbelief have been the times when men have had no regard for other
people’s dues, and very little for their own. Or shall we rather
find here:
·
AN ARTICLE, OF A WISE MAN’S FAITH? It is not certain what
was the mood in which the Preacher wrote; but let us prefer to
think that
behind his words, actuating and inspiring him, was a true spirit
of faith in
God and in Divine providence;
let us take him to mean — what we know
to be true — that, in spite of all evidence to the contrary,
a wise and loyal-
hearted man will hold that there is much that is worth pursuing
and
possessing in the simple pleasures, in the daily duties, and in the
ordinary
services which are open to us all.
Ø
Daily God invites us
to eat and drink, to partake of the bounties of His
hand; let us appreciate His benefits with moderation and
gratitude.
Ø
Daily He bids us go
forth to “our work and to our labor until the
evening;” let us enter
upon it and carry it out in the spirit of
conscientiousness and fidelity toward both God and man (Colossians
3:23).
Ø
Daily God gives us the means of getting good to ourselves
and
doing
good to others; let
us eagerly embrace our opportunity, let us gladly avail
ourselves of our privilege; so doing we shall make our life
peaceful,
happy, worthy.
Ø
In the light that
shines into our hearts from the truth of Christ we judge:
o
That these lesser
things — pleasure, activity, acquisition — are well in
their way and in their measure. “Bodily exercise profiteth a little, but
godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life
that
now is and of that is to come..” (I Timothy 4:8)
But:
o
That human life has
possibilities and obligations which immeasurably
transcend these things; such, that to
put these into the front rank and
to fill our life with them is a fatal error. Made subordinate to
that
which is higher, they take their place and they render their service —
a place and a service not to be despised; but made
primary and
supreme, they are usurpers
that
do untold injury, and that must
be relentlessly
dethroned
25 “For
who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?”
This is the translation of the received text. “Eat” means enjoy
one’s self, as in the preceding verse; “hasten hereunto” implies eager
pursuit of pleasure; and Koheleth
asks — Who had better opportunity than
he for verifying the
principle that all depends upon the gift of God?
Vulgate, Quis ita devorabit, et deliciis affluet ut ego? The Septuagint had
a different reading, which obtains also in the Syriac and Arabic versions,
and has been adopted by many modern critics. Instead of מִמֶּנִּי,
they read מִמֶּנְּוּ,
“without Him,” i.e. except from God. “For
who shall eat or who
shall drink without Him (πάρεξ αὐτοῦ - parex autou)?” This merely repeats
the thought of the last verse,
in agreement with the saying of James (1:17),
“Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above,
coming down from
the Father’ of lights.” But the received reading, if it admits the rendering of
the
Authorized Version (which is somewhat doubtful), stands in
close
connection with the personal remark just preceding, “This
also I saw,” etc.,
and is a more sensible confirmation thereof than a tautological
observation
can be. The next verse carries on the thought that SUBSTANTIAL
ENJOYMENT IS ENTIRELY A GIFT OF GOD and granted by
Him as the moral Governor of the world.
26 “For
God giveth to a man that is good in His sight wisdom,
and
knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner He giveth travail, to gather
and to heap up, that he may give to him
that is good before God.
This also is vanity
and vexation of spirit.” For God giveth
to a man
that is good in His sight. The subject “God” is not, in the Hebrew, an
omission which is supposed to justify its
virtual insertion in v. 25. The Vulgate
boldly supplies it here, Homini bone
in conspectu sue dedit Deus. To the
man that finds favor in God’s sight
(I Samuel 29:6; Nehemiah 2:5), i.e. who
pleases Him, He gives blessings,
while He withholds them or takes them away
from the man who
displeases Him. The blessings specified are wisdom, and
knowledge, and
joy. The
only true wisdom which is not grief, the only
true knowledge which is not sorrow (ch.1:18), and the only
joy in life, are the
gifts of God to those whom He regards as good. But to the sinner He giveth
travail, to gather
and to heap up. The sinner takes great
pains, expends
continuous labor, that he may amass wealth, but it passes into other. (more worthy)
hands. The moral
government of God is here recognized, as below, ch.3:15, 17, etc.,
and a further thought is added on the subject of
retribution: That he may give to him
that is good
before God. This idea is found in Proverbs 28:8, “He that augmenteth
his substance by usury and increase, gathereth it for him that hath pity upon
the poor;” and Ibid. ch.13:22, “The wealth of the sinner is laid up for
the
righteous” (compare Job 27:16-17). So in the parable of the talents,
the
talent of the unprofitable servant is given unto him who
had made best use
of his money (Matthew 25:28). This also is vanity.
