Both the righteous die in his righteousness,
And the wicked live long in his wickedness:
16 Be not too righteous therefore,
Nor make thyself too wise lest thou be abandoned;
17 Be not very wicked, nor yet very foolish,
Lest thou die before thy time:
18 It is better that thou shouldest lay hold of this
And also not let go of that;
For whoso feareth God will take hold on both.
VER. 18. _This ... and that._ _This__ refers to the folly
and wickedness of ver. 17, and _that_ to the wisdom and
righteousness of ver. 16. _Take hold on both._ Literally,
"go along with both."
19 This wisdom alone is greater strength to the wise
Than an army to a beleaguered city;
VER. 19. _This wisdom_: viz. the moderate common-sense view
of life which has just been described. _Than an army_, etc.
Literally, "Than _ten_ (_i.e._ many) mighty men in a city."
20 For there is not a righteous man on earth
Who doeth good and sinneth not.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: (2) _To be indifferent to Censure_: Ch. vii., vv. 21, 22.]
21 Moreover seek not to know all that is said of thee,
Lest thou hear thy servant speak evil of thee;
VER. 21. _Seek not to know_, etc. Literally, "Give not thy
_heart_ (even if thy ears) to all words that are uttered."
22 For thou knowest in thine heart
That thou also hast many times spoken evil of others.
23 All this wisdom have I tried;
I desired a higher wisdom, but it was far from me;
24 That which was far off remaineth far off,
And deep remaineth deep:
Who can find it out?
[Sidenote: (3) _To despise Women_; Ch. vii., vv. 25-29.]
25 Then I and my heart turned to know this wisdom
And diligently examine it--
To discover the cause of wickedness, vice,
And that folly which is madness:
26 And I found woman more bitter than death;
She is a net;
Her heart is a snare, and her hands are chains:
Whoso is good before God shall escape her,
But the sinner shall be taken by her.
27 Behold, what I have found, saith the Preacher--
Taking things one by one to reach the result--
28 I have found one man among a thousand,
But in all that number a woman have I not found:
29 Lo, this only have I found,
That God made man upright,
But that they seek out many devices.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: (4) _And to be indifferent to Public Wrongs._ Ch. viii.,
vv. 1-13.]
1 Who is like the wise man?
And who like him that understandeth the interpretation of this saying?
The wisdom of this man maketh his face bright,
And his rude features are refined.
VER. 1. _This saying_: _i.e._ that which follows. _And his
rude features_, etc. Culture lends an air of refinement to
the face, carriage, manners.
2 I say then, Obey the king's commandment,
And the rather because of the oath of fealty:
8?
VER. 2. _The oath of fealty._ Literally, "the oath by God."
The Babylonian and Persian despots exacted an oath of
loyalty from conquered races. Each had to swear by the god
he worshipped.
3 Do not throw off thine allegiance,
Nor resent an evil word,
For he can do whatsoever he please;
VER. 3. _Do not throw off_, etc. Literally, "Do not hurry
from his presence, or even stand up because of an evil
word." To stand up in the divan of an Eastern despot is a
sign of resentment; to rush from it a sign of disloyalty and
rebellion.
4 For the word of a king is mighty;
And who shall say to him, "What doest thou?"
5 Whoso keepeth his commandment will know no evil.
Moreover the heart of the wise man foreseeth a time of retribution--
6 For there is a time of retribution for all things--
When the tyranny of man is heavy upon him:
7 Because he knoweth not what will be,
And because no one can tell him when it will be.
VER. 7. _Because he knoweth not_; _i.e._ the tyrant does not
know. The sense seems to be: Retribution is all the more
certain because, in his infatuation, the despot does not
foresee the disastrous results of his tyranny, and because
no one can tell him when or how they will disclose
themselves.
8 No man is ruler over his own spirit,
To retain the spirit,
Nor has he any power over the day of his death;
And there is no furlough in this war,
And no craft will save the wicked.
9 All this have I seen,
Having applied my heart to all that is done under the sun.
VER. 9.: _All this have I seen; i.e._ all this retribution
on tyrants and the consequent deliverance of the oppressed.
10 But there is a time when a man ruleth over men to their hurt.
Thus I have seen wicked men buried,
And come again;
And those who did right depart from the place of the holy,
And be forgotten in the city:
This also is vanity.
VER. 10.: But the Preacher has also seen times when
retributive justice did _not_ overtake the oppressors, when
they _came again_ in the persons of children as wicked and
tyrannical as themselves.
