_Keep thy foot_ In the Heb., LXX. and Vulg. this verse forms the conclusion to chap. 4. The English version is obviously right, however, in its division of the chapter. The moralist reviews a new region of experience. "Vanity" has been found in all that belongs to the outward secular life of men. Is... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be not rash with thy mouth_ The rule follows the worshipper from the threshold into the Temple-court and tells him how he is to act there. We are reminded of our Lord's warning against "vain repetitions," after the manner of the heathen (Matthew 6:7). The second clause, though parallel to the first... [ Continue Reading ]
_For a dream cometh through the multitude of business_ The one psychological fact is meant to illustrate the other. The mind that has lost the power to re-collect itself, haunted and harassed by the cares of many things, cannot enjoy the sweet and calm repose of a dreamless slumber, and that fevered... [ Continue Reading ]
_When thou vowest a vow unto God_ The words are almost a reproduction of Deuteronomy 23:22-24. They point to a time when vows, such as are here referred to, entered largely into men's personal religion. Memorable instances of such vows are found in the lives of Jacob (Genesis 28:20), Jephthah (Judge... [ Continue Reading ]
_Better is it that thou shouldest not vow_ The point which the Teacher seeks to press is obviously the optional character of vows. They form no part of the essentials of religion, they are to be deprecated rather than otherwise; but to make them, and then delay or evade their fulfilment, is to tampe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin_ The "mouth" may refer either to the thoughtless utterance of the rash vow, such as that of Jephthah (Judges 11:30) or Saul (1 Samuel 14:24), or to the appetite which leads the man who has made a vow, say of the Nazarite type, to indulge in the drink o... [ Continue Reading ]
_For in the multitude of dreams_ The order of the words in the A. V. is not that of the Hebrew, which gives _For in the multitude of dreams and vanities and many words_, but is adopted by many commentators as representing a more correct text. The introduction of the word "vanities" (the "divers" of... [ Continue Reading ]
_If thou seest the oppression of the poor_ From the follies of the religious life we pass to the disorders of the political. As in ch. Ecclesiastes 4:16, the thinker looks on those disorders of the world, "the poor man's wrong, the proud man's contumely," and teaches others how he has learnt to thin... [ Continue Reading ]
_Moreover the profit of the earth is for all_ The verse is difficult and has been very variously interpreted. The most satisfactory renderings follow: BUT THE PROFIT OF A LAND EVERY WAY IS A KING FOR THE FIELD UNDER TILLAGE, or, as some take the words, A KING DEVOTED TO THE FIELD. In either case the... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that loveth silver_ The sequence of thought led the DEBATER from the evils of the love of money as seen in mis-government to those which are seen in the life of the individual man. The conspicuous fact was the insatiableness of that passion for money; "Semper avarus eget; hunc nulla pecunia rep... [ Continue Reading ]
_When goods increase, they are increased that eat them_ The fact is one which has met the gaze of the moralists of all countries. A large household, numerous retainers, these are but so many elements of trouble. In the dialogue of Crœsus and Solon (Herod. i. 32), yet more closely in that of Pheraula... [ Continue Reading ]
_The sleep of a labouring man is sweet_ We may probably, as suggested in the "Ideal Biography" of the _Introduction_ch. iii., see in this reflection the reminiscence of a state with which the writer had once been familiar, and after which, now that it had passed away, he yearned regretfully. Again w... [ Continue Reading ]
_riches kept for the owners thereof_ Yet another aspect of the evils attendant on riches is brought before us, as in ch. Ecclesiastes 2:18-19. Not only do they fail to give any satisfying joy, but the man who reckoned on founding a family and leaving his heaped-up treasures to his son gains nothing... [ Continue Reading ]
_As he came forth of his mother's womb_ The words so closely resemble those of Job 1:21 that it is natural to infer that the writer had that history in his mind as an example of a sudden reverse of fortune. In both, earth, as the mother of all living, is thought of as the womb out of which each man... [ Continue Reading ]
_what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?_ The ever-recurring question (ch. Ecclesiastes 1:3; Ecclesiastes 2:22; Ecclesiastes 3:9) rises once again, "What profit?" In "labouring for the wind" we have a phrase almost identical with the "FEEDING ON WIND" or, as some render it, the "strivin... [ Continue Reading ]
_he eateth in darkness_ The words are so natural a figure of a cheerless life with no "sweetness and light" in it (comp. Micah 7:8), that there is something almost ludicrous in the prosaic literalism which interprets them, either (1) of the miser as eating in the dark to save candlelight, or (2) wor... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold that which I have seen_ The thinker returns to the maxim of a calm regulated Epicureanism, as before in chs. Ecclesiastes 2:24; Ecclesiastes 3:22. If a man has little, let him be content with that little. If he has much, let him enjoy it without excess, and without seeking more. In the combi... [ Continue Reading ]
_this is the gift of God_ The words indicate a return to the sense of dependence on the Divine bounty, which we have seen in chs. Ecclesiastes 2:24; Ecclesiastes 3:13. Life itself, and the outward goods of life, few or many, and the power to enjoy these, all are alike God's gifts.... [ Continue Reading ]
_he shall not much remember the days of his life_ This follows the order of the Hebrew and gives a satisfying meaning: The man who has learnt the secret of enjoyment is not anxious about the days of his life, does not brood even over its transitoriness, but takes each day tranquilly, as it comes, as... [ Continue Reading ]