ECCLESIASTES
A NEW TRANSLATION
by the
Rev John Noble Coleman
SECOND EDITIOI^^
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ECCLESIASTES
A NEW TRAKSLATIOK
WITH NOTES EXPLANATOEY, ILLUSTEATIVE, AND CEITICAL.
ECCLESIASTES
A NEW TRAN8LATI0ISI
WITH JVOTES EXPLANATORY, I L L L ST K AT I V E,
AND CRITICAL.
SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED
BY THE
KEY. JOHN l^OBLE COLEMAN, M.A.
LATE INCUMBENT OF VENTNOK.
EDINBURGH
ANDREW ELLIOT, 17 PRINCES STREET
1867.
EDINBUEGH : T. CONSTABLE,
PEINTEE TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.
Eo tijc fEcmorg of
MARGARETTA ELEONORA MARELLA COLEMAN
A BELOVED WIFE
TRANSLATED FEUM THE CONFLICTS OF TIME
TO THE GLORIES OF IMMORTALITY
THIS VOLUME
IS MOURNFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
THE INSPIRATION OF ECCLESIASTES.
Christianity receives as Divine the canon of the Old Testament
transmitted by the Jews, the only nation of all the peoples of the
earth chosen of old by God to be the depository of His revealed
will, and acknowledges both this canon of the Old Testament and
the New Testament Scriptures to be God's Word written, to which
Word man must not add, and from which Word man must not
subtract. The Jews divide the Old Testament into three parts, the
Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa. Christ Himself recognised
this threefold division of the Old Testament, and declared that all
three parts were prophetical of Him (Luke xxiv. 44). Being pro-
phetical of Christ, all three parts must have emanated from the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The book called Ecclestastes is
embodied in the Hagiographa, and therefore constitutes an integral
portion of Divine revelation, — of ' all Scripture given by inspiration
of God, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc-
tion in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works.'
the author of ECCLESIASTES.
The authorship of Ecclesiastes is explicitly ascribed by inspira-
tion unto Solomon. ' The words of Khoheleth, son of David, reigning
viii PEEFACE.
in Jerusalem : I am Khoheletli, reigning over Israel in Jerusalem.'
No other son of David but Solomon ever reigned in Jerusalem over
Israel. Furthermore, the author's ascription to himself of pre-eminence
of wisdom —
' I, behold, I have increased and advanced wisdom
Beyond all who have been in Jerusalem before me ;'
of pre-eminence of architectural erections and wealth —
' 1 erected works of magnificence ; . . .
More magnificent was I and more opulent
Than all who have been in Jerusalem before me ;'
and of pre-eminence in the composition of provei'bs —
• He had pondered, and investigated, and arranged many proverbs/
demonstratively proves that Solomon is the sole and exclusive author
of Ecclesiastes.
Hence to afi&rm, in opposition to the consent of antiquity, as
Grotius and very many modern writers have affirmed, that Ecclesiastes
was written in whole or in part by some other author, and not by
Solomon, is to contradict the teaching of Omniscience, and virtually
to deny the inspiration of this book. If we admit the inspiration
of Ecclesiastes, we must, as the necessary consequent, admit that
Solomon was the author. No diversity of style, real or imaginary,
can justify or even palliate man's presumptuous contradiction of God's
revealed will. ' God is not a man that He should lie.' ' Let God be
true, and every man a liar.' The inspiration and Solomonic author-
ship of Ecclesiastes are indissolubly linked, and must stand or fall
together. Incontrovertible is the judgment of the renowned Professor
of Divinity, the learned Witsius, that the author of Ecclesiastes, if not
Solomon himself, was the greatest liar that ever disgraced humanity,
— omnium mortalium mendacissimus.
As inspiration authoritatively declares that Solomon was the
author of Ecclesiastes, so inspiration clearly indicates that he wrote
it on the very verge of life, not long before he entered the dark valley
of the shadow of death, after he had amassed his immense wealth,
had completed the magnifical temple and all his splendid edifices,
PREFACE. ix
his extensive parks, gardens, and plantations, his utilitarian reser-
voirs for the supply of Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and his plantations
with water, and had experimentally learned that ' vanity of vanities,
all is vanity,' — that nothing can satisfy the soul of man, or impart
abiding felicity, but saving faith in the promised Seed of the woman,
who by covenant engagement was to bruise the serpent's head.
In our authorized version Solomon is called the preacher, the
supposititious meaning affixed to the Hebrew word Khoheleth both
in the English and in the ancient versions. The root and derivatives
of this word occur 170 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in no
one passage ever signify to preach or to teach, nor are they ever so
rendered in the authorized English version, except in the seven texts
in Ecclesiastes, Avliere Khoheleth occurs in the Hebrew original. The
sole signification of the term in all the other passages, except these
seven texts, is to gather or convene assemblies. Solomon was not
A preacher, nor yet a convener of assemblies. But the whole tenor
of this book demonstrates his contrition and penitence. His decease
at the early age of fifty-eight, possibly somewhat earlier, after he had
reigned forty years, proves the premature decay of his constitution.
Josephus rej^resents Solomon to have been only fourteen years of age
when he began to reign. If he reigned forty years, he must have died
at the early age of fifty-four, according to this statement. The reader
is referred to the Critical Appendix for a justification of the rendering
of the term Khoheleth adopted throughout this volume.
Much may he alleged in vindication of the authors of our English
version. They were not at full liberty in all things to follow their
own judgment, being under restrictions in several respects to adopt
pre-existing translations. The authority of the ancient versions was
in their days over-estimated. The Rabbinical Hebrew punctuation
was then considered an integral part of the original text, though
systematically excluded from all synagogue rolls of the Pentateuch
and Esther, and extant on no one Hebrew coin (see Madden's History
of the Jewish Coinage), and in no Samaritan manuscript. The defects
of the Eeceived Texts of the Old and New Testaments had not then
been proved by the collations of Kennicott and De Rossi, nor by the
h
X PREFACE.
discrepancies now known to exist between uncial and cursive manu-
scripts. The importance of the Arabic and other Semitic languages
to illustrate the Old Testament was then very imperfectly understood.
The Lexicons of Castell, Meninski, Golius, Richardson, Willmet, and
Freytag, and the grammars of Erpenius and Baron de Sacy, and many
others, had not then been published. The exegetical writings of
Schultens, Reiske, Michaelis, Lee, Dathe, and Rosenmliller, and other
critics, were posterior to their time. And the Arabic Syntax, which
defines the form of, and stamps significancy on, the word Khoheleth,
was then almost unknown in Europe. But that any one in the
present day, when such a flood of light has been poured upon Scrip-
ture, should NOW represent Solomon to have been a preacher, does
seem passing strange.
Whoever now advocates that Khoheletu should be rendered
PREACHER should adduce some one text where the word in any of its
forms bears this acceptation, and should show when and where
Solomon ever preached. If it be said that Solomon preached by his
writings, we reply, that Solomon so preached in common with all
the other writers of Scripture, and that this cannot be the meaning
of Khoheleth, which is a distinctive term, predicated by Solemon
of himself, and pre-eminently significant of him as contradistinguished
from others. Any rendering of the word Khoheleth which represents
Solomon to have been a preacher or a convener op assemblies, is, in
the author's judgment, alike contradictory to historic verity and to
common sense.
The inspiration of Ecclesiastes proves that Solomon was the
author of this book. The authorship of Ecclesiastes proves the salva-
tion of Solomon, and rectifies the misconception of fathers, rabbis,
Abulpharagius, and many other writers, ancient and modern, who
have either doubted or denied that he was a sinner saved. Can any
instance be adduced of any writer of any book of the Old or New
Testament having failed of salvation ? Jehovah employs worldly
men to effect His providential designs, but has exclusively raised up
men of God to write as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Who
shall dare affirm that Solomon is the solitary exception to this rule ?
PREFACE. xi
The three books of Proverbs, Canticles, and Ecclesiastes, and the peni-
tential contents of tlie latter book, indisputably prove that Solomon's
apostasy was pardoned, that he was possessed of genuine repentance
and saving faith, and that at death he entered into that rest which
remaineth to the people of God.
THE TEACHING OF ECCLESIASTES.
This book, by the plural noun the Most High Ones (chapter v.
verse 8), and by the plural noun Creators (chapter xii. verse 1), teaches
a plurality of persons in the Godhead, in antagonism to Jewish and
Mohammedan monotheism, and in accordance with the ancient creed :
' Hear, 0 Israel, Jehovah thy Gods are one Jehovah.'
This book teaches the sovereignty of God in grace and providence,
controlling, directing, and regulating all hearts and all events to fulfil
His prophetic will, and to work together for good to them who love
Him, and are the called according to His purpose.
This book teaches that death is a final separation of the dead from
the living, until death itself shall be swallowed up in victory — that
the dead have no cognizance of human affairs — that tlie dead return
not to the living. This teaching sheds some light on the theory of
admonitory and premonitory dreams and apparitions. Dreams and
spectral apparitions, when divinely sent, are essentially distinct from
erratic phantasies of the mind during sleep. Nevertheless they are
not emanations from the dead, but are mysterious manifestations of
the Divine will, veiled in impenetrable mystery, until the saints in
plenitude of glory and knowledge shall take the kingdom and possess
the kingdom for ever. Solomon, in this didactic poem, speaks only of
common dreams, or the erratic phantasies of the mind during sleep.
Divine dreams were communicated by God under the old dispensa-
tion, and will be renewed to God's children as premonitory signs of
the second Advent, when the prophecy of Joel shall be fulfilled, and
God's servants shall see visions and dream dreams. See statement of
eight remarkable dreams in note on chapter ix. 5, 6.
This book exhibits prophetic portraitures of the regal fatuity of
xii PREFACE.
Relioboam, of the transient popularity of Jeroboam, of the fickleness of
the ten tribes, and of the entire extirpation, root and branch, of the
posterity of Jeroboam, who himself perished death-stricken by God.
The Chaldee thus paraphrases the first two verses of Ecclesiastes :
' The words of prophecy, which Khoheleth, that is Solomon, son of
David, the King, who was in Jerusalem, prophesied. When Solomon
King of Israel foresaw by the spirit of prophecy that the kingdom of
Rehoboam his son would be divided with Jeroboam the son of IS'ebat,
and that Jerusalem and the holy Temple would be destroyed, and that
the people of the children of Israel would go into captivity, he spake
according to this word : " This world is vanity of vanities. All wherein
I have laboured, and wherein my father David hath laboured, is vanity
of vanities. It is altogether vanity." '
This book authoritatively declares the paramount supremacy of
God's Word written over all the writings of man, its procession from
the Shepherd and Bishop of souls, its inspiration by the eternal Spirit,
its design to make wise to salvation, and its infallibility, constituting
it a perfect standard, whereby all human books should be tested, and
according to agreement or disagreement with which all human opinions
should be summarily accepted or rejected.
This book recommends to God's children contentment, placidity of
mind, and cheerful enjoyment of those temporal blessings which Provi-
dence hath conferred upon each. The wise king was no misanthropist,
no cynic, no ascetic. Even when his soul was humbled in the dust
from contemplation of the apostasy of which he had been guilty, and
heart and flesh were failing, he admonishes each believer to rejoice
before God in the station, and rank, and circumstances of life wherein
the providence of God has placed him. As Solomon in this poem
forecasts the future, and manifests inspired prescience of Rehoboam,
Jeroboam, and the ten tribes, may not this commendation of matri-
mony and social enjoyment be referred to the Divine prescience
and condemnation of Papal Rome's forbidding to marry, and of the
unutterable cruelties and impurities of monasticism ? May not this
commendation have been designed to be a salutary warning against
brotherhoods and sisterhoods, modern revivals of mediasval obliquities ?
PREFACE. xiii
The sum and substance (if this book is, that vanity is inscribed
on all sublunary pursuits and concerns, and that there is nothing in
the world worth living for but Christ and His salvation. The faith of
Solomon was faith in the predicted Messiah, ' the son of David, the
son of Abraham.' The hope of Solomon was anticipation of Messiah's
redemption, ' mighty to save.' The object of Solomon in writing Eccle-
siastes was, that this book, as well as the Mosaic Law, might be a
pedagogue or scholastic conductor unto Christ, the great Prophet of
the Church, so that every reader, savingly profiting thereby, might
attain to the full assurance of faith, hope, and understanding, having
the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Every attentive reader must be struck by the absence of all ctm-
dem nation of idolatry, and indeed of all reference thereto, throughout
the Book of Ecclesiastes from the beginning to the end, remembering
that Solomon was guilty of sanctioning by his presence, and by the
erection of idolatrous high places and altars, if not by guilty partici-
pation, the rites practised by his strange wives to their strange gods.
To what cause can we attribute this i-eticence ? May we infer there-
from that, when Ecclesiastes was w^ritten, these idolatries were con-
fined to the court of Solomon, had not vitiated the people of Israel,
and had not estranged them from the worship of Jehovah ? May not
this reticence have been an especial designed adaptation of this book
to the infirmities and ignorance and blindness of the neighbouring
nations, to secure its wider circulation and more ready reception,
aiid to win them gradually, as they were able to bear and receive
the truth, to the sole worship of the one living and true God ? The
non-condemnation of idolatry in this didactic poem seems to merit
further investigation than it has yet received.
It is also remarkable, though Solomon in his old age went after
Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomi-
nation of the Ammonites, and built an high place for Chemosh the
abomination of Moab, and for Moloch the abomination of the children
of Ammon, and for the fiilse gods of all his strange wives, who liurnt
incense and sacrificed with their gods, that there is no record (jf any
temple or altar liaving been erected to any Egyptian deity, or of the
xiv PEEFACE.
introduction of any Egyptian idolatry into Judea, though his marriage
with Pharaoh's daughter was one of the first acts of his reign. Indeed
Solomon is recorded, after his marriage with Pharaoh's daughter, to
have 'loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father'
(1 Kings iii. 3). May we not infer therefrom, that this daughter of
Pharaoh was a convert to Judaism, and that she, like the eunuch of
Queen Candace, joined in the worship of the God of Israel ? It is a
singular fact, that none of the hieroglyphics yet deciphered refer to the
Pharaoh whose daughter Solomon married. They throw no light on
the lineage of this Pharaoh, nor on the place he holds in the history
of Egypt.
I. This Book of Ecclesiastes, by inculcating a plurality of persons
in the Godhead, condemns all denial of the Divinity of the Son and of
the Personality of the Holy Ghost, all rejection of the triune Jehovah,
the omnipotent Creators, Preservers, Administrators of the universe,
in and through whom all live, and move, and have their being.
II. This book, by affirming that all Scripture is the voice of the
good Shepherd to His Church, and that it is the ingatherer of souls
unto Him, condemns all denial of plenary inspiration, whereby men of
old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
III. This book, by commending matrimony and social enjoyment,
condemns enforced celibacy, monastic institutions, and monastic aus-
terities.
IV. This book, by teaching that the departed have no cognizance
of mundane affairs, and that they return no more to this vale of sin
and misery, condemns the awful profanity of table-turning, and all
operations of spiritualism to effect intercommunications between the
dead and the living, — Satan's revival in the present day of the witch-
craft of Endor, and of necromantic divination. To seek responses
from the dead is to be guilty of the self-same criminality, wherewith
Saul filled up the measure of his iniquities, and sealed his doom.
PREFACE. XV
THE DICTION OF EOGLESIASTES.
One peculiarity especially characterizes this book, the entire
absence therefrom of the word Jehovah, the incommunicable name of
the self-existent, eternal, and only true God. The cause of the reti-
cence of this Name in this Book is veiled in deep mystery. We
must not only search the Scriptures, but receive them with childlike
docility, as God has seen fit to reveal them.
It has ever been a controverted question, whether this book should
be rendered as verse or as prose, or as written partly in verse and
partly in prose. I have no doul)t that it is a didactic poem from the
beginning to the end. It is more easily divisible into hemistichs than
many portions of Isaiah and other })ropliets, and is equally, if not
more poetical. The transitions from one subject to another are not
more abrupt than those which constantly occur in Hosea, the alpha-
betical Psalms, and other poetical portions of the Old Testament. The
authoi" of Khoheleth remarks, that ' Ecclesiastes, besides the figurative
and proverbial expressions to be found in no other part of Scripture,
is undoubtedly metrical, and consequently the grammatication, in
many places, not a little perplexed, from the frequent ellipses, ab-
breviations, transposition of words, and other poetic licenses allowed
in all languages.' The subject-matter of the poem will account for its
sombre cast.