It is a question
what is the reference here. Delitzsch
considers it to be the striving after
pleasure in and from labor (v. 24); Knobel,
the arbitrary distribution of
the good things of this life; but, put thus baldly, this
could hardly be termed
a “feeding on wind;” nor could that expression be applied
to the “gifts of
God. “ Others deem that what is meant is the collecting and
heaping up
of riches by the sinner, which has already been decided to
be vanity (vs.11,17-18);
and this would limit the general conclusion to a particular
instance. Taking the view
contained in v. 24 as the central idea of the passage, we
see that Koheleth feels that
the restriction upon man’s enjoyment of labor imposed by
God’s moral government
makes that toil vain because its issue is not in men’s hands,
and it
is a striving for or a
feeding on wind because
the
result is unsatisfying and vanishes in the grasp.
The Condition of Pure Enjoyment (vs. 24-26)
Up to this point the thoughts of our author have been
gloomy and
despairing. Wisdom is better, he declares, than folly, but
death sweeps
away both the wise and the foolish. The learning of the
sage, the fortune
accumulated by the successful worker, represent the
labors of a lifetime;
but at the end, WHAT ARE
THEY WORTH? The results are twofold, partly
internal and partly external. The student or worker
acquires skill in the use of his
faculties, he develops his strength, he becomes, as his
life goes on, more
proficient in his profession or craft; but death quenches
.all these
attainments. He leaves to those who are perhaps unworthy of them all the
external results of his labors, and perhaps in a very little time it will be
difficult to find anything to remind one of him. We who have the light of
Christian truth may have much to console us and give us
strength, even
when we are brought face to face with the dark and dreary
facts upon
which our author dwells. We may think of this life as a preparation for a
new and higher existence in the world to come, and believe that every
effort we make to use rightly the faculties God has given
us will tend to
equip us better for service of Him in another state of
being. But to our
author’s mind the thought of a future life is not vivid
enough to be the
source of consolation and strength. What then? Does he find
no escape
from the gloomy labyrinth of withering doubt, and decide
that happiness is
a boon for which one may sigh in vain? No; strangely
enough, at the very
moment when the depression is deepest, light breaks upon him from an
unexpected quarter.
Simple joys, moderate hopes, contentment with one’s
lot, thankful acceptance of the gifts of God, may yield a
peace and
satisfaction unknown to those who are consumed by ambition,
who make
riches, state, luxury, the object of their desires. The
darkness of night will
soon close upon our lives. Our tenure of our possessions is precarious in the
extreme, but some measure of joy is within the reach of us
all. In few but
suggestive words the Preacher describes:
for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that he
should make his
soul enjoy good in his labor.” At first one might think the judgment here
expressed somewhat poor and
gross, and unworthy of the reputation of the
wise king to whom it is
ascribed, not to say of the Word of God in which
we find it. But when we look
more closely into is, these impressions
disappear. It is not an idle, useless life of self-enjoyment that is
here
commended to us, but one in which useful
labor is seasoned by healthy
pleasures. The man eats and
drinks, and makes his soul enjoy good in his
labor. The enjoyment is not
such as to waste and exhaust the energies of
the soul, otherwise it would be
very short-lived. The risk of abusing the
counsel in the first part of the
sentence is avoided by attending to the
safeguard implied in the
concluding words. It is not the decision of the
Sensualist, “Let us eat and
drink; for to-morrow we die” (I Corinthians
15:32), but the admonition of
one who perceives that a thankful
participation of the good things of life is compatible
with the sincerest
piety. Eating and drinking mean satisfying the natural appetites,
and not
ministering to artificial and
self-created cravings; and overindulgence in so
doing is tacitly forbidden. The words suggest to us the simple healthy life
and habits of the
industrious peasant or workman, who takes pleasure
in his daily employment, and finds in the
innocent joys which sweeten
his lot a
happiness which MERE WEALTH CANNOT BUY!
“The
shepherd’s homely curds,
His
cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,
His
wonted sleep under a fresh tree’s shade,
All which
secure and sweetly he enjoys,
Is
far beyond a prince’s delicates,
His
viands sparkling in a golden cup,
His
body couched in a curious bed,
When
care, mistrust, and treason wait on him.”
(‘Henry VI.,’ Part III., act it. so. 5.)
In the second place, our
author tells us:
(v. 24b.) “This also I saw, that
it was from the hand of God. For who
can eat or who can have enjoyment apart from
him?” (Revised Version
margin). These words are quite sufficient
to convince us that a low Epicureanism
is far from the writer’s
thoughts when he speaks of there being nothing better for
a man than “to eat and drink, and make his soul
enjoy good in his labor.”
