Ecclesiastes 1:16

Lo, I am come to great estate The pronoun is used emphatically. The verb in the Hebrew is connected closely with what follows and speaks not of outward majesty but of "becoming great," in wisdom. So taken we may read, " I became great and increased in wisdom more than all. " We note again, as in Ecclesiastes 1:13, the kind of dialogue which the Debater holds with his inner consciousness. He "communes with his heart" (comp. Psalms 4:4; Psalms 77:6). So Marcus Aurelius gave to the book which we call his Meditations, the title τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν literally, "Things for myself" or "Self-communings."

they that have been before me in Jerusalem Better, " over Jerusalem. " Those who maintain the late origin of the book point to this apparent retrospect over a long series of predecessors as betraying, or possibly as intended to indicate, the pseudonymous authorship. The historical Solomon, it is said, had but one predecessor over Jerusalem. The inference is, however, scarcely conclusive. Even on the theory of personated authorship, the writer would scarcely have slipped into so glaring an anachronism, and the words admit of being referred, on either view, either to the line of unknown Jebusite rulers, including perhaps Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18), Adonizedek (Joshua 15:63; 2 Samuel 5:7) and others, or to the sages "Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman and Chalcol and Darda the sons of Mahol," who are named in 1 Kings 4:31, and who may, in some sense, as teachers and guides, have been "over" as well as "in" Jerusalem. Some MSS. indeed give the preposition "in" instead of "over."

my heart had great experience More literally, and at the same time more poetically, my heart hath seen much wisdom and knowledge. The two nouns are related, like the Greek σοφία and ἐπιστημὴ, the former expressing the ethical, the latter the speculative, scientific side of knowledge.