11 Because sentence against an evil deed is not executed forthwith,
The heart of the sons of men is set in them to do evil.
VER. 11.: _Because sentence_, etc. "God does not always pay
on Saturdays," says an old Italian proverb.
12 Though a sinner do evil a hundred years,
And groweth old therein,
Yet I know that it shall be well with those who fear God,
Who truly fear before Him;
13 And it shall not be well with the wicked,
But, like a shadow, he shall not prolong his days,
Because he doth not fear before God.
[Sidenote: _Therefore the Preacher condemns this View of Human Life._]
14 Nevertheless, this vanity doth happen on the earth,
That there are righteous men who have a wage like that of the wicked,
And there are wicked men who have a wage like that of the righteous:
This too, I said, is vanity.
15 And I commended mirth,
Because there is nothing better for man under the sun
Than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry;
For this will go with him to his work
Through the days of his life,
Which God giveth him under the sun.
VER. 15.: "And _this_ will go with him:" viz. this clear
enjoying temper, than which, as yet, the Preacher has found
"nothing better."
FOURTH SECTION.
_THE QUEST OF THE CHIEF GOOD ACHIEVED._
CHAP. VIII., VER. 16, TO CHAP. XII., VER. 7.
[Sidenote: _The Chief Good not to be found in Wisdom_:
Ch. viii., v. 16.-Ch. ix., v. 6.]
16 As then I applied my heart to acquire wisdom,
And to see the work which is done under the sun--
And such a one seeth no sleep with his eyes by day or by night:
17 I saw that man cannot find out all the work of God
Which is done under the sun;
Though man labour to discover it,
He cannot find it out;
And though the wise may say he understandeth it
Nevertheless he hath not found it out.
VER. 17.: To illustrate this verse Dean Plumptre happily
quotes Hooker's noble and familiar words: "Dangerous it were
for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of
the Most High; whom although to know be life, and joy to
make mention of His name, yet our soundest knowledge is to
know that we know Him not as indeed He is, neither can know
Him, and our safest eloquence concerning Him is our silence,
when we confess without confession that His glory is
inexplicable, his greatness above our capacity and reach."
[Sidenote: ix.]
1 For all this have I taken to heart and explored,
That the righteous, and the wise, and their labours are in the
hand of God:
They know not whether they shall meet love or hatred;
All lies before them.
All are treated alike;
VER. 1.: _They know not whether they shall meet love or
hatred_ may mean that even the wisest cannot tell whether
they shall meet (1) the love or the enmity of God, as shown
in adverse or favourable providences; or (2) the things
which they love or hate; or (3) the love or the hatred of
their fellows. The last of the three seems the most likely.
_All lies before them; i.e._ all possible chances, changes,
events. Only God can determine or foresee what is coming to
meet them.
2 The same fate befalleth to the righteous and to the wicked,
To the good and pure and to the impure,
To him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not;
As with the good so is it with the sinner,
With him that sweareth as with him who feareth an oath.
3 This is the greatest evil of all that is done under the sun,
That there is one fate for all:
And that, although the heart of the sons of men is full of evil,
And madness is in their hearts through life,
Yet, after it, they go to the dead;
VER. 3.: The words of this verse do not, as they stand, seem
to carry on the logical sequence of thought. The Preacher's
complaint is that even the wise and the good are not
exempted from the common fate, not that the foolish and
reckless are exposed to it. The text may be corrupt; but
Ginsburg is content with it. A good reading of it, however,
is still wanting.
4 For who is exempted?
To all the living there is hope,
For a living dog is better than a dead lion;
5 For the living know that they shall die,
But the dead know not anything;
And there is no more any compensation to them,
For the very memory of them is gone:
6 Their love, too, no less than their hatred and rivalry, hath perished;
And there is no part for them in ought that is done under the sun.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _Nor in Pleasure:_ Ch. ix., vv. 7-12.]
7 Go, then, eat thy bread with gladness,
And drink thy wine with a merry heart,
Since God hath accepted thy works:
8 Let thy garments be always white;
Let no perfume be lacking to thy head:
9 And enjoy thyself with any woman whom thou lovest
All the days of thy life
Which He giveth thee under the sun,
All thy fleeting days:
For this is thy portion in life,
And in the labour which thou labourest under the sun.