Ecclesiastes is not once directly quoted or referred to in the New
Testament. Neither are Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, the Lamentations of
Jeremiah, Obadiah, or Zephaniah. Yet all these books, as well as
Ecclesiastes, were received by the Jewish Church as canonical Scrip-
tures, and have the sanction of Christ and His apostles.
The received Hebrew text of Ecclesiastes is perhaps more perfect,
and has suffered less by transcription and transmission, than the text
of any other book of the Old Testament. Of the various readings com-
piled by Kennicott and De Rossi from 569 Hebrew manuscripts and
165 printed editions of this book, which have been collated, few atfect
the sense, and those only very slightly. What a contrast between the
xvi ■ PREFACE.
almost perfect received text of Ecclesiastes, and the erroneous and
defective texts of the alphabetical psalms, and the transpositions in
the Lamentations of Jeremiah !
Two causes may be assigned for the Aramaic diction and foreign
idioms of this book : — 1. Solomon's continuous intercourse with the
daughter of Pharaoh, and with his other wives taken from the Moabites,
Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites. 2. The importation of
foreign words, customs, and idioms by his mercantile marine from
Ophir, Arabia, Egypt, the coasts of the Mediterranean, and Tarshish.
As grace does not obliterate, but sanctifies the natural character, so
inspiration does not eradicate, nor of necessity transmute, but dedicates
the intellectual faculties to God's service and glory. It Avould seem
that the dialect of this didactic poem was the language commonly
spoken in Judea in the latter days of the reign of King Solomon by
the great mass of the Jewish people.
The Aramaic cast of this didactic poem would render it both more
intelligible and more acceptable to the neighbouring nations. As the
prophecies of Balaam were communicated to Moab and Midian before
they were made known by inspiration to Israel, so is it not possible,
yea, is it not probable, that the book called Ecclesiastes, simultaneously
with its communication to Israel, may have been widely circulated
among the peoples and nations in treaty-alliance with Solomon, and
among those who were swayed by his regal influence, or were admirers
of his pre-eminent wisdom ? May we not conclude that this didactic
poem was read by many at Sheba, at Ophir, at Tarshish, and in Egypt,
and that many in those regions, as well as in Judea, savingly profited
thereby ?
PLAN OF THE WORK.
The division of the Bible into chapters and verses is the fallible
work of fallible man, and is no part of inspiration. In the most ancient
manuscripts of the Bible, both Hebrew and Greek, even the letters are
generally not divided into words. The division of the Old Testament
into chapters was begun by Cardinal Hugo about the middle of the
thirteenth century, was improved by Eabbi Nathan in 1438, and was
PREFACE. x^-ii
completed by the enumeration of verses in the edition of the Hebrew
Bible edited by Athias, 1661. The division of the IS'ew Testament
into verses was accomplished by Robert Stephens during a journey on
horseback from Paris to Lyons, and first appeared in his edition of the
Greek Testament, 1551. Defective as this work of Robert Stephens
may be, few perhaps of the present day would have made a better
or more accurate division, in such haste, and amidst such singular
obstructions and impediments. Moreover, this division into chap-
ters and verses was designed rather to facilitate the composition and
use of Concordances than to elucidate the sense of the original. The
didactic poem of Ecclesiastes in this volume is separated into twenty-
one parts or sections, according to the sense, as a substitution
for its division into twelve chapters by Cardinal Hugo and Rabbi
IN'athan.
Each part or section is prefaced with an introductory analysis.
The translation is made from the received text of Yander Hooght,
J 705, except where otherwise expressed in the Critical Appendix.
This new translation is not designed to supersede the authorized
version, or to be a substitute for it, but to express in unambiguous
English idiom what the author believes to be the genuine sense and
Divine teaching of the inspired original. The notes which follow are
simply explanatory and illustrative, designed to elucidate the obscuri-
ties of this ancient didactic poem, and to render both its diction and
allusions clear, perspicuous, and intelligible to the English reader.
Ecclesiastes, in the author's judgment, is sufficiently experimental
and practical to render all further comment superfluous and unneces-
sary. When its obscurities are elucidated, and its Orientalisms are
explained, this poem is its own best commentary.
The map of Africa is designed to exhibit to the reader a bird's-
eye view of the relative lengths of the two voyages from Ezion-geber
to Tarshish — the one by the circumnavigation of Africa, the other by
the transit of the ancient canal of Sesostris, alias Rameses ii.
The sketch-map of the ancient canal, from the Nile to Suez,
exhibits the vestiges thereof yet remaining, traced in a doul)le red
line, and its supposititious continuation, where the vestiges are doubt-
c
XVlll
PREFACE.
fill or no longer visible, in a single red line. The line of the French
canal, from the Mediterranean Sea to the south of Lake Ballah, is copied
from Annales du Genie Civil ; Paris, Sept. 1866.
Of the four coins of Carteia^ subjoined, the first three are in the
author's cabinet. He also possesses another coin of Carteia, having
the obverse of No. I., and the inscription of the reverse of jSo. III.,
but with a figure somewhat different. These Eoman colonial coins
are all brass, and are all anterior to the Christian era. No gold or
silver coins of Carteia are known, nor any with inscriptions in Phoeni-
cian characters. The coins of Carteia are numerous, and exhibit at
least thirty types, differing more or less in obverse or reverse from the
four here engraved. The plates of these coins are here given for three
reasons :— r. Because Carteia was an ancient Phoenician colony before
FIG, 1.
it was subjugated by Eome, as is evident from the identity of the
effigy on the obverse of these coins of Carteia with the most ancient
coins of Tyre and Sidon. Compare the obverse of these coins with
1 These coins of Carteia seem to attest the fact, that the pendent or hinged rudder was known to
the Phoenicians centuries before it was used by other nations. Eckhel and Mionnet describe the
reverses of types 2, 3, and 4 to be rudders. That these rudders do not represent the long paddle-oars,
but a short hinged guhernamlum navis, seems to me evident. These coins must have been struck in the
lifetime of Drusus and Germanicus, before the Christian era ; whereas James Smith, Esq. of Jordanhill,
refers the adoption in Europe of the hinged rudder to ' about the end of the thirteenth, or early in the
fourteenth century.' The ship in which St. Paul was wi-ecked, having a crew of 276, was steered by two
paddles or large oars. Sub judice Us est. On this controverted subject let the reader judge for himself.
PREFACE. xix
the coins of Tyre and Sidon in the thirty-fourth table of Gesenius'
Phoemcian Remains, Leipsic, 1837. ii. Because Carteia, situated in
a commodious bay immediately contiguous to the promontory of
Gibraltar, must have been a convenient harbour of refuge, Avherein
the Phoenician 1 vessels could safely shelter themselves and await fair
wind and weather, previous to the navigation of the Straits of Gibraltar,
and the prosecution of their voyage for tin to Britannia (daughter of
tin), the Cassiterides of antiquity, the Ultima Thule of Tyrian com-
merce. III. Because of the supposition entertained by some, that
Carteia was the Tarshish of Scripture, from the similarity of the names
tAKTessus cARTeia. The identity of Carteia" and Tarshish, asserted
by Pliny, if it could be established, would explain why the British
Isles are designated in prophecy ' the ships of Tarshish,' because Eng-
land's possession of Gibraltar gives her the command both of the
Straits and of the adjacent bay.
The sea-port in Spain, to which the fleet of Solomon triennially
resorted for silver, iron, tin, lead, etc. (Ezekiel xxvii. 12), was doubtless
called Tarshish, after the name of the grandson of Japhet, w^hose
descendants originally colonized it. The meaning of the word Tarshish,
1 The extraordinary extent of Phoenician colonization, and the consequent expansion of Pha-niciau
commerce, have been greatly under-estimated. Phoenician inscriptions have been found in Cyprus,
Carthage, Tugga, Numidia, Tripoli, Malta, and the island of Gerbe. Coins with inscriptions in the
Phoenician language exist of the twenty-five following places, namely, of Tar,sus in Cilicia ; of Acre,
Aradus, Beyroot, Carne, Laodicea, Marathus, Sidou, and Tyre, in Phcenicia ; of Heraclea, Motya, Pauor-
mus, and Syracuse, in Sicily ; of Cossura now Pantalaria, and Gaulos now Gozo, in the Mediterranean ;
of AcbuUa, Ooea, sea-port of Tripoli, Sabratha now Tripoli, Siga, and Vacca in Africa ; of Abdera now
Adra, Belo now Bolonia, Cadiz, Malaga, and Sextus in Spain ;— stretching from Marathus on the shore
of Palestine to Cadiz in Spain. To these twenty-five must be added Carteia, originally colonized by
the Phoenicians, though uo coins of Carteia with Phoenician legends are now known. The multitude of
some of those coins, and the variety of their types, attest the wealth and large population of the colonies
where these coins were struck. The following brass coin of Ocea is most rare, and was unknown to
Gesenius. The letters are Phoenician, and signify Ooja. The head of Tiberius is mo.st exquisite.
- May not Carteia (\S-nip) have been so designated, because built on a peninsula or promontory,
to distinguish it from other seaports? (^S, insula, island, isle. — Jeremiah xlvii. 4.)
XX PREFACE.
as the proper name of the great-grandson of Noah, is unknown. But
in later Hebrew its signification is patent. The first syllable in the
Chaldee of Daniel signifies a rock. This same word, signifying heigut,
HILL, ROCK, etc., occurs in Saxon, Irish, and Welsh, and in many English
names of high places, for instance in Glastonbury Tor. Tyre itself
derives its name from the fact that insular Tyre was built on a rocky
island. The second syllable signifies white marble, alabaster
(1 Chronicles xxix. 2, Esther i. 6, Canticles v. 15). The word Tarshish,
significant of the white cliffs or Albion, is the prophetic designation
of the British Isles.
But whatever may have been the cause why inspiration attributes
to Great Britain the prophetic designation of Tarshish, that designation
evidences the predestined glorious destiny of our country, as God's
commissioned messenger-people, to restore expatriated Israel by sea to
the shores of Palestine, when Jerusalem shall no longer be trodden
down of the Gentiles, and the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled.
David predicts —
' The kings of Tarshish and of tlie isles shall bring presents,
The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.' — (Psalm Ixxii. 10.)
Zephaniah predicts —
' My suppliants from beyond the streams of Cusii,
Shall bring the daughter of my dispersion an offering to me.' —
(iii. 10.)
Isaiah predicts —
' And he shall set up an ensign for the nations,
And shall assemble the outcasts (lost ones, Coptic) of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
The envy also of Ephraim shall depart.
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off",
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
And they shall fly upon the shoulders (in the ships, lxx., Coptic,
Arabic) of the westward Philistines.' — (xi. 12, 13.)
PREFACE. xxi
' Surely the isles shall wait for Me,
And the ships of Tarshish first,
To bring thy sons from far,
Their silver and their gold with them,
Unto the name of Jehovah thy God,
Even to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified
thee.'— (Ix. 9.)
1 ' Oh, land of the perpetual shadow of sails.
Which art beyond the streams of Cush,
2 Accustomed to send ambassadors (missionaries) by sea.
Even with fabrics of papyrus^ (Bibles, eVto-xoXa? /3t/3XtW?, lxx.) upon
the waters,
Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled.
To a people wonderful from their beginning and onward,
A nation expecting, expecting, and trodden ulider foot.
Whose land the streams have devastated.
3 All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth.
When He lifteth up an ensign on the mountains, see ye.
And when He bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.
4 For thus hath Jehovah said unto me,
" I will sit still (but I will keep My eye upon My prepared habi-
tation).
As the parching heat just before lightning,
As the dewy cloud in the heat of harvest."
5 For afore the harvest, when the bud is coming to perfection,
And the blossom is becoming a juicy berry,
He will cut off the useless shoots with pruning-hooks,
And the luxuriant branches He will take away. He will cut down.
6 They shall be left together to the ravenous bird of the mountains.
And to the wild beasts of the earth ;
And upon it shall the ravenous bird summer.
And all the beasts of the earth upon it shall winter.
7 At that time a present shall be brought unto Jehovah of hosts,
' The word v3 occurs 309 times iu the Hebrew Scriptures, and never signifies a sailing vessel,
ship, or boat.
xxii PREFACE.
Of a people scattered and peeled,
Even of a people wonderful from their beginning and onward,
A nation expecting, expecting, and trodden under foot,
Whose land the streams have devastated.
Unto the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts. Mount Zion.' — (xviii.)
Isaiah, in chapter xviii., defines the locality of England, beyond
and remote from the Persian Gulf, the Eed Sea, and the Indian
Ocean, the three ocean-streams which encircle Arabian Gush on the
east, the west, and the south. Isaiah defines the characteristics of
England as a pre-eminently naval state, whose ships navigate every
sea, and trade with every people ; as a missionary kingdom, sending
forth heralds of mercy to Jews, Mohammedans, and Pagans, and Bibles
in every tongue and to every land ; as the predestined messenger-
people, divinely commissioned to restore expatriated Israel to Palestine.
And Isaiah predicts the present and future colonial and naval
scPERiORiTY of England, to enable her to fulfil this glorious commission
amidst the impending crash of nations, and God's final judgments on
an apostate world.
The implacable hostility so generally manifested to Christology, more
especially to the Christology of the Psalms, prognosticates the rejec-
tion of the Messianic interpretations of chapters vii., viii., and ix. pro-
posed in this volume. To see Christ prefigured in the Old Testament,
where writers in general have not discerned Him ; to represent the
man Christ Jesus ' one above a thousand,' where others have only seen
the 700 wives and the 300 concubines of Solomon ; to substitute sub-
mission to the sceptre of Messiah in place of subjection to the powers
that be, is a high crime and unpardonable misdemeanour in these last
days of Laodicean lukewarmness. Morbid feelings cause many to rest
self-satisfied with anti-Messianic renderings and interpretations, how-
ever obscure or unintelligible they may l)e. Unlike Augustine and the
Augustinian Fathers, they have no wish to discern Christ in the Bible
where some may not have discerned Him. They see no beauty in these
Messianic manifestations, that they should desire them. If however,
these proscribed Messianic prefigurations remove any obscurities in
this confessedly obscure book, ought not the reader to pause before
PREFACE. xxiii
he reject them, until he can adduce some other interpretation
which shall render equally intelligible that which is now obscure ?
Well does the author recollect the joyful ecstasy of his most highly
esteemed and venerable friend, the Rev. T. T. Biddulph, of Bristol,
when Bishop Horsley's work on the Psalms was first published.
Rarely did that man of God appear on any platform without quoting
or referring to this work, so grateful to his soul. But Augustine the
renowned Bishop of Hippo, Kennicott and Horsley, Biddulph and
Julius Bate, Jones of Nayland and Parkhurst, and Fry rector of
Desford, etc. etc., have entered into their rest. Their mantle, it is
feared, has ftxllen on few. By the many their Messianic renderings
are unheeded or rejected. Another generation have arisen, who be-
hold with complacency the Davidical application of Psalm xxii., and
the ascription to the royal Psalmist, as God's .just recompense to David,
' the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, ac-
cording to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight' (Psalm xviii, 24),
a perfection solely fulfilled and manifested by Immanuel, Jehovah our
righteousness, and certainly not pertaining to one who had been guilty
of adultery and murder.