One thing is necessary for
the accomplishment of this end, and that is THE
DIVINE
BLESSING! Satisfaction in work
and in pleasure is a gift bestowed
by Him upon those who deserve it. “What we get here is the
recognition of what
we have learned to call the
moral government of God in the distribution of
happiness. It is found to depend, not on outward but inward condition, and
the chief inward condition is the character that God approves. The
Preacher practically confesses
that the life of the pleasure-seeker, or the
ambitious, or the philosopher, seeking
wisdom as an end, was not good
before God, and therefore failed
to bring contentment. THE SOURCE,
then, of happiness in life is in obedience to
the Divine will. To the
gifts of his providence GOD ADDS the temper in which to enjoy them;
from His hand BOTH MUST BE SOUGHT! Those who seek to be
independent of Him find that all they may acquire is insufficient to
satisfy them; those who place all their confidence in Him are contented
with even the hardest lot (Philippians
4:11-13). “Wisdom, knowledge, and
joy” are the portion of the good, whether they be poor or rich in this world’s
wealth; but the sinner has only the fruitless labor FROM WHICH HE
CAN DERIVE NO
SATISFACTION! (v. 21). And over again
the
Preacher writes the
dreary sentence, “This also is
vanity and vexation
of spirit,” upon the life in
which GOD IS NOT!
Retribution
(V. 26)
Here at length the Preacher propounds the doctrine of God’s
moral
government, which in the earlier part of the book has been kept in
abeyance. It is one thing to treat of human life, and another thing
to treat of
theology. The first may, and does to the thoughtful mind, suggest
the
second; but there are many who never take the step from the one
to the
other. The author of this book has recorded his experience, with
such
generalizations and obvious lessons as such experience naturally suggests;
he
has drawn such conclusions as an observant and reflecting student could
scarcely avoid. But hitherto he has refrained from the province of
faith, of
insight, of revelation. Now,
however, he boldly affirms the fact that the
world is the scene of Divine retribution; that behind all natural law there is
a law which is
supernatural; that the Judge of all the earth doeth right.
·
GOD IS INTERESTED IN HUMAN CHARACTER AND LIFE. The
ancient Epicurean notions that the gods were above all care for
the
concerns of men is not extinct; for many even now deem it
derogatory to
the Deity that he should be considered to interest himself
either in the
experiences or in the character of men. This passage in Ecclesiastes
justly
assumes that what men are and what they pass through are matters
of real
concern to the Creator and Lord of all.
·
GOD ALLOWS IN HUMAN LIFE SCOPE FOR THE
DEVELOPMENT OF MEN’S
MORAL CHARACTER. He endows man
with a constitution properly supernatural, with capacities and
faculties
higher than those which are amenable to physical law. Interesting
as is the
necessary development of the universe under the control of natural
forces,
far more interesting is the unfolding of the moral character
of men. This,
indeed, is for us the most significant and momentous of all
things that exist.
Man is made not merely to enjoy
or to suffer, but to form character, to
acquire habits of virtue and piety; to
become assimilated, in moral
disposition and purpose, to the Divine Author of His being. To this end all
circumstances may conduce; for experience shows us that there is no
condition of human life, no range of human experience, which may not
minister to spiritual improvement and welfare.
·
GOD IS THE RIGHTFUL RULER AND JUDGE OF MEN. All
human relationships fail adequately to set forth the character
and offices of
the Eternal; yet many such relationships serve to afford us
some glimpse
into the excellences
of Him who is judicially and morally the Supreme.
There is no incompatibility
between the representation that God is a Father,
and that which attributes to Him the functions of a Judge. The
human
relationships are based upon the Divine, and it is unjust to regard the
human as simply figures of the Divine. Having all power, God is
able to
apportion the lot of the creature; being infinitely righteous, such
apportionment on His part must be beyond all criticism and censure. The
life of man should be lived under a constant sense of the Divine observation
and judgment; for
thus the probationer of earth will secure the advantage
of the loftiest standard of righteousness, and the motive to
rectitude and to
progress which the Divine government is fitted to supply. Distributive
justice — to use the expression familiar in moral philosophy — is
the
function of the Supreme.
·
GOD HIMSELF DETERMINES THE MEASURE IN WHICH
RETRIBUTION SHALL BE CARRIED OUT IN THIS EARTHLY LIFE.