VER. 9.: "Enjoy thyself with _any_ woman." The word here
rendered "woman" does not mean "wife." And as the Hebrew
Preacher is here speaking under the mask of the lover of
pleasure, this immoral maxim is at least consistent with the
part he plays. More than one good critic, however, read "a
wife" for "any woman."
10 Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do,
Do it whilst thou art able;
For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Hades,
Whither thou goest.
11 Then I turned and saw under the sun,
That the race is not to the swift,
Nor the battle to the strong;
Nor yet bread to the wise,
Nor riches to the intelligent,
Nor favour to the learned;
12 But time and chance happen to all,
And that man doth not even know his time:
Like fish taken in a fatal net,
And like birds caught in a snare,
So are the sons of men entrapped in the time of their calamity,
When it falleth suddenly upon them.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _Nor in Devotion to Public Affairs and its Rewards_: Ch.
ix., v. 13-Ch. x. v. 20.]
13 This wisdom also have I seen under the sun,
And it seemed great to me--
14 There was a little city,
And few men in it,
And a great king came against it and besieged it,
And threw up a military causeway against it:
15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man,
And he saved that city by his wisdom;
Yet no one remembered this same poor man.
16 Therefore say I,
Though wisdom is better than strength,
Yet the wisdom of the poor is despised,
And his words are not listened to:
17 Though the quiet words of the wise have much advantage
Over the vociferations of a fool of fools,
And wisdom is better than weapons of war,
Yet one fool destroyeth much good:
[Sidenote: x.]
1 As a dead fly maketh sweet ointment to stink,
So a little folly overpowereth (much) wisdom and honour.
2 Nevertheless the mind of the wise man turns toward his right hand,
But the mind of the fool to his left;
3 For so soon as the fool setteth his foot in the street
He betrayeth his lack of understanding;
Yet he saith of every one (he meeteth), "He is a fool!"
VER. 3.: _Setteth his foot in the street._ Literally,
"walketh in the road." The sentence seems to be a proverb
used to denote the extreme stupidity of the fool who, the
very moment he leaves his house, is bewildered, cannot even
find his way from one familiar spot to another, and sees his
own folly in every face he meets.
4 If the anger of thy ruler be kindled against thee,
Resent it not:
Patience will avert a graver wrong.
VER. 4.: _Resent it not._ Literally, "Quit not thy
place."--See note on chapter viii., ver. 3.
5 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun,
An outrage which only a ruler can commit:
6 A great fool is lifted to high place,
While the noble sit degraded:
7 I have seen servants upon horses,
And masters walking like servants on the ground.
VER. 7.: To ride upon a horse is still a mark of distinction
in many Eastern States. In Turkish cities, till of late, no
Christian was permitted to ride any nobler beast than an ass
or a mule: so neither were the Jews, in the Middle Ages, in
any Christian city.
8 Yet he that diggeth a pit shall fall into it;
And whoso breaketh down a wall a serpent shall bite him;
9 He who pulleth down stones shall be hurt therewith;
And whoso cleaveth logs shall be cut.
10 If the axe be blunt, and he do not whet the edge,
He must put on more strength;
But wisdom should teach him to sharpen it.
VER. 10.: Ginsburg renders this difficult and much-disputed
passage thus: "If the axe be blunt, and he do not sharpen it
beforehand, he shall only increase the army; the advantage
of repairing hath wisdom," and explains it as meaning: "If
any insulted subject lift a blunt axe against the trunk of
despotism, he will only make the tyrant increase his army,
and thereby augment his own sufferings; but it is the
prerogative of wisdom to repair the mischief which such
precipitate folly occasions." I have offered what seems a
simpler explanation in the comment on this passage, and have
tried to give a simpler, yet not less accurate, rendering in
the text. But there are almost as many readings of this
difficult verse as there are critics; and it is impossible
to do more than make a hesitating choice among them.
11 If the serpent bite because it is not charmed,
There is no advantage to the charmer.
VER. 11.: _The charmer._ Literally, "the master of the
tongue." The allusion of the phrase is of course to the
subtle cantillations by which the charmer drew, or was
thought to draw, serpents from their "lurk," and to render
them harmless.
12 The words of the wise man's mouth win him grace;
But the lips of a fool swallow him up,
13 For the words of his mouth are folly at the beginning,
And end in malignant madness.
14 The fool is full of words,
Though no man knoweth what shall be,
Either here or hereafter:
And who can tell him?
15 The work of a fool wearieth him,
For he cannot even find his way to the city.