Bad books poison the soul, as bad food poisons the body. J^Tovels,
designated in modern nomenclature tales of fiction (some expressly
DESIGNED, PRINTED, AND PUBLISHED FOR SaBBATH READINg), SCUSational
volumes, tomes antagonistic to truth both Divine and human, the
characteristic, the bane, the curse of the present age, poison the
intellect, debase the soul, alienate from God, and cause multitudes to
see no beauty in Christ that they should desire Him. Yet Christ is
'the true bread, the life-giving bread, the bread of God, the bread of
life, the bread which cometh down from heaven, that all may eat
thereof, and not die. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for
ever.' As food is the nutriment of the body, so is Christ the nutriment
of the soul. Christ is the sum and substance and acme of Divine
revelation, which from Genesis to Revelation testifies of Him, ' la Via,
la Verita, e la Vita,' — ' the Way, the Truth, and the Life.' Hence to
search the Sciiptures intellectually, prayerfully, experimentally, with
an earnest desire to discern Christ wherever Christ is therein revealed,
is the paramount duty and requirement of the present day.
xxiv PEEFACE.
The Divine mandate is not merely to read, but to search, the
Scriptures. As miners find few nuggets of gold on the surface, but
excavate immense treasures from the bowels of the earth, so Divine
truth is sufficiently patent in the Scriptures, that the wayfaring man
shall not err therein, whilst the Bible contains a recondite and inner
sense, heavenly treasures. Messianic manifestations, and unfathomable
depths, even ' the unsearchable riches of Christ, sought out of all them
that have pleasure therein,' into which God's children are privileged
to delve in humility, faith, and prayer, that they may extract there-
from the mind of the Spirit in the volume of revelation.
If this volume shall elucidate any difficulties or reconcile any
apparent discrepancies in Ecclesiastes, the most obscure and enigmatical
of all the books of the Old Testament — if it shall shed any light on the
reign, the commerce, the character, or the writings of the wisest of
men — if it shall render more clear and conspicuous than heretofore
Solomon's contrition, repentance, and salvation, to God be all the
glory. As a labourer in God's vineyard I have, however unworthily,
sown the seed. May the Lord of the harvest vouchsafe His blessing,
and grant an abundant increase ! and may the study of the Book of
Ecclesiastes be as abundantly sanctified to the reader as through grace
it has been sanctified to the author ! As far as this volume is accor-
dant with the Divine will, may the God and Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and in Him the God and Father of His people, crown it with
His blessing; to the edification of His Church, the elucidation of His
word, the manifestation of His truth, and the repression of error !
Whatever therein may be defective or erroneous, may the covenant
God of all grace pardon the writer and obliterate from the mind of the
reader ! And may the great Shepherd and BishojD of souls prepare
both writer and reader for whatever events may be coming on the
earth, arm them with the whole armour of God, cause them to rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory in anticipation of the speedy
advent of Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, and enable each of
them to realize the gracious promise, 'Be thou faithful unto death, and
I will give thee the crown of life!'
Eyde, June 1867.
ECCLESIASTES.
CHAPTER L— VEESES 1-11.
The vanity, instability, fluctuations, and unsatisfactoriness of all earthly
pui-suits and labours. Nothing secular can satisfy the immortal soul. Nothing
suljlunary can constitute the chief good of man.
1 The words of Khoheleth, son of David, reigning in Jerusalem.
2 Vanity of vanities, saitli Khoheleth,
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
3 What profit is there to man
From all his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun ?
4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh,
But the earth abideth for ever.
5 The sun also riseth, and the sun setteth,
And hasteth to its place from whence it riseth.
6 The wind bloweth toward the south, and veereth about toward the
north.
It veereth round and round continually,
And ever revolveth on its circuits.
7 All water-currents flow into the ocean.
Yet the ocean does not overflow.
Unto the place from whence the water-currents flow.
Thither do they again return.
8 All words fail, man has not the power of utterance.
The eye cannot be satisfied with seeing,
JSTor can the ear be satiated with hearing.
9 That which hath been is that which shall be.
And that which hath been done is that which shall be done :
And there is nothing new under the sun.
2 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. i.
10 Does anything exist of which it is said, See, this is new ?
It hath ah'eady been in the ages which were before us.
11 There is no remembrance of those who have lived aforetime,
JSTeither shall there be any remembrance of those who shall live
henceforth.
With those who will exist thereafter.
Verses 1 and 2.
. The Heljrew word Kiioheleth, the distinctive appellation which Solomon appropriates
to himself throughout this Book, signifies in the Arabic, a sister dialect of the Hebrew
language, ' the eepentant invalid,' — a signification most suitable to his penitential sorrow
of soul and premature bodily decay, causing his decease at the age of fifty-eight, possibly
somewhat earlier. This word would be understood to sigirify the repentant invalid in the
kingdom of Sheba, at Ophir, and throughout all the peninsula of Arabia, annually coasted for
commercial intercourse and traffic, by the merchant ships of Solomon. Solomon is not re-
corded to have preached, on any one occasion, or to have convened any assembly, except the
one preparatory to the dedication of the Temple. See Preface, and Critical Appendix at the
end of the volume.
Vekse 1.
Solomon was the son of David by Bathsheba : ' David the king begat Solomon of her
that had been the wife of Urias' {Matthew i. 6). ■
Solomon wrote this Book by Divine inspiration. Ecclesiastes is an integral part of the
Old Testament, which, as well as the New Testament, ' is given by inspiration of God'
(2 Timothy iii. 16). Solomon and all the other writers of Scripture spake and ^vl•ote ' as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost' (2 Peter i. 21).
Verses 2 and 3.
Man, by the fall, hath subjected himself and aU things under the sun to vanity ; so that
vanity is stamped on all things pertaining to humanity. The words under the sun restrict
this vanity and unsatisfactoriness to secular works, springing from secular motives, and done
for secular ends.
Verse 4.
' The generations of men upon the earth resemble leaves upon an evergreen tree. The
earth bears the human race, as the tree bears its many leaves, and is full of men, some
dying, and others by birth succeeding to their places. The tree is always evergreen, and
replenished with leaves. But look beneath the crust of the earth. Consider over how many
dead leaves you constantly walk.' — Augustiiie.
David asserts the sempiternity of the earth in Psalm civ. 5 : —
' Wlio laid the foundations of the earth,
That it should not be removed for ever.'
And again in Psalm cxix. 90 : —
' Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.'
VER. 1-11.] ECCLESIASTES. 3
In Psalm xxxvii. this coveuaut- promise, the only verse of the Bible quoted by ISIahomet in
his Koran, is given and repeated five times : —
' The righteous shall inherit the earth,
And shall dwell thereon for evee.'
In Revelation v. 10 is recorded the song of the Church triumphant: — 'Thou hast made
us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign ox the earth.' This earth was once
deluged with w'ater to pxmish the sins of the antedilu\'ians. It will undergo a deluge of fire
to renovate, and purify, and prepare it for the habitation of the glorified. The Noachian
deluge did not destroy this globe, neither will the imiversal conflagration, yet to be, annihilate
it. God created this earth for His glory. From the Fall until now the earth hath not sub-
served the glory of God, and from the present time untU the second Advent will not subserve
His glory, Satan being the god of this world, and ruling in the children of disobedience. But
the deposition of Satan from his usurpation A^-ill usher in the universal reign of Immanuel,
Kiun- of kinss, and Lord of lords. Then the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as
the waters now cover the sea. Then Jehovah shaU be glorified throughout all creation.
Then, at the name of Jesus, everj' knee shall bow, in heaven, in earth, and under the earth,
and every tongue shall confess, yea, the tongues of devils and damned spirits, that He is
Jehovah, to the glory of God the Father. For the elect, its destined lords, this earth was
created. For the elect this earth is di\'inely administered, that all things may work together
for good to those who love God, and are the called according to His purpose. Of the glorifi-
eation and reign of the saints, this earth will be the theatre at the restitution of all things.
' Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world ? Know ye not, that we shall judge
■angels ?' — (1 Corinthians vi. 2, 3.)
Verse 5.
The Bible is the poor man's book, and its language is for the most part addressed to
every capacity. The object of the Bible is not to teach science, but to make wise unto
salvation by the manifestation of Christ to the soul through the illumination of the Spirit.
Solomon writes of the sun, according to its appearance in the heavens, in the popular
language of daily hfe ; not in the technical terms of astronomical science. Solomon writes,
and modern astronomers speak, of the ' risixg' and '.SETTING' of the sun, just as the
unscientific and vulgar do. Astronomical accuracy would have been unintelligible to the
poor, to whom the gospel must be preached both orally and by the circulation of Scripture.
Yet the Bible, rightly interpreted, never contradicts scientific truth. There is far more of
science in the Bible than pliilosophers have ever dreamt of. The Hebrew word employed by
Solomon, rendered ' sun,' in many passages, if not always, signifies the solar light, in
contradistinction to the SOLAK ORB. In 1 Samuel xi. 9, we read : ' To-morrow by that time
the SUN BE HOT, ye shall have help.' It is self-evident that, in this passage, the heat of the
SUN must signify the heat of the solar radiation ; not the heat of the solar orb. And
thus Joshua x. 12, 13 ought to be understood: 'Solar light, stand thou stiU' (be thou
stationary) ' upon Gibeon ; and thou, lunar light, in the valley of Ajalon. And the solar
light stood .StiU' (was stationary), 'and the lunar light stayed' (was stationary), 'until the
people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.' To tlie Hebrew-speakmg Israelites this
teaching of Solomon would imply, that the solar light riseth in the east and setteth in tlie
west, and daily reappeareth in the east by continuous revolution.
4 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. i.
' Th' unwearied sun, from clay to day,
Does his Creator's power display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty hand ! '
Veese 6.
In this verse Solomon affirms the rotation of the winds. This rotatory motion of aerial
currents results from the revolution of the earth on its axis, and from its periodical circuit
round the sun, both affecting the diffusion of the solar heat and the temperature of the
crust of the earth. Hence arise ocean-currents, trade-winds, monsoons, tornados, cyclones, and
rotatory gales. A comparison of the inspired language of Solomon with that of Theophrastus,
Pliny, and Aristotle on the winds, will demonstrate the superior scientific accuracy of Scrip-
ture to the scientific researches of Greece and Eome. But nothing warrants the belief that
Solomon, pre-eminent as he was in jDolitical wisdom and arcliitectural skill, understood the
planetary system, the motions of the heavenly bodies, the rotation of the earth on its axis, or
the innumerable discoveries which modern optical instruments and astronomical science have
brought to light. To what cause, then, must we refer Solomon's correct scientific phraseology ?
To that supernatural wisdom, whereby he was inspu-ed to write this book for the edification
of the Church in every age and every clime, and to employ language the full force of which
was neither understood nor appreciated either by himself or by his contemporaries. To this
verse our Lord seems to have had some allusion (liowever distant), when he said to
Nicodemus, ' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell wlience it cometh and whither it goeth : so is every one born of the Spirit.' This
allusion will appear more striking, when we bear in mind that in the Aramaic tongue, as well
as in Greek, the same word sifrnifies both wind and spikit, the meanin" being determined
solely by the context. (See the Peshito-Syiiac version of John iii. 8.)
Verse 7.
Tlie Hebrew word rendered avater-curkents is a generic term comprehending both
rivers and minor streams of water, including wadys or winter-torrents of the East. In the
index to Tristram's Land of Israel, forty-two wadys are enumerated ; in the index to Stanley's
Sinai and Palestine, forty-eight ; and in the index to Wilson's Lands of the Bible, not less
than eighty-five. In the three elaborate volumes of Eobinson's Eescarchcs in Palestine, the
word wady is of constant occurrence. This Hebrew word rendered water-currents is
translated in the Septuagint, and in our authorized version, in both acceptations, as significant
both of rivers and minor streams of water.
There is no word in the Hebrew language answering to our generic term ocean, com-
prehending the waters of the Indian, Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Antarctic oceans, of which
ocean the IMediterranean and Eed Seas are only oceanic branches. The statement of
Solomon implies the ocean, though in Hebrew he could not express the precise term, and
the Chaldee Targuni renders it : ' The ocean which encircles the world.' The proposition
of Solomon is universal, affirming that the mighty ocean is the grand receptacle of all the
rivers and minor streams and wadys of this terrestrial globe. The water-currents return
again, ascending by evaporation, and redescendiug in rain. ' The abyss and the sea are
synonymous terms, by which the great assemblage of oceanic waters is alike designated.' —
Faher.
VER. 1 11.] ECCLESIASTES. 5
Verse 8.
' AI thinges are so hard to be knowen that uo man can expresse them.' — Cranniera
Bible, 1549; and Tlie Bishops' Bible, 1595.
ilan is never satiated with the things of time and sense, althougli ntterly unable fully
to comprehend, explain, and appreciate them.
Verse 9.
Solomon does not affirm that there shall be nothing new under the sun, but that there
IS nothing new.
' Does anything exist of which it is said. See, this is new ?
It hath already been in the ages which were before us.'
Tlie phenomena of nature were in Solomon's time what they had heretofore been. Nor
have we reason to suppose that there were any important discoveries in ai-t and science made
by Solomon, which had not heretofore been known. Solomon does not deny that such dis-
coveries should be made in subsequent ages. The invention of gunpowder, the art of print-
ing, the mariners' compass, magnetism, electro-magnetism, and electro-telegi-aphy, steam-
navigation, raikoad-travelling, photography, ironclads, submarine electric wires, gun-cotton,
rifled cannon, breech-loading muskets, tubular and other iron bridges, the pendulum, the
telescope, astronomical, geological, and innumerable other scientific discoveries, are all
posterior in time to the declaration of Solomon that there is nothing new under the sun, and
are the fulfilment of the prophecy of Daniel, that 'at the time of the end many shall run
to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased' (Daniel xii. 4).
Augustine remarks, that Solomon teaches in this verse, ' that aU things have been already
accompHshed in the predestination of God, and that therefore there is nothing new under the
sun.' And Jerome says, ' All things which shall be have been ordained by the prescience and
predestination of God. Even they who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, as to election have had a pre\'ious existence.' On this verse Maimonides comments :
' Our wise men affirm of all miraculous deviations from tlie ordinary course of natiu'e, which
have occurred, or which are predicted to occur hereafter, that they have originated from the
Divine will which ordained them on the six days of creation, and that when they do occur
they are not really new, but have been pre-ordained. There is nothing new under the sun.'
The heresies which now assail and infect the Church are but reiterations and reappear-
ances of ancient apostasies. The sin of the apostate apostle was identical with that of the
apostate prophet. Both lusted after the wages of iniquity ; both loved gold more than God ;
both had a liresentiment of eternal misery ; both went to the same place, the place of perdi-
tion. ]\Iodern spiritualism is Satan's revival of the fictitious miracles of Jannes and Jambres,
and of the witchcraft of the cave of Endor. Modern ritualism is Satan's revival of the
abominations of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, detailed and condemned in the eighth
chapter of Ezekiel. Papal Rome, in the symbolic imagery of the ApocalyjDse, is the resurrec-
tion and personification of Pagan Babylon. Voltaire, Eousseau, Paine, Strauss, Eenan, the
fallen star of Africa, and the many sceptics and semi-sceptics of the present day, are mere
resuscitations and adaptations to the nineteenth century of Simon ilagus, Cerinthus, Celsus,
Porphyry, Julian the Apostate, etc., and of them that held the doctrine of Balaam, the
Nicolaitans, the Gnostics, the Manichaeans, etc., Satan's ancient emissaries to oppose the
gospel and to plunge men into endless perdition. There is no new heresy under the sun.
The prophet Jeremiah thus graphically depicts these heretics : —
ECCLESIASTES. [chap. i.
' They are all of them the dross of revolters.
Passing with a fraudulent currency :
Brass and iron aU of them,
Instruments of adiilteration are they.
The bellows are burned liy the fire,
The lead is entirely spent ;
The refiner hath melted in vain,
For the bad are not separated.
Eeprobated silver call ye them,
For Jehovah hath reprobated them.'
Cliap. vi. 28-30. — Blayncys translation.
11.
CHAPTEE L— VERSES 12-18.
The past experience of Solomon. Solomon, the wisest of men, sought felicity
of soul and stability of peace in wisdom, philosophy, and the scientific investigation
of the ways and Avorks of man, of all things done under the sun. Personal experi-
ence painfully taught him, that secular wisdom and human knowledge, however
excellent in themselves, without Divine illumination from the Holy Ghost, can only
result in vanity and vexation of spirit.
