Ecclesiastes 5:20

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 God's gift to him. By some commentators, however, the sentence is construed so as to give just the opposite sense, "He remembereth(or should remember) that the days of his life are not many," i.e.never loses sight of the shortness of human life. It is difficult to see how the translators of the A. V. could have been led to their marginal reading "Though he give not much, yet he remembereth the days of his life."

because God answereth him in the joy of his heart The verb has been very variously rendered, (1) "God occupies him with the joy…," or (2) "God makes him sing with the joy…," or (3) "God causeth him to work for the enjoyment…," or (4) "God makes all answer(i.e. correspond with) his wishes," or (5) "God himself corresponds to his joy," i.e.is felt to approve it as harmonizing, in its calm evenness, with His own blessedness. The last is, perhaps, that which has most to commend it. So taken, the words find a parallel in the teaching of Epicurus, "The Blessed and the Immortal neither knows trouble of its own nor causeth it to others. Wherefore it is not influenced either by wrath or favour," (Diog. Laert. x. 1. 139). The tranquillity of the wise man mirrors, the Teacher implies, the tranquillity of God. So Lucretius;

"Omnis enim per se divum natura necessest,

Immortali ævo summâ cum pace fruatur,

Semota ab nostris rebus sejunctaque longe;

Nam privata dolore omni, privata periclis,

Ipsa suis pollens opibus, nil indiga nostri,

Nec bene promeritis capitur neque tangitur ira."

"The nature of the Gods must need enjoy

Life everlasting in supreme repose,

Far from our poor concerns and separate:

For from all pain exempt, exempt from risks,

Rich in its own wealth, needing nought of ours,"

Tis neither soothed by gifts nor stirred by wrath."

De Rer. Nat. ii. 646 651.