The passage now under
consideration lays stress upon the earthly reward
and penalty, though it does not represent these as exhaustive
and complete.
“God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and
knowledge, and
joy.” This is
something very different from what is termed “poetical
justice;” these are gifts which are consistent with adversity and
affliction. In
fact, the lesson seems to be conveyed that moral goodness meets
with
moral recompense, as distinct from the doctrine of children’s
story-books,
which teach that “virtue will be rewarded with a coach-and-six”!
And the
sinner is warned that he will receive the reward of his sin in
travail,
disappointment, and dissatisfaction. “Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall
he also reap.” A man
must be blind who does not see in the constitution of
human nature and human society the traces of a righteous
Lawgiver and
Administrator; and at the same
time, the man must be short-sighted who
does not detect indications of incompleteness in these judicial
arrangements.
·
GOD GIVES US IN THE PARTIAL RETRIBUTION OF THE
PRESENT A SUGGESTION OF A
LIFE TO COME, IN WHICH HIS
GOVERNMENT SHALL BE COMPLETED AND VINDICATED. That
the convictions and expectations of the ancient Hebrews with
regard to a
future existence were as developed and decisive as those of
Christians,
none would contend. But this and other books afford indications
that the
enlightened Jews had an anticipation of judgment to come. If this
world
were all, vanity and vexation of spirit would have been the
only impression
produced by the experience and contemplation of human life. But it was
seen, even if dimly, that this earthly state requires, in order
to its
completeness, an immortality which is the scene of Divine judgment and of
human retribution.
Piety and Impiety; Recompense and Penalty
(v. 26)
We ask and answer the twofold question, viz. what is:
antecedently.
Ø
That piety would be richly rewarded; for who would not expect that
the bountiful, just, and resourceful Father would give
liberally, in many
ways, to those who sought His favor, and were “good in His sight”?
Ø
That impiety would bear plain marks of Divine disapproval; for
who would suppose:
o
that men would defy
their Maker,
o
break His laws,
o
injure His children,
o
spoil His holy and
benignant purpose, and
not suffer marked and
manifold evils as the just penalty of
their presumption and their guilt? We naturally look for much
happiness and prosperity in
piety, much misery and defeat
in impiety!
Ø
That God does reward
His servants. The Preacher mentions three
good gifts of his hand; they are not exhaustive, though they
include or
suggest much of the righteous
man’s heritage.
o
Knowledge. Most of all and best of all, the
knowledge of God
Himself; and to know God is the very essence and substance of
true human life, and beside this, the knowledge of man. It is, in
truth, only the good
man who understands human nature.
Vice and iniquity,
flatter themselves that they have this
knowledge. But it is
mistaken; its conception of mankind is
distorted, erroneous, FATALLY MISTAKEN. It does not
know what it is in man to be and to do and to become. “Only the
good discern the good,” and only they have a knowledge of
our
race which is profoundly true.
o
Wisdom. An enlightened conception of human life, so that its
beauty and its blessedness are APPRECIATED
AND
PURSUED, so that, on the other hand, its
ugliness and its
evil are RECOGNIZED AND
SHUNNED. The wisdom of
the wise includes also that practical good sense which keeps its
disciples from the mistakes and entanglements that lead
to
destitution, which also leads its possessors to heights of
honor and well-being.
o
Joy. In the worship of Christ, in the service of man, in the
culture
of our own character, in walking along the path of sacred
duty
and holy usefulness, is abounding and abiding joy.
Ø
That sin is visited with penalty. Do we find that God giveth “to the
sinner travail, to gather and to heap up”? We do.
o
Sin necessitates the
worst of all bad labors:
§
that of deliberately
and persistently breaking down the
walls of conscience,
§
of breaking through
the fences which the God of
righteousness and love has put up to guard his
children from moral evil.
(Ten Commandments)
o
Sin includes much hurtful and damaging struggle against the
will
and against the laws of the wise and good. Bad men have to
encounter and to contest the opposition of the upright.
o
Sin frequently means low and degrading toil. The “sinner” is
brought down so low that he is fain to “go
into the fields to feed
swine” (Luke 15:16); to do that from which he would once have
indignantly recoiled.
o
Sin constantly condemns the toiler to
labor on in UTTER
DISCONTENT, IF NOT IN POSITIVE
WRETCHEDNESS
OF SOUL! LIFE WITHOUT the light of HEAVENLY
TRUTH
and the song of sacred service proves an
INTOLERABLE
BURDEN! (Dear Reader: If you
do not
know Jesus
today I would like to refer you to “How to Be Saved” –
# 5 – this web site – CY – 2013)
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