VER. 15.: _He cannot even find his way to the city_; a
proverbial saying. It denotes the fool who has not wit
enough even to keep a high road, to walk in the beaten path
which leads to a capital city. The thought was evidently
familiar to Jewish literature; for Isaiah (xxxv. 8) speaks
of the way of holiness as a highway in which "wayfaring men,
_though fools_, shall not err."
16 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child,
And thy princes feast in the morning!
17 Happy art thou, O land, when thy king is noble,
And thy princes eat at due hours,
For strength and not for revelry!
18 Through slothful hands the roof falleth in,
And through lazy hands the house lets in the rain.
VERS. 18, 19.: _And money pays for all; i.e._ the money of
the people. The slothful prodigal rulers, under whose
mal-administration the whole fabric of the State was fast
falling into decay, extorted the means for their profligate
revelry from their toil-worn and oppressed subjects. It is
significant of the caution induced by the extreme tyranny of
the time, that the whole description of its political
condition is conveyed in proverbs more enigmatical than
usual, and capable of being interpreted in more senses than
one.
19 They turn bread, and wine, which cheereth life, into revelry;
And money has to pay for all.
20 Nevertheless revile not the king even in thy thoughts,
Nor a prince even in thy bed-chamber,
Lest the bird of the air carry the report,
And the winged tribes tell the story.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _But in a wise Use and a wise Enjoyment of the Present
Life_; Ch. xi., vv. 1-8.]
1 Cast thy bread upon the waters,
For in time thou mayest find the good of it;
2 Give a portion to seven, and even to eight,
For thou knowest not what calamity may come upon the earth.
3 When the clouds are full of rain,
They empty it upon the earth;
And when the tree falleth, toward south or north,
In the place where the tree falleth there will it lie.
4 Whoso watcheth the wind shall not sow,
And he who observeth the clouds shall not reap;
5 As thou knowest the course of the wind
As little as that of the embryo in the womb of the pregnant,
So thou knowest not the work of God,
Who worketh all things.
6 Sow, then, thy seed in the morning,
And slack not thy hand in the evening,
Since thou knowest not which shall prosper, this or that,
Or whether both shall prove good:
7 And the light shall be sweet to thee,
And it shall be pleasant to thine eyes to behold the sun:
8 For even if a man should live many years,
He ought to rejoice in them all,
And to remember that there will be many dark days;
Yea, that all that cometh is vanity.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _Combined with a stedfast Faith in the Life to come._ Ch.
xi., v. 9-Ch. xii., v. 7.]
9 Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth,
And let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth;
And pursue the ways of thine heart,
And that which thine eyes desire;
And know that for all these
God will bring thee into judgment:
10 Banish, therefore, care from thy mind,
And put away sadness from thy flesh,
For youth and manhood are vanity.
[Sidenote: xii.]
And remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth,
Before the evil days come,
And the years approach of which thou shalt say,
"I have no pleasure in them;"
2 Before the sun groweth dark,
And the light, and the moon, and the stars;
And the clouds return after the rain:
3 When the keepers of the house shall quake,
And the men of power crouch down;
When the grinding-maids shall stop because so few are left,
And the women who look out of the lattices shall be shrouded in darkness,
And the door shall be closed on the street:
VER. 3.: _The women who look out of the lattices; i.e._ the
luxurious ladies of the harem looking through their windows
to see what is going on outside. Compare Judges v. 28; 2
Samuel vi. 16; and 2 Kings ix. 30.
4 When the sound of the mills shall cease,
And the swallow fly shrieking to and fro,
And all the song-birds drop silently into their nests.
VER. 4.: _The swallow_, etc. Literally, "_the_ bird shall
arise for a noise," _i.e._ the bird which flies abroad and
makes a noise at the approach of a tempest: viz. the
swallow. _All the songbirds._ Literally, "all the daughters
of song," a Hebraism for birds.
5 There shall be terror at that which cometh from the height,
And fear shall beset the highway:
The almond also shall be rejected,
And the locust be loathed,
And the caper-berry provoke no appetite;
Because man goeth to his long home,
And the mourners pace up and down the street;--
VER. 5.: _From the height, i.e._ from heaven. _The locust be
loathed._ It is commonly assumed that the locust was only
eaten by the poor; but Aristotle (_Hist. Anim._, v. 30)
names them as a delicacy, and Ginsburg affirms that they are
still considered so by the cultivated and well-to-do Arabs.
_His long home._ Literally, "his _eternal_ home," the domus
aeterna of the early Christian tombs.