12 I am Khoheletli, reigning over Israel in Jerusalem.
13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom
All things which have been done under the sun ;
This grief-ful toil hath God assigned to the children of Adam to
toil therein.
14 I have considered all the works which have been done under
the sun ;
And, behold, all are vanity and vexation of spirit.
15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight ;
And that which is defective cannot be estimated.
16 I communed with my ow^n heart, saying,
I, behold, I have increased and advanced wisdom
Beyond all who have been in Jerusalem before me ;
Yea, my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom.
And to know madness and folly :
I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
vEE. 12-18.] ECCLESIASTES. 7
18 For in much wisdom is much solicitude ;
And he who increaseth knowledge increaseth care.
Verse 12.
Khoheleth, that is, the repentant invalid (see Note on i. 1, 2). The rendering
I AJi Khoiieletii, is fully warranted by the authority of our English version, wherein the
Hebrew verb is so rendered in the present tense in five passages, and many others (see
Critical Note in Appendix). The fuU meaning of the Hebrew is : I have been, and now am,
Khoheleth, the repentant invalid.'
Verse 13.
God hath assigned to man this mental labour in mercy, to humble his soul in the dust,
and to reveal to him his absolute need of Divine teaching. If man, by his own wisdom,
cannot thoroughly comprehend secular truth, how much less can he understand spiritual
truth, without the illiunination of the Spirit of God ?
In this and eight other verses of Ecclesiastes (namely, ii. 3, 8 ; iii. 10, 18, 19 ; viii. 11 ;
ix. 3, 12), Solomon, writing under Divine inspiration, affirms that mankind are the children
OF Adam, the one universal progenitor of the whole human race. Jerome asserts that,
throughout the whole Book of Ecclesiastes, and throughout the Scriptures generally, men
universally are designated in Hebrew, the children of Adam. No variety of colour, phy-
siognomy, stature, external appearance, or language, can warrant the negation of this Divine
truth, explicitly stated in these nine verses, and reiterated twelve times in other books of the
Old Testament. In Psalm xxxiii. 13, 14, we read:
' Jehovah looketh from heaven ; He beholdeth all the children of Adam.
From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.'
The parallelism of the Hebrew estabKshes that all the children of Adam and all the
inhabitants of the earth are identical expressions. To the children of Adam exclusively
Ecclesiastes is addressed. For their edification solely all Scripture is inspired. To them
alone the Comforter is promised to regenerate, sanctify, and make meet for the inheritance
incorruptible, that fadeth not away. And for the children of Adam, and for none else,
Christ the second Adam lived, and died, and rose again, for their redemption, justification,
present salvation, and everlasting glory. Even the sceptical writer of the Vestiges of the
Natural History of Creation candicUy admits, that ' the evidence which physiology and
philology present seems to him decidedly favourable to the idea of one local origin.' ' All
researches,' \vrites Professor Eadie in his Biblical Cyclopmdia, ' in physiolog}', ethnography,
and comparative philology, prove, more and more conclusively, that men have sprung from
one pair. Varieties of form, colour, and language, are produced by numerous causes and
circumstances. Man is but one species, essentially one, though externally modified.' An
eminent scientific inquirer has stated his disbelief that the Negro and the Mongol have
descended from Adam, because they differ from Caucasians in colour, physiognomy, contour,
and language, and his belief of a pre- Adamite human race, who, armed with flint hatchets,
' contended for many generations with the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and cave-
bear.' AVliat he disbelieves has Scripture warrant, beuig implied or asserted twenty-one
times in the Old Testament. Wliat he believes is so impracticable, that Onmipotence alowe
could effect it, and the declaration of Omniscience could alone justify its belief Scepticism
strains out the gnat, but willingly swallows the camel. Scepticism attributes the supernatural
8 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. ii.
to puiiy man, whose breath is in his nostrils, but denies the supernatural to the omnipotent,
omniscient Creator, Preserver, and Administrator of the universe. Eevelation only extends
from the Adamic creation to the second Advent. Nothing is revealed anterior to this
creation. Subsequent to the second Advent, we have only distant glimpses of Christ's glory,
the glorification of the saints, and the restitution of aU things. Whenever scientific facts do
not concur with the apparent letter or spirit of Eevelation, the discrepancy should be attri-
buted to man's defect of knowledge and comprehension. Inferences from these facts in
derogation of the plenary inspiration of Scripture are presumptuous acts of high treason
against the Majesty of heaven. Tlie volume of Eevelation and the book of Natui-e emanate
from the same Divine Author, and can never contradict each other.
Veese 14.
All works which have been done under the sun have been perverted to secularize the
human mind, and to divert it from the one thing needful, by the machination and temptations
of him who is the god of this world, and ruleth in the children of disobedience. Thus, by
Satan's instigation, temporal blessings, bestowed on the human race by a beneficent Creator
to testify His love, and to sweeten man's pilgrim-state here below, become sources of evil,
and sinners accumulate transgression.
Veeses 16 AND 17.
The Book of Ecclesiastes was composed by Solomon in his declining years, after he had
been reclaimed from that apostasy into which he had unhappily lapsed. This Book is
a record of his personal experience during that apostasy, of liis vain pursuit of ideal wisdom
and true happiness, of his accumulation of wives and concubines, horses and chariots, exces-
sive wealth and architectural edifices, which he stigmatizes as vanity of vanities, and justly
pronounces, that all is vanity. Solomon was guilty of the excessive multiplication of wives,
of horses, and of silver and gold, contrary to the Mosaic prohibition in Deuteronomy xvii.
16, 17: 'The king shall not miiltiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to
Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses : forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you,
Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself,
that his heart turn not away ; neither shall he greatly multiply to liimself sUver and gold.'
Veese 18.
The wisdom and knowledge here mentioned are secular, pertaining to the tilings of time
and sense, — not the hypostatic wisdom predicted in Proverbs, nor that wisdom from above,
which maketh wise unto salvation through faith in Christ. Of this secular wisdom, Henry
pithily remarks : ' Great scholars make themselves great mourners.'
The more intimate knowledge the child of God possesses of the world, of the things of
the world, and of the men of the world, the more intensely will his soid be grieved by man's
apostasy, and the dishonour done to God, and the stronger will be his heart's response to the
language of Augustine : ' The more the love of God abounds within you, the more will you
mourn over the sinner, not in anger, but in grief and lamentation for liim.'
VER. Ml.] ECCLESIASTES.
III.
CHAPTER II.— VEESES 1-11.
The past experience of Solomon. Solomon, having in vain sought for the
supreme good in secular wisdom and knowledge, and a philosophic investigation of
mundane concerns, again prosecutes the same inquiry, and seeks it in mirth and
hilarity, in the acquisition of riches and architectural erections ; combining intellec-
tual gratification with luxurious refinements. Painful experience again inculcated
the same lesson, and practically taught Solomon, that vanity and vexation of spirit
are inscribed on all things here below, and that nothing terrestrial can savingly
benefit the soul.
1 1 SAID in my mind,
Come now, I will prove thee with mirth, and enjoy thou pleasure,
And, lo, this also is vanity.
2 I said of laughter, What insanity !
And of mirth, What does this avail ?
3 I revolved in my mind that I would cherish my body with wine.
Yet training my mind in wisdom,
And that I would comprehend folly, until I could discover
What is best for the children of Adam which they should do under
the sun
During the term of the days of their life.
4 I erected works of magnificence, I built for myself houses,
I planted for myself vineyards,
5 I made for myself gardens and parks,
And I planted in them fruit trees of every kind.
6 I made for myself reservoirs of water.
To water therewith the wood germinant of trees.
7 I procured men-servants and maid-servants,
And had servants born in my house.
I had also large herds of gi-eat and small cattle,
Above all who have been in Jerusalem before me.
8 I also amassed to myself silver and gold,
And treasures the most rare of kings and countries ;
I procured for myself men-singers and woinen-singers.
And the delight of the sons of Adam, a wife and wives.
9 More magnificent was I and more oi)ulent
B
10 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. ii.
Than all who had been in Jerusalem before me,
And my wisdom stood me in good stead.
10 Nothing also which my eyes desired withheld I from them,
From no gratification restrained I my heart,
For my heart was gratified with all my labour :
And this was my portion from all my labour.
11 Then 1 again reverted to all the works which my hands had wrought
And the labour which I had laboured to accomplish,
And, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit,
For nothing under the sun can profit.
VeESES 1 AND 2.
' At length tliou 'It find
That all the mighty expectatious raised
By Pleasure, sweet enchantress, with her train
Of Laughter, Jest, and Song, the sumptuous feast.
Full-flowing bowl, and midnight roar, will end
Like crackling thorns, beneath a caldron placed,
Which blaze awhile, but soon reduced to smoke.' — Kholidcih}
Verse 4.
Of all the magnificent erections of Solomon, the substructure of the present wall <jf the
Haram, from north-east to south-east, facing the Mount of Olives, and overlooking the brook
Kedron, is a remnant, being his masonry. Pierotti himself examined different portions of
this substructure, and from his own observation has confirmed this interesting fact. See
Pierotti's Jerusalem, p. 66, and his Plate No. X., representing the different styles of masonry
of Solomon, Nehemiah, Herod, the Eomans, and the Saracens. Whether we call the Hebrew
stone-dressing, bevel, eabbet, chisel-deapt, or l'appareil, or whatever may be our opinion
of the conclusiveness or inconclusiveness of Pierotti's statement, the fact is indisputable, that
. Josephus attributes to Solomon the building of this substructure, of 400 cubits altitude ; and
that history nowhere records the demolition of this substructure, either by convulsion of
nature or by the hand of man. Such demolition must have destroyed the eastern fortifica-
tions of Jerusalem, if not part of the city itself. We therefore infer that the existing sub-
structure is the masonry of Solomon, substantially now remaining as he built it. When our
Lord foretold to His disciples, that one stone should not be left upon another, He spake of
the parts of the Temple visible to the disciples from the Moimt of Olives, not of its imseen
foundations. Josephus thus describes the height of the substructure and of the superstructure
of the cloister Solomon erected upon it : ' These cloisters belonged to the outer court, and
1 The name of this talented translator of Ecclesiastes into blank verse has irrecoverably perished. He seems
to have been known to Rev. John Wesley, who informs us in his Journal that he was a Turkey merchant, and
that he was preserved in the dreadful earthquake at Lisbon by part of the house falling so as to block up the
entrance, whereby he was shut in and his life was saved ; all who had run out of the house having been
dashed to pieces by the fulling edifices. His name has perished, but he has left ' jnonumenium cere perennius,'
most higlily extolled by Rev. John Wesley, Dr. Adam Clarke, and Dr. Lee, Regius Professor of Hebrew in the
University of Cambridge. The first edition of this translation of Ecclesiastes into blank verse is Lu quarto, and
bears date 1768. See Preface of Nathaniel Higgins to his edition, printed in Svo at Whitchurch, Salop.
VKR. 1-11.] ECCLESIASTES. 11
were situated in a deep valley, and had walls that reached 400 cubits. This cloister deserves
to be mentioned better than any other under the sun. For while the valley was very deep,
and its bottom could not be seen, if you looked from above into the depth, the immense
additional elevation of the cloister stood upon tliat height, insomuch that if any one looked
down from the top of the battlements, down both these altitudes, he would be giddy, while
his sight coidd not reach to such an immense depth.' Besides the magnifical Temple,
Solomon budt--
1 . His own house, the erection of which occupied thirteen years.
2. A house for Pharaoh's daughter.
3. Millo, and the fortifications of Jerusalem.
4. The house of the forest of Lebanon, and its splendid porch.
5. Tadmor in the wilderness, and store-cities at Hamath.
6. Gezer.
7. Bethhoron the Uppei', 1 , ,, „ , .,.
^ , , , ^ >- lioth ieuced cities.
8. Bethhoron the Lower, )
9. Baalath, and store-cities adjacent thereto.
10. Hazor.
11. Megiddo.
1 2. Cities for chariots and horsemen.
At Tadmor, magnificent ruins are yet visible, but it is uncertain when or by whom they
were erected. Of all Solomon's buildings not one certain undoubted vestige now remains,
except the substructure ali'eady named, the reservoirs or pools of water at Urtas, and the
recently discovered baths of marble adjacent thereto.
Verse 6.
Solomon's three reservoirs or pools of water, and the aqueduct he constructed to convey
water from them to Jerusalem, yet remain, though not in their pristine condition. The three
pools are situated south-west of Bethlehem, and are distant from the Jaffa Gate six miles
and five furlongs. Solomon's aqueduct j)assed through Bethlehem, and by a tortuous course
of twelve miles and two furlongs conveyed water to an immense cistern beneath the Temple.
These three huge reservoirs, which irrigated the gardens in the vaUey, and supplied Bethlehem
and Jerusalem with water, are biult of large square stones, well cemented, and measure as
follow : —
1. Upper pool, length 380 feet.
„ „ breadth, east end, 236 feet.
„ „ „ west end, 229 feet.
„ „ depth at east end, 2.5 feet.
2. Middle pool, length 423 feet.
„ „ breadth, east end, 250 feet.
„ „ „ west end, 160 feet.
„ „ depth at east end, 39 feet.
3. Lower pool, length 582 feet.
„ „ breadth, east end, 207 feet.
„ „ „ west end, 148 feet.
„ „ depth at east end, 50 feet.
See Robinson's Palestine, vol. i. p. 474-6, Tristram's Land of Israel, p. 399, and the accurate
delineation of these pools in Plate x. of Pierotti's Jerusalem. Since the above was Avritten,
12 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. ii.
the Pasha of Jerusalem has increased the fall of water from Urtas, has converted the three
pools or reservoirs into two, and has repaired the aqueduct, so that water again flows into ■
Jerusalem from the pools of Solomon.
Josephus states that Solomon daily resorted to Etham, the ancient name of the village
near to these reservoirs, now called Urtas : ' There was a certain place about fifty furlongs
distant from Jerusalem, which is called Etham ; very pleasant it is in fine gardens, and
abounding in rivirlets of water. Thither did Solomon xise to go out in the morning, sitting
on high in his chariot.' — Antiquities, viii. 7. 8.
A recent discovery has been made of a most magniiicent reservoir, twenty yards square,
and of a bath, both faced with marble slabs ; also of a bath of intermediate size connected
with the reservoir, and of shafts and richly carved capitals, all of pure white marble, in the
eastern portion of the garden cultivated by Mr. MeshuUam, near to these pools or reservoirs.
Who but King Solomon could have erected these magnificent baths, and these magnificently
sculptured pillars, resembling those in the substructure of the Temple ? Can we doubt that
Solomon erected them and used them ? — See Tristram's Land of Israel, page 400.
The WOOD GEEMiNANT OF TKEES signifies nurseries of seedlings.
Veese 8.
The greater part of the treasures of gold and silver amassed by Solomon was imported
into Palestine by liis two fleets. Solomon is not recorded to have built any ships except at
Ezion-Geber. Some of these ships sailed to Tarshish. The only Tarshish of the Old
Testament is a sea-port on the coast of Spain. Of Solomon's two fleets, one coasted the
peninsula of Arabia, and imported the greater part of the gold, also almug trees, and spices.
That this fleet traded as far as India, or that Solomon had any dikect intercourse with India,
has never yet been proved. The other fleet of Solomon went to Tarshish (2 Chronicles
ix. 21), and is therefore called the Navy of Tarshish (1 Kings x. 22), and brought back
triennially a freight of 'gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks;' or, as I prefer to render,
' GOLD, SILVER, ELEPHANTS' TEETH, TRUNKS OF TREES, AND MASTS FOR SHIPS.' Now, that the
ancient merchant ships built by Solomon should have triennially circumnavigated the whole
of Africa from the Eed Sea to near the Straits of Gibraltar, rounding the Cape of Good Hope,
seems an absolute impossibility. Hence we conclude that this merchant fleet passed through
the canal of Sesostris or Eameses, descended the Nile, and coasted the Mediterranean Sea to
Tarshish, a commercial emporium of the Phoenicians on the Atlantic coast of Spain, at the
mouth of the Boetis or Guadalquivir, not far from the ancient Gades, now Cadiz. See note
postfixed to the Map of Africa, explanatory of this ancient canal, of its navigation by the
Tarshish fleet of Solomon, and of the freight imported by that fleet.
