Ecclesiastes 12:5

also when they shall be afraid of that which is high The description becomes more and more enigmatic, possibly, as some have thought, because the special forms of infirmity referred to called for a veil. The first clause, however, is fairly clear if we omit the interpolated "when." They (the indefinite plural, with the force of the French on) shall be afraid of a height, or hill. The new form of the sentence, the opening words also, indicate that the picture of the storm has been completed, and that symbolism of another kind comes in. We see, as it were, another slide in the magic lantern of the exhibiter. To be "afraid of a hill" expresses not merely or chiefly the failure of strength of limbs to climb mountains, but the temper that, as we say, makes "mountains out of molehills," which, like the slothful man of Proverbs 22:13, sees "a lion in the path." There are "fears in the way." Imaginary terrors haunt the aged. Here again we have a parallel in Latin poetry:

"Multa senem circumveniunt incommoda; vel quòd

Quærit et inventis miser abstinet, ac timet uti,

Vel quòd res omnes timidè gelidèque ministrat."

"Many the troubles that attend the old;

For either still he sets his mind on gains

And dares not touch, and fears to use his gains,

Or deals with all things as with chill of fear."

Horace, Ep. ad Pis.169 71.

So Aristotle among the characteristics of age notes that the old are δειλοὶ καὶ πάντα προφοβητικοὶ (timid and in all things forecasting fears) (Rhet. ii. 23). The interpreters who carry the idea of a storm through the whole passage explain the passage: "They (the people of the city) shall be afraid of that which is coming from on high," i.e.of the gathering storm-clouds, but for the reasons above given, that interpretation seems untenable.

and the almond tree shall flourish The true meaning is to be found, it is believed, in the significance of the Hebrew name for almond tree (Sheked= the early waking tree, comp. Jeremiah 1:11), and the enigmatic phrase describes the insomniawhich often attends old age. The tree that flourishes there is the tree of Vigilantiaor Wakefulness. As might be expected, the discordant interpretations of commentators multiply, and we may record, but only in order to reject them, the more notable of these. (1) The almond blossoms represent the white hairs of age. Those blossoms are, however, pink and not white, and few persons would find a likeness in the two objects thus compared. (2) The verb rendered "shall flourish" has been derived from a root with the meaning "to loathe scorn reject," and the sentence has been explained either (2) he (the old man) loathes the almond, i.e.has no taste for dainties, or (3) turns away from the almond tree, i.e.has no welcome for the messenger of spring, or (4), with the same sense as (2), "the almond causes loathing." Anatomical expositors strain their fancies to find in the almond that which answers to (5) the thigh bone, or (6) the vertebral column, or some other part of the body which age affects with weakness. Into the discussion what part best answers to the almond we need not follow them.

and the grasshopper shall be a burden The word translated "grasshopper" is one of the many terms used, as in 2 Chronicles 7:13, for insects of the locust class, as in Leviticus 11:22; Numbers 13:33; Isaiah 40:22, where the A. V. has "grasshopper." It will be noted that in some of these passages (Numbers 13:33; Isaiah 40:22) it plays the part of the "mustard seed" of the Gospel parable (Matthew 13:31) as the type of that which is the extreme of diminutiveness. And this we can scarcely doubt is its meaning here. "That which is least weighty is a burden to the timidity of age." Assuming the writer to have come in contact with the forms of Greek life, the words may receive an illustration from its being the common practice of the Athenians to wear a golden grasshopper in their heads as the symbol of their being autochthones, "sprung from the soil." Such an ornament is to the old man more than he cares to carry, and becomes another symbol of his incapacity to support the least physical or mental burden. As before we note a wide variety of other, but, it is believed, less tenable, explanations. (1) The locust has been looked on as, like the almond, another dainty article of food, which the terror of the storm, or the loss of appetite in age, renders unattractive. Commonly indeed they are said to have been eaten only by the poor, but Aristotle (Hist. Anim. v. 30) names them as a delicacy, and the Arabs are said to consider them as such now (Ginsburg). Entering once more on the region of anatomical exposition we have the grasshopper taken (2) for the bone of the pelviswhich becomes sharp and prominent in age, (3) for the stomach which swells with dropsy, (4) for the ankles swelling from the same cause, and so on through various other members.