6 Before the silver cord snappeth asunder,
And the golden bowl escapeth;
Before the pitcher be shattered at the fountain,
And the wheel is broken at the well;
7 And the body is cast into the earth from which it came,
And the spirit returneth to God who gave it.
THE EPILOGUE.
_IN WHICH THE PROBLEM OF THE BOOK IS CONCLUSIVELY SOLVED._
CHAP. XII., VV. 8-14.
8 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher,
All is vanity!
9 And not only was the Preacher a wise man;
He also taught the people wisdom,
And compared, collected, and arranged many proverbs.
10 The Preacher sought out words of comfort,
And wrote down in uprightness words of truth.
11 The words of the Wise are like goads,
And those of the Masters of the Assemblies like spikes driven home,
Given out by the same Shepherd.
12 And of what is more than these, my son, beware;
For of making of many books there is no end,
And much study is a weariness to the flesh.
13 The conclusion of the matter is this;--
That God taketh cognisance of all things:
Fear Him, therefore, and keep his commandments,
For this it behoveth every man to do,
VER. 13.: _God taketh cognisance of all things._ Literally,
"Everything is noted" or "heard," _i.e._ by God the Judge.
Ginsburg conjectures, not without reason, as I think, that
the Sacred Name was omitted from this clause of the verse
simply because the Author wished to reserve it for the more
emphatic clause which follows it. Many good scholars,
however, read the clause as meaning simply, "The conclusion
of the matter, _when all has been heard," i.e._ which even
the Sages can adduce.
14 Since God will bring every deed to the judgment
Appointed for every secret thing,
Whether it be good or whether it be bad.
EXPOSITION.
THE PROLOGUE.
_IN WHICH THE PROBLEM OF THE BOOK IS INDIRECTLY STATED._
CHAP. I., VV. 1-11.
The search for the _summum bonum_, the quest of the Chief Good, is the
theme of the Book Ecclesiastes. Naturally we look to find this theme,
problem, this "riddle of the painful earth," distinctly stated in the
opening verses of the Book. It is stated, but not distinctly. For the
Book is an autobiographical poem, the journal of the Preacher's inward
life set forth in a dramatic form. "A man of ripe wisdom and mature
experience, he takes us into his confidence. He unclasps the secret
volume, and invites us to read it with him. He lays before us what he
has been, what he has thought and done, what he has seen and felt and
suffered; and then he asks us to listen to the judgment which he has
deliberately formed on a review of the whole."[24] But that he may the
more reservedly lay bare his heart to us, he uses the Poet's
privilege, and presents himself to us under a mask and wrapped in
Solomon's ample mantle. And a dramatic poet conveys his conceptions of
human character and circumstance and action, not by direct picturesque
descriptions, but, placing men before us "in their habit as they
lived," he makes them speak to us, and leaves us to infer their
character and condition from their words.
[24] Dean Perowne, in _The Expositor_, First Series, vol. ix.
In accordance with the rules of his art, the dramatic Preacher brings
himself on the stage of his poem, permits us to hear his most
penetrating and characteristic utterances, confesses his own most
secret and inward experiences, and thus enables us to conceive and to
judge him. He is true to his artistic canons from the outset. His
prologue, unlike that of the Book of Job, is cast in the dramatic
form. Instead of giving us a clear statement of the moral problem he
is about to discuss, he opens with the characteristic utterances of
the man who, wearied with many futile endeavours, gathers up his
remaining strength to recount the experiments he has tried and the
conclusion he has reached. Like Browning, one of the most dramatic of
modern poets, he plunges abruptly into his theme, and speaks to us
from the first through "feigned lips." Just as in reading the
_Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister_, or the _Epistle of Karshish, the
Arab Physician_, or a score other of Browning's Poems, we have first
to glance through it in order to collect the scattered hints which
indicate the speaker and the time, and then laboriously to think
ourselves back, by their help, into the time and conditions of the
speaker, so also with this Hebrew poem. It opens abruptly with "words
of the Preacher," who is at once the author and the hero of the drama.
"Who is he," we ask, "and what?" "When did he live, and what place did
he fill?" And at present we can only reply, He is the voice of one
crying in the wilderness of Oriental antiquity, and saying, "Vanity of
vanities! _all_ is vanity!"[25] For what intent, then, does his voice
break the long silence? Of what ethical mood is this pathetic note the
expression? What prompts his despairing cry?
[25] Compare Horace (Od. iv. 7, 9): _Pulvis et umbra sumus_.