A WIFE, his principal wife, the daughter of Pharaoh, King of Egj'pt.
Wives, his seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.
' What a lovely train
Of blooming beauties, by connubial ties.
Or gift of neighbouring kings, or spoils of war.
Or made by purchase mine.' — Khoheletli.
The prominent distinction made by Solomon in this verse between the daughter of
Pharaoh, his first wife, and his other seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines,
clearly manifests, that when he composed this didactic poem he had realized in his own
heart, that the original institution of marriage was the marriage-union of one man and one
VER. 1-11.] ECCLESIASTES. 13
woman, and that polygamy ami divorce were mysteriously conceded to the Jews on account
of the hardness of their hearts. This prominent distinction seems also to imply his
penitential lament for his idolatrous apostasy, resulting from these idolatrous intermarriages.
Polygamy and divorce are condemned by Genesis ii. 24 : ' They twain shall be one flesh.'
The word twain is an integral portion of inspiration, being the reading of the Samaritan
Pentateuch, of all the ancient versions, and of Matthew xix. 5, Mark x. 8, 1 Corinthians
vi. IG, and Ej^hesians v. 31, and has the divine sanction of Christ Himself The existence of
polygamy in New Zealand, and in our other mission-fields, demonstrates the practical
importance of the word twain in Genesis ii. 21. The authority of Christ for the insertion of
this word is paramount over its omission in every known Hebrew manuscript. The
unwarrantable omission of this word TWAIN, whether intentional or unintentional, and the
unwarrantable addition of 1 John v. 7 in the New Testament, by whomsoever introduced,
besides other instances of addition and omission which might be adduced, prove the absolute
necessity of some revision of the authorized English version, that obedience may be I'endered
to the Divine mandate : ' Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall
ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God wiiich
I command you' {Dcutcyonomy iv. 2). Super-excellent as the English authorized version
is, its excellence must never be placed in competition with the integrity of God's Word as
originally written, to which no man may add, and from wliich no man may subtract.
Vekse 10.
AU the labour, erections, and accumulations of Solomon were merely things cjf time
and sense, pertaining only to this life. They were his portion in time. They were his
gratifications and the joy of his soul whilst he was in apostasy from God. The men of this
world have their portion also in this life, and in this life only. May we, like the saints of old,
have our afl'ections elevated above the things of time and sense, and desire a heavenly country,
' that God may be called OUK God, because He hath prepared for us a city' (Hebrevjs xi. 1(5).
Verse 11.
Nothing under the sun is a substantial good. Christ alone, realized by faith, can
savingly benefit the soul, and impart abiding peace and permanent felicity.
IV.
CHAPTER II.— VEPuSES 12-26.
The past experience of Solomon. Solomon, having prosecuted a fruitless
research after true and enduring happiness in secular wisdom and knowledge, in
mirth and hilarity, in riches and architecture, in intellectual gratification and
luxurious refinement, lays down the axiom, that the same destiny of death and
oblivion awaits the wise man and the fool, and that he himself must leave his
earthly possessions and scientific achievements to his successor, of Avhose wisdom
he had no guarantee, of whose want of wisdom he had too clear a foresight.
Solomon concludes his personal experience by the acknowledgment of God's
sovereignty in the administration of human afiairs. The recognition and realization
14 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. it.
of God's sovereignty in grace and providence can alone impart joy and peace in be-
lieving. Apart from this sovereignty all under the sun is vanity and vexation of spirit.
12 Moreover, I again reverted to the contemplation of wisdom, and of
madness and folly.
For what can any man effect who comes after the king ?
Even that which hath been already done.
13 Then 1 saw that wisdom excelleth folly,
As much as light excelleth darkness.
14 The eyes of the wise man are in his head ;
But the fool walketh in darkness.
Yet I also perceived, that the same destiny awaiteth them both. ■
15 Then 1 said to myself,
As is the destiny of the fool, so the same destiny befalleth me ;
To what purpose then am I wiser than he ?
Therefore 1 said to myself, that this also is vanity.
16 For there will be no remembrance of the wise man more than of
the fool for ever ;
In the length of days to come both will have been forgotten :
And how dieth the wise man ? even as the fool.
17 Therefore I hated life ;
Because grievous unto me was the work that had been done under
the sun :
For all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
18 Yea, I hated all my labour wherein I had laboured under the sun ;
Because 1 must leave it to the man who shall be after me.
19 And who knoweth whether he will be a wise man or a fool?
Yet shall he be lord over all my labour wherein 1 have laboured.
And wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun.
This also is vanity.
20 Yea, I again caused my heart to despair
Concerning all the labour wherein I had laboured under the sun.
21 Because there is a man whose labour is with wisdom, and know-
ledge, and dexterity ;
Yet to a man who hath not laboured therein he must leave it to be
his portion.
This also is vanity and a great evil.
22 For what resulteth to man from all his labour and his disquietude
of heai't.
VER. 12-26.] ECCLESIASTES. 15
Wherein lie labouretli under the sun ?
23 Verily all his clays are sorrows, and his travail grief ;
Yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night.
This also is vanity.
24 Man's happiness consisteth not in eating and drinking.
And in his soul experiencing delight in his labour.
Yet even this I perceived to be from the hand of God.
25 For without Him who can eat and who can enjoy pleasure ?
26 Verily He giveth to a man good in His sight wisdom, and know-
ledge, and joy :
But to the sinner He assigneth toil to amass and heap up,
That he may resign it to him who is good in the sight of God.
This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Verses 12 and 13.
This seems to be secular wisdom and skill which Solomon contrasted with folly, that
from the comparison he might elicit where the sumjium bonuji, the sovereign good, could be
found. He again prosecuted this investigation for his own satisfaction, and for the informa-
tion of posterity, because none could expect to surpass the research of the wisest of men.
Verses 14, 15, and 16.
The same destiny as to the vicissitudes, sorrows, and afflictions of Life, as to tlie separation
by death of the soul from the body, as to the termination of man's prolmtion on earth ; but
not the same destiny as to eternity. Death is the termination of equality of destiny. Death
consigns the body to the grave, and the soul of each indixidual to incipient happiness or
misery. Immediately after death, the rich man lifted up his eyes in torment. Immediately
after death, Lazarus reposed on Abraham's bosom. To the penitent tliief Christ graciously
promised, ■ To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.' ' Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord, immediately, perfectly (dn-aprt) : Yea, saith the Spirit, for that they rest from
their labours, and their works do follow them' {Apocalypse xiy. 13). Life is the seed-time
for eternity. He that sowetli to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Verses 17 and 18.
I hated life, my past Life of apostasy from God, and of conformity to the love of this
evil world, and I hated all the magnificent works I had erected fi'om pride and ostentation,
but not to the glory of God.
Verse 1 8.
The man ivho shall be after me — my son and successor Eehoboam.
Verses 19, 20, and 21.
Solomon anticipated that his successor would act as men heretofore generally had
acted, namely, make a bad use of the splendid inheritance, and that thus all the fruits of his
super-eminent wisdom and scientific labour would ultimately be dissipated. What Solomon
foretold, Eehoboam fulfilled. By his impolitic severity he alienated the affections of tlie ten
16 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. hi.
tribes, and caused the dismemberment of his kingdom, according to the prediction of Ahijah ;
and bj^ liis sin against God he caused the invasion of his kingdom by Shishak, king of Egypt,
and the spoliation of his royal palace and of the temple of Jehovah, built and dedicated by
his father Solomon.
Verses 22 ajid 23.
The expression under the sun limits the vanity and misatisfactoriuess here predicated
to secular labours resulting from secular motives, and performed for secular ends. Works
springing from faith, done with a single eye to the glory of God, to promote the spiritual
or temporal good of man, will never lose tlieir reward of grace. ' Behold, I come quickly,'
says Christ, ' and My reward is with Me, to give to every man according as liis work shall
be' (Apocalypse xxii. 12).
Verse 24.
Man's real everlasting happiness does not consist in eating and drinking, nor in physical,
nor even in intellectual enjoyments. God, whose mercies are over all His works, hath
conferred on the sons of men intellectual and physical enjoyments to sweeten their time-state
here below, and to stimulate their gratitude, that they may never forget the hand from whence
their mercies flow. Secular blessings, both intellectual and corporeal, are alike conceded to
the just and to the unjvist, to him that feareth God, and to him that feareth Him not. They
are temporal ; they are evanescent. And by God's children, after the example of the holy
Patriarch Job, they ever should be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.
Verse 26.
God giveth wisdom to make wise unto salvation, and imparts spiritual knowledge, and
joy, and peace in believing, to all whom the Lord our God shall call. But he assigneth toil
to amass and heap up to the incorrigible sinner, to the apostate who abideth in the state of
nature's darkness, whose sins have not been forgiven, whose person has not been justified,
whose soul has not been saved. The travail of this sinner to amass and heap up is vanity
and vexation of spirit.
V.
CHAPTEE III.— VERSES 1-15.
God's foreknowledge and predestination of the human race, of the birth and
death of each individual, and of every occurrence which shall befall man in his pas-
sage through the quicksands of time to the ocean of eternity. Immutability of the
Divine counsels contrasted with the mutability and vicissitudes of man, and with
the constant revolution of all things human. Known unto God are aU His works
from the beginning of the world. ' AU the wheels of providence subserve the pur-
poses of grace.' ' God is a rock, His work is perfect' Joy and peace in believing
result from God's sovereignty in the administration of human affairs felt and
realized by faith in the heart. All the past acts of human hands, and all the
secrets of human hearts, will be revealed on the great day of judgment, when God
VEK. 1-15.] ECCLESIASTES. 17
will rectify the misjudgmeuts of man, will recompense His afflicted saints, and will
render to every man according to his works.
1 To every individual there is an appointed time,
And there is a time for every purpose under heaven :
2 A time for birth, and a time for death :
A time to plant, and a time to root up that which has been planted :
8 A time to kill, and a time to heal :
A time to break down, and a time to build up :
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh :
A time to mourn, and a time to dance :
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together :
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing :
6 A time to get, and a time to lose :
A time to keep, and a time to cast away :
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew together :
A time to be silent, and a time to speak :
8 A time to love, and a time to hate :
A time for war, and a time for peace :
9. What is the profit thereof ? The Creator Himself in whomsoever
He worketh.
10. I have considered the toil which God hath assigned to the children
of Adam to toil therein,
11 Everything He ordaineth is beautiful in its season ;
Moreover, He hath imparted His intelligence to their heart.
Without which no man can find out the work
Which God doeth from the beginning to the end.
12 I discerned that there was no happiness for them.
But for a man cheerfully to do good in his life :
13 Yea, moreover, that every man should eat and drink,
And should experience delight in all his labour :
This is the gift of God.
MI discerned that all which God doeth.
The same shall continue for ever :
To it can no man add.
And from it can none subtract ;
And God so doeth that men should fear before Him,
15 That which is now was long since,
c
18 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. hi.
And that which is to be was long since ;
And God will disclose the past.
Vekse 1.
God's foreknowledge and predestination of man are explicitly stated by Solomon in this
verse, and in chapter vi. 10. This predestination is an emanation of love and mercy, being-
God's election to life everlasting, — sovereign, gratuitous, immutable, and unmerited. Few, if
any, believers exist, whose experience does not accord with that of John Newton : ' If God
Iiad not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him.' Christ authoritatively says, ' Ye have
not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.' So entire is the innate depravity of the hearts of all
men, and so universally is tlie wliole human race spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, that
I cannot understand how there can be salvation in time, unless there has been election in
eternity. Moreover, predestination to life exalts the love of God, humbles the pride of man,
and ex'cludes aU boasting. But predestination to life does not warrant the inference of pre-
destination to condemnation, which many deduce therefrom. Predestination to condemnation
is not revealed in Scripture, and is not asserted in the Thirty-nine Articles. It was, indeed, main-
tained by Augustine, by Calvin, by other Reformers, and by several post-Eeformation writers,
and was embocUed in the Westminster Confession of Faith. Humanum est errarc. But let the
magnates of our Church beware how they assail the Kirk of Scotland for excess of faith.
Wliat multitudes of our Bishops, Priests, and Deacons have untruthfully subscribed their
assent and consent to the 1 7th Article, the doctrine of which was as alien from their belief
as the adventures of Don Quixote or the marvels of Baron Munchausen ! If the Kirk of
Scotland believed too much, this clerical multitude believed too little. They who live in glass
houses would be wise not to throw stones at their neighbours. Perversions to Papal Eorae
have been one characteristic of the present age. Can one clerical pervert be adduced, who
believed the 1 7th Article in its literal and grammatical sense ? The doctrine of the 1 7th
Article, however misrepresented, exploded, and maligned, is conservative of truth, and pre-
servative against error, but not essential to salvation.
Verse 4.
The practice of dancing in Judea was essentially different from the practice of dancing
in modern times. The Book of Ecclesiastes was primarily addressed to the Jews ; hence
the word dancing in this verse must be interpreted in the same sense wherein it was prac-
tised and understood by God's ancient people.
' Dancing, which with us is confined to the purposes of recreation, formed among ancient
nations, and especially those of the East, an element of religious worship. There is a natural
tendency to exhibit strong feelings of the mind by energetic movements of the body ; and this
tendency is most powerful among the impulsive inhabitants of warmer climates. Among the
Jews, in early times, dancing was associated with a religious festival (Jvdt^cs xxi. 19); but
after the reign of David, this practice seems to have declined, since dancing is not again
mentioned in Scripture under such circumstances.' — Cassell's Bihk Dictionary.
' From a collation of all passages in Scripture in reference to dancing, it may be inferred —
1. That dancing was a religious act, both in true and also in idol worship.
2. That it was practised exclusively on joyful occasions, such as national festivals or
great victories.
3. That it was performed on such great occasions only by one of the sexes.
VEK. 1-15.] ECCLESIASTES. 19
4. That it was performed usually iu the day-time, in the open air, in highways, fields,
and groves.
5. That mex who perverted dancing from a sacked use to purposes of amuse-
ment WERE deemed infamous.
G. That no instances of dancing are found upon record in the bible in which
THE two sexes UNITED IN THE EXERCISE, EITHER AS AN ACT OF WORSHIP OR
amusement.
Lastly. That there are no instances upon record in the Bible of social dancing for
amusement, except that of the " vain fellows," void of shame, alluded to by J\Iichal ;
of the religious families described by Job, which produced increased impiety and
ended in destruction ; and of Herodias, which terminated in the rash vow of
Herod and the murder of John the Baptist.' — Eadie's Biblical F>ui/do2Mdia.
' The practice of what is called promiscuous dancing — dancing performed conjointly by
men and women — appears to have been nearly, if not altogether, unknown in the East.' —
Fairbairn's Imperial Bible Dictionary.
The Hebrew verb employed liy Solomon in this verse, rendered to dance, occurs nine
times in the Hebrew Scriptures, but only signifies to dance iu three other texts besides tliis.
Verse 9.
What is the profit resulting to man from these divinely-ordained fluctuations and vicissi-
tudes of mundane affairs ? — The manifestation of God to the believer's soul, as Creator and
sovereign Administrator of the universe, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him
our God and Father, even the inhabitation of God by the Spirit, who worketh in the believer
to will and to do according to His pleasure. These vicissitudes of life, sanctified by the
Spirit, con\'ince of sin, bring to remembrance past sins of omission and commission, produce
humiliation and contrition of soul, wean from the world, and guide to God.
Verse 11.
God created the world with infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. God administers
the government of the world by the unseen intervention of His providence to fidfil to His
people His everlasting covenant in aU things ordered and sure. He doeth all things well.
"Whatever mars the beauty of creation is the effect of the fall of man, and of sinfulness result-
ing from the fall.