and desire shall fail The word translated "desire" is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament, and this rendering rests on a somewhat doubtful etymology. The LXX. version, which may be admitted as shewing in what sense the word was taken at a very early date, and with which the Rabbinic use of the word agrees, gives κάππαρις, which the Vulgate reproduces in capparis, i.e.the caper or Capparis spinosaof botanists. It is in favour of this rendering that it preserves the enigmatic symbolism of the two previous clauses, while "desire" simply gives an abstract unfigurative term, out of harmony with the context. Possibly indeed the name was given to the plant as indicating its qualities as a restorative and stimulant (Plutarch, Sympos.; Athenæus, Deipnos, ix. p. 405). The pickled capers of modern cookery are the buds of the shrub, but the berries and leaves are reputed to possess the same virtues. Hence one of the Epicures in Athenæus (Deipnos. ix. p. 370) takes Νὴ τὸν κάππαριν (By the caper!) as a favourite oath, just as a modern gourmetmight swear by some favourite sauce. So understood the meaning of the passage seems fairly clear. The caper-berry shall fall, i.e.shall no longer rouse the flagging appetite of age. There shall be a longa oblivioof what the man had most delighted in. It would seem indeed from the account of the capparisgiven by Pliny (Hist. Nat.xx. 59) that its medicinal virtues were of a very varied character. It was a remedy for paralysis and diseases of the kidneys and the liver, for tooth-ache and ear-ache, for scrofula and phagedænic ulcers. The words describe accordingly the infirmity which no drugs, however potent, can cure. It is as when Shakespeare says that "poppy and mandragora" shall fail to minister the "sweet sleep" of yesterday, as when we say of a man in the last stage of decrepitude that "no quinine or phosphorus will help him now." See the Ideal Biographyin the Introduction, ch. iii. So understood the Debater speaks with a scorn like that of Euripides (Suppl. 1060) of the attempts of the old to revive their flagging desires and avert the approach of death.

μισῶ δʼ ὅσοι χρῄζουσιν ἐκτείνειν βίον

λουτροῖσι, καὶ στρωμναῖσι καὶ μαγέυμασιν.

"I hate them, those who seek to lengthen life

With baths, and pillows, and quack-doctor's drugs."

Substantially most commentators agree in this meaning. The anatomical school, however, identify it, as before, with this or that bodily organ affected by old age, and one writer (Rosenmüller) thinks that the point of comparison is found in the fact that the caper-berry as it ripens, bends the stalk with its weight, and then splits open and lets the seeds fall out.

because man goeth to his long home Literally, to the house of his eternity, i.e. to his eternal home. The description of the decay of age is followed by that of death as the close of all, and for a time, perhaps to link together the two symbolical descriptions, the language of figurative imagery is dropped. The "eternal home" is, of course, the grave (the phrase is stated by Ginsburg to be in common use among modern Jews), or more probably, Sheol, or Hades, the dwelling-place of the dead. In Tob 3:6, "the everlasting place" seems used of the felicity of Paradise, and it is, at least, obvious that the thought of immortality, though not prominent, is not excluded here. The term Domus æternaappears often on the tombs of Rome in Christian as well as non-Christian inscriptions, probably as equivalent to the "everlasting habitations" of Luke 16:9, and in these cases it clearly connotes more than an "eternal sleep." An interesting parallel is found in the Assyrian legend of Ishtar, in which Hades is described as the "House of Eternity," the "House men enter, but cannot depart from; the Road men go to, but cannot return" (Records of the Past, i. 143).

the mourners go about the streets Literally, in the singular, the street or market-place. The words bring before us the most prominent feature of Eastern funerals. The burial-place was always outside the city, and the body was borne on an open bier through the streets and open places of the city, and the hired mourners, men and women, followed with their wailing cries, praising the virtues, or lamenting the death, of the deceased (2 Samuel 3:31; Jeremiah 22:10; Jeremiah 22:18; Mark 5:38). Sometimes these were short and simple, like the "Ah brother! Ah, sister! Ah, his glory!" of Jeremiah 22:18. Sometimes they developed into elegiac poems like the lamentations of David over Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17-27), and Abner (2 Samuel 3:32-34). So we have in the Talmud (quoted by Dukes, Rabbin. Blumenlese, pp. 256, 257) examples such as the following, "The palms wave their heads for the just man who was like a palm" "If the fire falls upon the cedar what shall the hyssop on the wall do?" It is obvious that such elegies would often take the form of a figurative description of death, and that which follows in the next verse may well have been an echo from some such elegy.