The Hebrew word, rendered world in the authorized version, signifies in the Arabic
language intelligence, and would be so understood in the kingdom of Sheba, in Ophir, and
throughout the whole peninsula of Arabia, annually coasted and visited for commercial pur-
poses by the merchant ships of Solomon. Gaab, Spohn, Hitzig, and Moses Stuart, all render
the Hebrew term by intelligence, and affirm that this is the only meaning appropriate to
this passage. Moses Stuart adds, ' that we may resort to a kindred dialect, as to the Arabic
here, to illustrate the meaning of a word which common Hebrew analogy does not explain, is
conceded on all hands, and is often done. There are a goodly number of words in Hebrew,
which are best illustrated in this way.' This argument is a full justification, on Moses
Stuart's own admission, of the proposed interpretation of the term khoheletii by the
repentant invalid, the signification thereof in the AraVac language.
The word his is not expressed, but implied, in the original by the prefix of two definite
articles to the word rendered intelligence.
20 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. hi.
Verses 12 and 13.
Solomou, though near the close of his earthly career, and bowed down with bodUy
infirmity and penitential sorrow for his past apostasy, nevertheless recommends to God's
children equanimity of mind and cheerfulness of disposition in the daily transactions of life,
and in the dedication of their talents unto God.
Verse 15.
In Cranmer's Bible, 1549, and the Bishops' Bible, 1595, the last line of the verse is
rendered: 'God restoreth agayne the thynge that was paste.' This version gives an
excellent sense, and admirably accords with the context. It seems derived from the Vulgate,
which see in Critical Appendix.
VI.
CHAPTER III. VERSE 16 TO CHAPTER IV. VERSE 6.
Prevalence of wickedness and injustice on the earth. Universality of sin,
and of death the punishment of sin. Separation by death of the soul from the
body. Immortality of the soul, and its return to God who gave it.
Oppressions exercised in foreign nations render to many death preferable to
life in respect to the body and the things of time and sense.
Jealousy and envy are the usual concomitants of successful industry. Con-
tentment with the lot Providence appoints is man's true wisdom, and confers
greater happiness than excessive exertion or baneful indolence.
16 Moreover also I saw under the sun the place of judgment, where
was wickedness,
And the place of justice, wliere was wickedness.
17 1 said in my mind,
God will judge the righteous and the wicked,
Because He hath ordained an appointed time for every purpose
and for every work.
18 I said in my mind concerning the estate of the children of Adam
That they should seek after God, and know that in themselves
they are beasts.
19 For the destiny of the children of Adam is also the destiny of beasts.
There is even one destiny for them :
As the one dieth, so dieth the other.
Yea, there is one breath (of life) to all.
So that man hath not pre-eminence above a beast,
For both are vanity.
VER. 16-iv. 6.] ECCLESIASTES. 21
20 All go to one place,
All sprang from the dust,
And all return to dust again.
21 Who understandeth the spirit of the children of Adam ?
Doth it ascend upward ?
And (who understandeth) the spirit of beasts ?
Doth it descend downward to the earth ?
22 Wherefore I perceived that there is nothing better, than that man
should delight himself in his works,
Because this is his allotted portion.
For Avho can bring him back to see that which after him shall come
to pass ?
IV.
1 So I returned to the contemplation of all the oppressions
Which have been done under the sun :
And behold the tears of the oppressed,
And there was none to comfort them.
And power was on the side of their oppressors.
And there were none to depose them.
2 Therefore I esteemed (the state of) the dead who had long since died.
Better than that of the living who are now alive,
3 And better than both of them (the state of) him who hath not yet
existed.
Who hath not seen the working of wickedness which hath been
wrought under the sun.
4: Again I considered all labour and every successful work,
That for this a man is envied of his neighbour,
This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
5 The fool foldeth his hands together,
And consumeth his own flesh.
6 Better is a handful with quietness
Than two handsfiil with toil and vexation of spirit.
Chapter hi. verses 18, 19 and 20.
Men are compared to beasts, and are said to liave the same destiny as beasts, in respect
to their time-state here below, in respect to the bre\'ity and transientness of tlicir lives, and
the certainty of their deaths. In regard to brevity of life and certainty of deatli man has
22 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. ni.
no pre-eminence over beasts. ' Man, being in honour, abideth not : he is like the beasts that
perish.'
Verse 21.
Solomon here clearly intimates a distinctive difference between the spirit of man and
the spirit of beasts ; between the spirit of man, wliich is immortal, and returns to God who
gave it (xii. 7), and the spirit of beasts, which is terrestrial, and returns to earth. Solomon
does not here define the locality of spirits separated from their frail tenements of clay. He
defines not the locality of paradise, where the human soul of Christ and the soul of the
repentant thief met on the day of the crucifixion, nor the locality of Abraham's bosom, the
consociation of the father of the faithful and of Lazarus, nor the localitj^ of the place of
torments from whence the rich man entreated Abraham's intercession. Not a ray of light is
thrown by this verse on the intermediate state of departed spirits in the interval between the
severance of body and soul by death, and the reunion of body and soul by the resurrection.
The question is asked, but the answer is not given. ' By the " ascending upwards " of the
children of Adam, I understand simply subsisting and retaining immortality, just as " de-
scending downwards" seems to me to mean lapsing, falhng, becoming lost.' — Calvhi's
Fsychopannychia, p. 462.
The distinction established by Solomon between the spirit of man and the spirit of
beasts, affirms the immortality of the souls of aU men, both saved and lost. The sempiternity
of the worm that never dieth, and of the fire that never shall be quenched, hath been assailed
in these last days perilous to the souls of men. This soul-destroying heresy, revived by the
intellectual Essayist of Bristol, spreads like wild-fire in visible Churches, Episcopal and Pres-
byterian. But if future punishment be not eternal, then glory is not eternal, heaven is not
eternal, God is not eternal, and our hope in Christ is in this life only, and we are of all men
most miserable. To deny this article of revelation is to contradict the truth of God, and the
advocates of this denial merit that which Jehovah hath affirmed, and they have blasphem-
ously denied.
' Man was born
To die, nor aught exceeds, in this respect,
The vilest brute : both transient, frail, and vain
Draw the same breath, alike grow old, decay.
And then expire : both to one grave descend.
There blended lie, to native dust resolved —
The nobler part of man, 'tis true, survives
This frail corporeal frame ; BUT who regards
The difference?' — Klwhckth.
Verse 22.
' Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous ; and shout for joy, all ye that are upright
in heart' {Ps. xxxii. 11); 'Eejoice in the Lord, 0 ye righteous' {Ps. xxxiii. 1); 'Let the
righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God' {Ps. Lxviii. 3) ; ' Light is sown for the right-
eous, and gladness for the upright in heart: Picjoice in the Lord, ye righteous' (Ps. xcvii.
11-12) ; 'Eejoice in the Lord alway ; and again I say, Eejoice. Be carefid for nothing' {Phil.
iv. 4-6).
Joy, equanimity, and tranquillity of mind constitute the portion which God has graciously
VER. 16-iv. 6.] ECCLESIASTES. 23
bestowed iipou His people during their pOgrimage in tliis world, from wliicli death, common
to them and to the bi-ute creation, will finally remove them. After death they wiU receive
their reward of grace, that glory which eye hath not seen, which ear hath not heard, and
which it has not entered into the heart of man to conceive.
Who can raise the dead to life ? Who can impart to the dead the knowledge of
what shall occur after their dissolution ? This seems to imply that the dead have no cognis-
ance of human affairs. See note on ix. 5-6.
Chapter iv. vkkse i.
Oppression in Judea Solomon possessed the power and the will to repress with iron hand.
The oppressions condemned in this verse and in chap. v. 8 were those perpetrated in foreign
countries beyond liis regal control. Of the oppressions practised under the sun, foremost stand the
unjust expatriation and final extirpation of Pagan aborigines by civilized man. The windward
islands of the West Indies were once densely peopled by the red Caribbee Indians, of whom
not one survivor now exists, not one vestige now remains. The Pagan aborigines of the other
islands in the West Indies, once so numerous, are now extinct. Of negroes, myriads have
been exiled from Africa by slave-dealers, alias men-stealers, and have prematurely perished
under the curse of slavery. The prophecy of Noah foretold God's retributive justice, but does
not justify man's iniquity. Dark as is the picture of the oppression of Pagans in time, far
darker are the lineaments of its results in eternity. Leaving out of consideration moral
Paganism, what will be the eternal state of Pagans immersed in every vice and polluted with
every iniquity which can disgrace humanity, many of whom have been hurried to premature
death by European cupidity and avarice ' Jehovah is a holy God, heaven is a holy place, —
none unholy can enter there. Yet the soid of the Pagan is as sempiternal as the soul of the
Christian. Wliat then wiU be the final destiny of adult sinful Pagan idolaters, whom St. Paid
pronounces to be ' without excuse,' to many of whom no revelation has ever been vouchsafed,
and who have never heard of that only name whereby man can be saved ? The responsibility
of men-stealers, persecutors, and murderers of Pagans, by whatever name they may be called,
or whatever I'eligion they may profess, is as clear as the sun at noon-day. But the deep
mystery of Pagan responsibility who can fathom ? Jeliovah Himself wiU justify His ways
with man —
' Because He will Ining every work into judgment,
With respect to every secret matter,
Whether it be good, or whether it be evil.'
Verses 2 and 3.
Solomon's alleged preference of death to life, and of him that never existed to tlie
living, is restricted by the words under the sun, and has reference ordy to this world,
to the things of time and sense. Thus interpreted, it accords well with chap. ix. 4. Any
other interpretation would be contradictory to the statement of St. Paul : ' I reckon tliat
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory wluch shall
be revealed in us' {Rom. viii. 18).
Verse 4.
To envy and malign otliers for having done right worlcs is right down diabolism.
24 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. iv.
Veese 6.
Contentment and placid assiduity in the daily duties of life are extolled by Solomon
above envious and competing toil on the one hand, and above sloth and blamable inactivity
on the other. ' Diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,' is the sum and sub-
stance of this lesson inculcated by Solomon, of this warning against envy, idleness, and
disquietude of mind.
VII.
CHAPTEE IV.— VEESES 7-12.
Condemnation of the solitary avaricious miser, who heapeth up riches, and
cannot tell who shall gather them.
Commendation of marriage, of social intercourse, and of fraternal consociation.
7 I AGAIN contemplated a vanity under the sun.
8 There is a single man, and none connected with him :
Yea, he hath neither child nor brother,
Yet is there no end of all his toil ;
Neither are his eyes satisfied with riches ;
Neither (saith he) For whom do I toil and bereave myself of good '?
This also is vanity, yea, it is a wicked work.
9 Two are better off than one.
Because they have a good reward for their labour.
10 For if they fall, the one will raise up his fellow,
But woe to him who is alone when he falleth.
For there is not a second person to raise him up again.
11 Also, if two lie together, then they shall be warm :
But to one alone how shall there be warmth ?
12 And should any one overpower one (of the two) when alone,
The two shall stand firm against him,
And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Verses 7 and 8.
A striking illustration of this portraiture of real life, so graphically drawn by Solomon,
occurred to my own observation. In the parish of Holwell, in the county of Somerset,
where I long resided, died a wealthy penurious farmer, who left neither relative nor near
VER. 7-1 2.J ECCLESIASTES. 25
coimexion. I was present at his funeral. "When the rector of Holwell had concluded the
burial ser\dce — a service most sublime in itself, but most inappropriate to him over whose
remains it had been read, — whilst the mourners and bystanders encircled the grave, and pen-
sive and silent looked down on the coffin, a Wesleyan preacher said, in an imder tone audible
to all, ' He heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them.' These words, so fitly
spoken, penetrated every heart. In deep melanclioly all retired from the grave of this
wretched miser, who in the whole course of a very long life was never known to have done
one act of charity, nor, beyond the purchase of one gold ring and one solitary volume, to have
expended an iota on self-gratification, beyond what was essential to the sustentation of life.
Verse 9.
' It is not good that man should be alone' {Genesis ii. 18).
' "WTiat so sweet,
As the connubial state, ordained by Heaven,
Source of domestic joys, where souls unite
In mutual love ! Did not th' aU-bounteous Lord,
"Who knows our frailties and om- wants, foresee
That man, amidst ev'n Paradise itself,
Still wanted something to complete his bliss.
And therefore gave an helpmate, who might share
His toils, with soft endearments soothe his cares.
If cares he had, and double all his joys ?
Such are the fruits of social life ! And such
E'en now the man-iage state attend.
Hence chiefly let the chaste endearing wife.
Best, sweetest gift of Heaven, delight thy soul.
Nor ever from her part ; to her alone
Let thy affections be confined.' — Rhoheletk.
VIII.
CHAPTEE IV.— VEESES 13-16.
Unpopularity of King Solomon in his latter clays, as contrasted with the
popular expectation of Jeroboam's reign. Solomon's prophetic foresight, that the
popularity of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, would ])e tran-
sient, and that in the next generation, during the reign of his son Nadab, his throne
would l)e subverted, and his family extirpated.
13 ' An indigent but wise youth is better than an old and foolish king,
Who hath made known that he will be no more admonished,
Ii Even though he goes forth from the house of exiles to reign,
Because that in his kingdom he was born a poor man.'
D
26 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. iv. 13-16.
15 I have seen all the living, who walk under the sun,
(Taking part) with the youth, with the next in succession, who shall
stand in his place.
16 There is no end of all the people, of all above whom he is,
Yet their successors shall take no delight in him,
Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Verses 13 and 14.
The iudigent but wise youth was ' Jeroboam the son of Nebat, au Ephvathite of Zereda,
Solomon's servant, whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widow woman, even he lifted up his
hand against the king' (Solomon) (1 Kings xi. 26). These two verses were the rebellious
clamour of many Jews towards the conclusion of the reign of Solomon, and evidence the then
rising spirit of insurrection against Solomon, especially among the ten tribes.
Verse 15.
' When all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the
king, saying, Wliat portion have we in David ? neither have we any inheritance in the son of
Jesse : to your tents, O Israel : now see to tliine own house, David. So Israel departed unto
their tents. So Israel rebelled against the house of David to this day' (1 Kings xii. 1(5-19),
taking part with the youth Jeroboam, who was next in actual succession to Solomon over
Israel, reigning after him over the ten tribes.
Verse 16.
' Go, tell Jeroboam, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I will bring evil upon the house
of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, and him that is shut up and left in
Israel, and wiU take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung,
tiU all be gone. Him that dieth of Jeroboam in tlie city shall the dogs eat ; and him that
dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the Lord hath spoken it' (1 Kings xiv.
7, 10, and 11). 'And Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against
him (Nadab, the son of Jeroboam), and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon, which belonged to
the Philistines. Even in the third year of Asa king of Judah did Baasha slay him, and
reigned in his stead. And it came to pass, when he reigned, that he smote all the house of
Jeroboam, he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed him' (I Kings
XV. 27, 28, and 29).
XI.
CHAPTEE v.— VERSES 1-7.
Ikjunction of circumspection and profound reverence in public worship. The
oblation of praise and prayer and contrite confession of sin is an essential part of
devotion never to be omitted. Addresses to the Deity should be in language select,
flowing from the heart, and without vain repetitions.
CHAP. V. 1-7.] ECCLESIASTES. 27
All vows to God, especially vows of self-dedication, should be made with great
deliberation, and be carefully considered, because, whatever man vows to his Maker
he is obliojated to fulfil.
1 Keep thy foot when thou enterest into the house of God ;
For drawing nigh to hear is better than sacrifice, the oblation of
fools ;
For they know not to be contrite.
2 Be not rash with thy mouth,
JN"or let thy heart be in haste to utter a word before God ;
For God is in heaven and thou art upon earth ;
Therefore let thy words ])e few.
3 Truly a dream is associated with a multitude of incidents ;
So is the voice of the fool with a multitude of words.
4 When thou vowest a vow unto God,
Defer not to perform it.
For He hath no pleasure in fools :
Perform that Avhich thou hast vowed.
5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow,
Than that thou shouldest vow, and not perform it.
6 Suffer not thy mouth to bring jninishment on thy flesh ;
JN'either say thou before the Angel that it was an oversight,
Wherefore should God be provoked by thy voice.
And blast the work of thy hands ?
7 Truly in a multitude of dreams, so in many words, are there vani-
ties ;
Therefore fear thou God.
Verse 1.
The sacrifices enjoined by the Mosaic ritual were designed to be a symbolic teaching t(j
the Jewish people, significant and premonitory unto them of good things to come. The
whole ritual prefigured the promised Messiah, and was given to the Jews to be their peda-
gogue or scholastic conductor to Clu'ist, the great prophet and teacher of His people of e^•e^y
age and every cbme. On some of these sacrifices the offerers were permitted to feast in whole
or in part. Solomon's admonition to the worshippers in the Temple was an injunction to offer
the oblation of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, from their hearts ; and in their sacrificial
feasts in the outer courts to have their minds intent on the inward spiritual grace rather than
on the outward visible signs. Solomon's admonition is a solemn warning to all Jews and
Christians to enter God's house with preparedness of mind, devotion, and reverential awe, and
to offer to Him heartfelt oblations of prayer and praise.
28 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. v.
' When ye approach God's altar, on your lips
Set strictest guard, and let yom- thoughts be pure,
Fervent and recollected : thus prepared, ,
Send up the silent breathings of your souls
Submissive to His will ; for He looks down
From heaven, and with paternal care prevents
Our real wants, before we ask.' — Khohddli.
Tlie Peschito-Syriac version renders this verse : ' Keep thy foot when thou goest into the
house of God, and draw nigh to hear : this is better than the sacrificial victims which fools
oifer, for they know not to do that which is right.'
The Hebrew word rendered to be contrite has the same signification in chap. vii. 3,
namely, dejection and contrition of countenance.
Verse 2.
Christ exemplified the exhortation ' Let thy words be few' in the beautiful form of prayer
He gave to His disciples — a universal prayer, designed for all nations, languages, tongues,
and people — a daily prayer for daily liread for soul and for body — a special prayer for all
who by realizing faith can call God, Aljba, Father, being His children by regeneration, adop-
tion, and grace.
Solomon does not condemn all long prayers, for Christ our exemplar prayed all night ;
but careless heartless prayers, prayers for ostentation, vain repetitions of Paternosters and
Ave Marias by tale.
Verses 3 and 7.
The dreams which are here termed ' vanities ' are simply and exclusively the erratic
phantasies of the mind during sleep, when the imagination is awake and the judgment
slumbers, and are carefiddy to be distinguished from admonitory and premonitory dreams
and apparitions. That premonitory dreams and visions are not the result of any return or
re-appearance of the dead to the living, see the Preface, and note on chap. ix. 5 and 6.
Verse 4.
The spiritual Israel are obligated by baptismal, confirmation, and sacramental vows
to self-dedication unto God, to consecrate all the faculties of their minds and all the mem-
bers of their bodies unto Him, whose they are and whom they serve.
Verse 6.
The angel of the everlasting covenant; the angel who spake to Moses out of tlie
burning bush ; the angel who, in the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud, conducted Israel
out of Egypt ; Jehovah the angel, both God and man, the Mighty God, the Father of the
Everlasting Age, the Prince of Peace ; the word of God, the wisdom of God, the messenger
OF God, the mediator between God and man ; the personator of Jehovah, whereby
Jehovah, invisible in His own nature, in human nature appeared to man. Thus Jehovah
manifested Himself to Adam, Cain, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Hagar, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,
Manoah, etc. Wherever in the Old Testament the angel of the Lord, or the angel of
God, is recorded as appearing to man, that Angel is God Himself in human form.
According to correct construction, and the parallelism of Hebrew poetry, the angel in
the former hemistich, and God in the latter hemistich, must signify one and the same person.
VER. 8-vi. 9.J ECCLESIASTES. 29
The angel here named is no priest nor priestly messenger coming to claim the eleemosynary
(jffering, but God Himself, tlie Second Person of the eternal Trinity, the man Christ Jesus,
He who is the brightness of His Father's glory and the express image of His person. The
Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions render, before God.
CHAPTER V. VERSE 8 TO CHAPTER VI. VERSE 9.
Oppression is a dark page in providence, calling for the exercise of faitli and
patience. It is some alleviation to reflect that the ruler is subject to the superior
jurisdiction of his monarch, and that both monarch and ruler are not only respon-
sible to, but under the providential control of, Him by whom kings reign and princes
decree justice.
Avarice chains down the heart to the things of time and sense, de.spoiIa man of
the lawful enjoyments of life, expels the love of God from the soul, and verifies the
Divine sentence, ' If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.'
Contentment of mind, resulting from fiducial reliance on God's sovereignty in
the administration of human afSiirs, is man's highest wisdom and truest happiness.
It realizes the faithfulness of Jehovah, humbles the pride of man, alleviates the
sorrows of time, and devolves our cares, sorrows, and conflicts on Him who doetli
all things well.
8 If thou shalt see in a country oppression of the poor, and perversion
of judgment and justice,
Be not dismayed concerning the matter ;
For one higher than him in authority overlooketh ;
And the most High Ones are supreme over them and over the
eminent of the earth.
9 He, the King of the earth, is to be served above all.
10 He who loveth money will not be satisfied with money.
Nor he who loveth Avealth with its accumulation.
This also is vanity.
11 With the increase of goods, they who consume them are increased.
And what advantage is there to the owners thereof.
Saving the beholding of them with their eyes ?
12 Sweet is the sleep of a labourer, whether he eat little or much ;
But the abundance of the rich man suffers him not to sleep.
30 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. v.
13 There is a grievous evil I have seen under the sun :
Kiches treasured up for the owner thereof unto his harm,
14 And these riches perish through some adverse traffic,
And he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
15 As he came forth from the womb of his mother,
JSTaked shall he again depart as he came ;
And when he dieth, there is nothing in his hand which he hath
acquired by his labour.
IG This also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he
depart ;
And what profit hath he that he hath laboured for the wind ?
17 Yea, all his days he eateth in gloom.
And in much sorrow, and infirmities, and indignation.
18 Behold, I have considered that it is good, that it is comely.
That a man should eat, and drink, and experience delight in all his
labour.
Wherein he laboureth under the sun,
During the number of the days of his life which God hath assigned
him :
Truly this is his allotted portion.
19 Yea, to every man to whom God hath given riches and wealth,
And hath enabled him to eat thereof.
And to sustain his allotted portion, and to rejoice in his labour ;
This is the very gift of God.
20 Let him remember that the days of his life will not be many.
That God, by the joy of his heart, answers his prayers.
VI.
1 There is an afflictive evil which I have seen under the sun,
And heavily does it press upon man :
2 A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour,
And he wanteth nothing for himself of all which he desireth,
Yet God enableth him not to eat thereof,
But a stranger eateth it.
This is vanity, yea, it is a grievous afiliction.
3 If a man shall beget an hundred children,
And shall live many years,
vKR. 8-vi. 9.] ECCLESIASTES. 31
And many shall be the days of bis years ;
Yet himself shall have no enjoyment of that prosperity,
And moreover to him there shall be no burial :
I say, an untimely birth is better off than he.
4: For it comcth forth in vain, and goeth away in darkness,
And its name is buried in darkness,
5 Moreover, it hath not seen the sun, nor had any perception.
To it there is more tranquillity than to him,
6 Tea, though he should live a thousand years twice told.
And enjoy no prosperity.
Do they not both go to the same place ?
7 All the labour of man is for his mouth,
And yet desire cannot be satisfied.
8 Then what advantage is there to the wise man over the fool ?
What advantage to the indigent man, who hath understanding to
struggle against life ?
9 That which the eyes behold is better than the wandering of desire.
This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Verses 8 axd 9.
The king is supreme over all in authority and office under him, and will overlook them,
and bring them to account. The triune Jehovah (called by Solomon, the JIost High
Ones, and the King of the earth) are supreme over angels and men, over all kings
and all their subordinates, and will visit their transgressions by retributive justice in
time, or by never-ending punishment in eternity. A king cannot rule a country, nor reign
over a people, without subordinates in office, whose evil deeds he may be ignorant of, or, if he
know them, may not possess the power of prevention, or of punishment. Witness David's
dying charge to Solomon (1 Kings ii. 9). No government, civil or ecclesiastical, is to he
censured because it is not faultless in all its details. Perfection of government will wxer
be attained, ixntil the will of God shall be done universally and perfectly on earth, as it is
now done universally and perfectly in heaven, until the saints shall be kings and priests, and
reign with Christ upon the earth, until the twelve ajDOstles shall sit upon twelve thi'ones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Verse 10.
The progressive baneful effect of the love of money on the luunan heart, impelling it to
increase of worldliness, and to increasing apostasy from God's word and will, is ]iainfully
exemplified in Balaam, Judas Iscariot, and Demas. Balaam, the rmregenerate propliet of
Jehovah to the Gentile world, twice courteously received the messengers of Balak, the king
of the idolatrous Moabites, and t\vice sought Divine direction concerning their message, though
he foreknew that their solicitations were contradictory to God's eternal, inniiutable decree.
He covetously desired, and daringly essayed, to curse whom God had not cursed, and to defy
whom God liad not defied. He counselled Moab to tempt Israel to fornication and idolatry,
and he perished amidst God's enemies, without hope and without salvation, ami with a full
32 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. v.
presentiment of eternal condemnation, according to his own prediction : ' I shall see Him, but
not NOW ; I shall behold Him, but not NIGH.' He loved gold more than God, the wages of
divination more than the path of duty. Judas Iscariot, one of the delegated twelve, the con-
stant companion of Christ in His ministerial circuits, a witness of His stupendous miracles,
of mercy, cognisant that the winds and the waves obeyed Him, and that all nature was
subject to his control, sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver, and when he saw Him led
as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep dumb before his shearers, hanged himself in self-
despair, and went to his own place, the place of perdition. From the beginning he was a
thief He loved the wages of iniquity. Tliis apostate apostle preached to others the gospel
which he had never experimentally felt in his own heart. He did many wonderful works.
To him Christ will say at the last day : ' Depart from Me, thou worker of iniquity.' Demas
was one of the earliest preachers of Christianity. Of Demas, St. Paid writes : ' Demas has
forsaken me, having loved the present world.' ' If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.' Of all such backsliding apostates, the Spirit emphatically declares :
' If, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is
worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known
the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment
delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb : The dog
is turned to his own vomit again ; and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the
mire' (2 Peter ii. 20-22.)
It is a question of grave import, Avhether traffic in Church preferment for lucre's sake is
not a branch of that sin which characterized Balaam and Judas Iscariot. Cures of souls are
disposed of by the aiictioneer's hammer. Patrons sell, clergymen buy, newspapers insert
advertisements of sale, and church agents negotiate the unhallowed bargains. The popula-
tions of those cures of souls are bought and sold fok lucre's sake as veritably as sheep in
their pen or cattle in their stalls. Has not traffic in the souls of men been legalized by the
three estates of the realm, and sanctioned by the silence of the Episcopate ? From all mer-
chandise of the souls of men, speedily, good Lord, deliver this Church and nation !
Verse 15.
This translation of the last hemistich of this verse is an accurate representation of the
original Hebrew, and simply states that the destitute man at his death had nothing in his
hand, possession or power. The authorized version manifestly cannot be right, because it
implies, or at least seems to imply, that the dead may carry away something from this world
to another. In no other text of the Old Testament is this Hebrew verb in the same con-
jugation rendered to carry away. But every Hebrew Lexicon I possess affirms one of its
significations to be, to depart, or to die.
Verses 18 and 19.
' What thou hast.
With cheerfulness enjoy, and as becomes
Thy station : reap the fruit, whilst Heaven permits.
Of all thy honest labours ; and since life
Is but a span, let not suiDcrfluous cares
Or gloomy thoughts contract its narrow space ;
For 'tis thy portion here. This sage advice
Reason and nature dictate.' — Khoheleth.
VEK. 8 VI. 9.] ECCLESIASTES. 33
Verse 20.
God answers the prayers of His people by causing all things, even the most adverse, to
work together for the spiritual and eternal good of all who love Him, of all who are the called
according to His pui-pose, of all who are His children by adoption and grace.
Chapter vi. \tekse 3.
The Hebrew word rendered burial signifies also in several texts burial-place. The
nieaniug is, that the individual has no funeral obsecpiies, none of the pomp and ceremonial
usually practised in Oriental funerals.
Verse 6.
T]t,c same place — the state of the dead, that bourne from whence no traveller returneth.
Verse 7.
' In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread' (Genesis iii. 19).
Verse 8.
What advantage has the one over the other in respect to enjoyment of life and exemp-
tion from death ? The same mundane vicissitudes, and the same ultimate destiny befall both,
and are common to both.
Verse 9.
Reality is preferable to castles in the air, the phantom of restless minds. This maxim
of Solomon should teach all God's children to be content with their allotted portion ; not to
be anxious about futurity, but to trust in the Lord Jehovah, for in the Lord Jehovah is ever-
lasting strength.
The vicissitudes of human affairs, and the occurrence of the same destiny to the wise and
to the unwise, to him who feareth God and to him who feareth Him not, constitute the vanity
and vexation of spirit experienced and declared by Solomon.
XL
CHAPTER VI. VERSE 10 TO CHAPTER VII. VERSE 14.
God's eternal predestination of man. Man's duty of implicit submission to
God's sovereignty in grace and providence.
Many events apparently calamitous are essential to man's real good, and are
designed by an overruling providence, through the sanctification of the Spirit, to
edify the soul, and to fulfil God's gracious puiposes of love and mercy. Content-
ment, resignation to God's will, and patient continuance in well-doing, are our
E
34 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. vi.
required duties, and are essential to growth in grace, communion with our Maker,
and preparedness for death and judgment,
10 Whatever occurs was long ago called by name,
And man was foreknown what he should be,
So that he is unable to contend with Him who is more mighty
than he.
11 Seeing there be many things which increase vanity,
What is the advantage of them to man ?
12 Who indeed knoweth what is good for man in life
During the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow ?
Who, verily, can tell man what liis futurity shall be under the
sun ?
VII.
1 A good name is better than fragrant perfume,
And the day of death than the day of one's birth.
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house
of feasting.
Because that is the end of all men,
And the living will lay it to his heart.
3 Better is sorrow than laughter.
Because by dejection of countenance the heart is made better.
4 The heart of wise men is in the house of mourning,
But the heart of fools is in the house of merriment.
5 It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man
Than for a man to listen to the song of fools :
6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
Such is the laughter of the fool :
This also is vanity.
7 Surely oppression woundeth a wise man.
And bribery corrupteth the heart.
8 Better is the end of a law-suit than the beginning thereof :
Better is forbearance of spirit than haughtiness of spirit.
9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to anger,
For anger resteth in the bosom of fools.
10 Say not thou. Why is it that former days were better than these ?
For thou dost not inquire concerning this with wisdom.
11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance.
VER. lo^vii. 14.J ECCLESIASTES. 35
Yea, a greater good to tliem who see the sun.
12 For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence :
But the superiority of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them
who have it.
13 Contemplate the work of God ;
Whether any one can make straight that which He hath made
crooked.
14 In the day of prosperity be occupied in that which is good,
And in the day of adversity meditate :
God hath indeed appointed the one to balance the other,
In order that no man shall at all discover what his futurity shall be.
Veese 10.
The finite cannot contenil with the Infinite. He whose days are as a shadow cannot
contend «ith Him who is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting. Man, who sees through a
glass darkly, cannot contend with the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Jehovali, whose
predeterurinate counsel and foreknowledge govern all things in" heaven and iu eartl:.
Chapter vn. veese 1.
The day of death is better than the day of bii-th to him whose good name is better than
fragi-ant perfume ; whose sins are forgiven ; who hath been justified by the righteousness of
Messiah ; who hath been born from above, having been baptized by one Spirit into one body ;
whose name is written in heaven ; who is a fruit-bearing branch of the True Vine, a member
of that mystical body of which Christ is the head. But the day of death is not better than
the day of birth to any who die unregenerate, unjustified, unsaved. The day of death was
not better than the day of birth to Nimrod, to Balaam, to Xabal, to Saul, to the rich man who
lifted up his eyes in torment, to Judas Iscariot, to Simon Magus, to Herod, whom the angel
of the Lord smote, because he gave not God the glory, nor to the wicked members of the
Jewish Sanhedrim, who suborned false witnesses, and nefariously accomplished the crucifixion
of Jesus. That the day of death is better than the day of birth is not an universal proposition,
l)ut is restricted and limited by the preceding hemistich, is self-evident. The day of death is
not better than the day of birth to ' the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, nor to
murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, liars.' ' There shall in nowise enter into the
new heaven and new earth anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or
maketh a Ue ; but they who are written in the Lamb's book of life.' God is holy, heaven is
holy ; no one unholy shaU enter there.
For the literal meaning of the Hebrew word rendered peefujie, see note on x. 5.
Verses 2, 3, and 4.
Solomon, in the third chapter of this book, writes : —
' There is a time for every purpose under the sun ;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh :
A time to mourn, and a time to dance :
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracinc.'
36 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. vii.
This statement proves that Solomon's object in this chapter was not to condemn ALL feasting,
ALL laughter, and ALL merriment ; but to teach that death, and mourning, and sorrow, are
mercies in disguise, afflictions graciously sent by God to humble our soids in the dust, to
bring our past sins to remembrance, to wean us from earthly vanities, to prepare us for death
and judgment, to remind us that this is not our rest. Blessed are they who by sanctified
affliction are elevated above the things of time and sense, and have their hopes and
affections there fixed, where true joys are to be found. Christ imparted joy and felicity to
the marriage-feast in Cana, and wept at the grave of Lazarus. ' There is a time to weep, and
a time to laugh.'
Veese 7.
Cranmer's Bible, 1549, and the Bishops' Bible, 1595, translate this verse —
' The wise man hateth wrong dealing ;
And abhorreth the heart that coveteth rewardes.'
Vekse 8.
The Hebrew word, here rendered lawsuit, has this signification. — Exodus xviii. IC, 22 ;
x.xiL 8 (9); xxiv. U.
Veese 10.
Do not under-estimate present mercies. Do not derogate from nor lightly esteem God's
providential administration of the universe. Attempt not to unravel the hidden mysteries of
Providence.
Veese 11.
To them who see the sun ; that is, to all men.
XII.
CHAPTER VII.— VEESES 15-2C.
The brevity of the lives of saints, the prolonged existence of sinners, and the
manifold vicissitudes of human life, result from, and ought ever to be ascribed to,
the sovereign will of the omnipotent and all-wise Administrator of the universe,
supervising and controlling the volitions and passions of puny man. Separation
from the ways and maxims of the ungodly, and assiduous pursuit of divinely-
enjoined righteousness and wisdom, constitute man's commanded duty and true
happiness.
Consciousness of our own defective obedience should teach us not to expect
perfection in man, and to be lenient to tlie frailties of others.
The fall of man is a profound mystery which none can fathom. Its sinful
mamfestations, co-extensive with the human race, culminate in and through female
depravity.
VER. 15-26.] ECCLESIASTES. 37
15 Both these cases have I seen in the days of my vanity :
There is a righteous man who dieth through his righteousness,
And there is a wicked man Avho prolongeth his life through his
iniquity (saying),
16 ' Be not righteous overmuch.
Neither make thyself overwise ;
Why shouklst thou destroy thyself?'
17 Be not overmuch wicked,
Neither be tliou foolish ;
Why shouklst thou die eternally ?
18 As it is good that thou shouklst retain hold of this, .
So, also from that withdraw not tliine hand :
For he who feareth God shall come forth with them both.
19 This (maxim of) wisdom will be confirmed to a wise man,
By any ten rulers who have been in a city,
20 That there is not upon earth a righteous man.
Who doeth good and never sinneth.
21 Therefore give not heed to all words which are spoken ;
Lest thou overhear thy servant revile thee :
22 For oftentimes also thine own heart is conscious
That thou thyself likewise hast reviled others.
23 All this (matter) have I tested by wisdom :
1 resolved I would be wise ;
24 But it (wisdom) was remote from me.
That which hath been is remote and mysterious ;
Mysterious, who can find it out ?
25 I revolved again in my heart
That 1 would ascertain, and investigate, and seek out wisdom and
knowledge ;
And that I would seek out the wickedness of folly and the foolish-
ness of madness :
26 Then I find more bitter than death the woman
Whose heart is snares and nets,
And whose hands are fetters :
He who is good in God's sight shall be delivered from her ;
But the sinner shall be entrapped by her.
38 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. vii.
Vekse 15.
The frequent prosperity of the wicked, aud adversity of the righteous, is a topic which,
in every age, lias exercised tlie faith of God's children, and caused the infidel and sceptic to
deny Jehovah's providential administration of the universe. The prominency given by the
wise king of Israel to this incontrovertible fact seems to be designed to elevate the soul of
the reader above the vanities of time and sense, to the contemplation of the glories and
realities of eternity. Solomon in this didactic poem teaches by implication as well as by direct
assertion. This verse inferentially inculcates the immortality of the souls of all men, and a
final universal judgment and retribution of the whole posterity of Adam, when the supreme
Judge will compensate the inequalities of time, and will vindicate the ways of God with man.
Verses 1 6 and 1 7.
Two reasons may be assigned, which demonstratively prove, that Solomon could never
have admonished others ' not to be righteous overmuch, and not to be overwise : ' —
1. To be righteous overmuch is impracticable and impossible, a perfection never attained
by any child of Adam since the faU. In many things we offend all. In our flesh dwelleth no
good thing. Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. If God were to enter into judgment with
lis, we could not answer him a word. Man's unrighteousness needeth to be robed in the
righteoiisness of INIessiah, that he may be justified before God. Perfection of righteousness
is impossible without perfection of sanctification and perfection of glory.
To be overwise, as respects the wisdom which is above, is equally an impossibility.
Man's wisdom is not innate, but the gift of God. Obscuration of understanding is common
to all the human race. We now see through a glass darkly, more especially in matters per-
taining to God. Perfection of heavenly wisdom can never be obtained iintil we see face to
face. Superfluity of righteousness, as well as superfluity of heavenly wisdom, is an imaginary
phantom, an ignis fatuus, a mnage, a nonentity, which never has existed, and never can exist.
2. To counsel men ' not to be righteous overmuch, and not to be overwise,' is antagonistic
to the former teaching of Solomon in the Book of Proverbs, and to other portions of God's
revealed will. ' Wisdom is better than rubies ; and all the things that may be desired are not
to be compared to it' {Proverbs viii. 11). ' The price of wisdom is above rubies, the topaz of
Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold' {Job xxviii. 18, 19 ; see
also Proverbs iv., vii., and xxiii. 23). ' In the way of righteousness is Ufe, and in the pathway
thereof there is no death' {Proverbs xii. 28). See Proverbs viii., x., and xi.
This worldly maxim is the counsel of the wicked man, not the maxim or teaching bf
Solomon. The meaning of the passage is clear and perspicuous hy the insertion of the word
SAYING. This word is inserted by our translators in Ecclesiastes iv. 8 ; Psalm ii. 2 ; xxii. 7,
etc. etc., as essential to the sense, though not expressed in the Hebrew. The aiithority of our
translators, manifested in these three passages, and the exigentia loci, fully warrant the
insertion of the word SAYING at the end of verse 15.
The very parallelism of the Hebrew seems to imply that verse 17 is a counter-maxim to
verse 1 6 ; that if verse 1 7 be the inspired maxim inculcated by Solomon, then verse 1 6 must
be the maxim of the wicked man, who prolongeth his life through his inic[uity.
Verse 17.
' Be not overmuch wicked,' that is, do not add to original or birth-sin actual transgres-
sions, rejection of God, and contempt of His word and will.
Verse IS.
Pietain hold of righteousness, and from wisdom withdraw not thy hand, for he who
VER. 15-26.] ECCLESIASTES. 39
feareth God shall come forth and enter into life, possessing both righteousness and wisdom,
which shall regulate liis conduct throughout his earthly pilgrimage.
Veese 26.
' To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with
her words, wliich forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God,
for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to the dead' {Proverbs ii. 16-18). ' Tlie lips
of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil : but her end
is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps
take hold on hell' {Proverbs v. 3-6). Eead the graphic portraiture of chapter vii., concluding
with the words : ' She hath cast down many wounded : yea, many strong men have been slain
by her : her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death ;' and read chapter
ix. 14-18, ' The foolish woman sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high-places of
the city, to call passengers who go right on their wa}-. "VVTioso is simple, let him turn in
liither ; and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him : Stolen waters are
sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and
that her guests are in the depths of hell' He who would thoroughlj- imbibe this teaching of
Solomon, and would understand by what name the place of the damned was expressed in the
Old Testament before the captivity of Babylon, whilst the first Temple was standing, should
read the discourse of Joseph Mede on Proverbs xxi. 16. Mede thus applies his text: 'He
that goeth astray from the M^ay of understancUug, i.e., from the law and discipline of God,
must one day go to his fellow-giants, who were destroyed, because they had no wisdom, and
perished through their own foolishness.'
These warnings of Solomon in the Book of Proverbs and in this verse indisputably prove,
that the licentiousness of Jerusalem in the days of Solomon was what the licentiousness of
London now is. Jerusalem had her unfortunates as London now has. The streets and
thoroughfares of Jerusalem were traversed by moral pests, as the pave of London now is. The
warnings of Solomon are addressed to aU times, all places, and all classes, to the seducer and
to the seduced, to Jew and Gentile, to liigh and low, rich and poor, one with another.
In regard to this criminality, a distinctive difference exists between the days of Solomon
and our own times. Systematic efforts are now made to reclaim the fallen, to communicate
to them the gospel, to rescue their bodies from premature decay, and their souls from eternal
perdition. Such efforts to evangelize were not made in the days of Solomon, and evince that,
in this respect, former times were not better than our own, — that this age enjoys pri%Tleges
unknown in the days of David and Solomon.
The good in God's sight are identical with the regenerate, the justified, the sanctified.
XIII.
CHAPTEE VII. VEESE 27 TO CHAPTEE VIII. VEESE 1.
Solomon's discovery, after long and continuous pursuit, of the predicted
Messiah, perfect Man as well as perfect God, ' The chiefest among ten thousand,'
the Angel, the Intercessor, One above a thousand, wlio mauifesteth unto man His
righteousness, and saith : ' I have found a ransom.'
40 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. vii.
Solomon's discovery, that the burut-offerings and other sacrifices ordained by
the Mosaic ritual were only shadows of good things to come, symbolic representa-
tions of the perfect sacrifice of the promised Eedeemer, and that they could not in
themselves put away sin, or make satisfaction for man's transgression.
God created man holy and happy. From man's fall and apostasy have ger-
minated all the false religions of the world, the devices of Satan to destroy immortal
souls.
27 Behold, this have I found, saith Khoheleth,
(Adding) one fact to another to find out the conclusion,
28 Which my soul had hitherto sought, but which I had not found.
A Man, One above a thousand, I have found,
But an offering made by fire for every curse I have not found.
29 Besides, lo ! this have I found,
That God hath made man upright,
But they themselves have sought out many devices.
VIII.
1 Who resembles the wise man ? and who understands the interpre-
tation of the oracle ?
The wisdom of that man will enlighten his countenance.
And the confidence of his countenance will be doubled.
Veese 27.
Khoheleth, that is, the repentant invalid (see note on i. 1, 2, also Preface, and Critical
Appendix).
Vekse 28.
The difficulties of the authorized version of this passage have been generally felt and
acknowledged. The authorized version represents that among one thousand. Solomon found
one man but not one woman. If the supposed ellipsis be supplied, an ellipsis unexampled and
without precedent, the statement will be, that among one thousand Solomon found one right-
eous man, and not one righteous woman. From this statement several questions naturally
result. Of whom did the thousand consist ? Of men exclusively ? Of women exclusively ?
Or was it a miscellaneous assemblage of men and women ? Of women exclusively it could
not consist, because Solomon found a man among them. Of men exclusively it could not con-
sist, or Solomon would not have sought for a woman among them. Nor can the thousand
have any reference to Solomon's seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines, because,
as an able critic has well remarked, among these occupants of his harem Solomon would never
have sought for, and could never have found, a man. Furthermore, disguise it as we may,
from tills version, results the corollary, that Solomon found more pure reUgion in the male
than in the female sex, a position contradictory to all and every Christian experience. Had
our translators any inkling of a Messianic interpretation by the marginal reference to Job
xxxiii. 23, wherein Elihu affirms a Mediator, an Intercessor 'to deliver man from going down
to the pit (of destruction), and to find a ransom and an atonement' (for him), wherein Elihu
describes the Mediator in the self-same words which Solomon has here repeated, ' as one
VER. 27-viii. 1.] ECCLESIASTES. 41
AMONG (above) A THOUSAND* ? — Or has tliis marginal reference been added subsequently to
the first edition (1611) of our authorized English version ?
One ABOVE a thousand I consider a title of Christ Jesus, predicated of Him by Job in
chap, xxxiii. 23, and by Solomon in this verse. Both passages are parallel to Canticles v. 10 :
' My BELOVED IS THE CHIEFEST AMONG TEN THOUSAND.'
An offeking made by fire is a generic term for every offering and oblation. Hence the
affirmation of Solomon, that sin cannot be remitted, nor God propitiated, by the mere oblation
of sacrifice.
Every curse is eveiy denunciation of Divine wrath against every transgTC.ssion of man.
Hence the meaning of the version I have submitted wiU be : Solomon, having sinned
against light and knowledge, and having by idolatry apostatized from God, earnestly sought
for some method of reconciliation to God, — some way of salvation. Ultimately, by faith he
obtained an experimental knowledge of the predicted Messiah, the man Christ Jesus, mighty
to save, and experimentally discovered that all the Mosaic sacrifices were shadows, not
realities, — symbolic representations to the spiritual Israel of the only name under heaven
whereby man can be saved.
Verse 29.
' God, the author of nature, not of sin, created man upright. But man, self-depraved and
justly condemned, begat a depraved and condemned posterity. We were all in Adam, when
he, the father of the human race, corrupted all, having lapsed into sin through the woman,
who was created out of Adam before sin was in the world.' — Augustine.
Chapter viii. verse i.
The hemistichs (chap. viii. 1) which conclude this section of the didactic poem intimate
the existence in this paragraph of some deep mystery, which spiritual wisdom alone can
unravel, the knowledge of which imparts confidence, joy, and peace in believing. This mystery
is the incarnate Son of God, the end of all revelation, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the
glory of His people Israel. Solomon beheld the gospel in its germ, we are privileged to live
under its fuUy expanded flower.
XIV.
CHAPTER VIII.— VERSES 2-8.
Solomon, after his restoration from that apostasy into which he had fallen, by
example and precept commands obedience to King Messiah, ' the root and offspring
of David, the bright and morning star,' and enjoins to all men prompt, passive, and
willing submission to all Messiah's commands, — man's highest wisdom and true
interest. Solomon further admonisheth not to rest in the means of grace, but to
seek the presence of Messiah therein by the manifestation of the Spirit.
Messiah, Lord of life and death, Head and King of the Church militant and
of the Church triumphant, translates from the conflicts of times to the glories of
F
42 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. viii.
immortality each believer, when he has fulfilled the mission for which he was sent into
the world, each grain of wheat when it has been divested of chaff and is fit for the
garner, that all the saints, now one in Christ in grace and time, may be one in
Christ in glory and eternity, to whom on the day of judgment he will say : ' Come,
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the founda-
tion of the world.'
2 I MYSELF keep the King's commandment ;
Yea (keep it), in regard of the oath of God.
3 Withdraw not hastily from His presence,
Persist not in a wrong matter,
For He doeth whatsoever pleaseth Him.
4 Where the edict of the King is, there is power,
And who can say to Him, What doest Thou ?
5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall experience no evil.
Moreover, the heart of the wise man expecteth the time of
judgment,
6 For there is a time of judgment for every matter.
Because the wickedness of man is great upon him.
7 Verily, no man knoweth what shall come to pass.
For what shall come to pass, who can tell him ?
8 No man hath control over the spirit to retain the spirit,
And no man hath control over the day of death.
For there is no discharge in this warfare,
Neither shall wickedness deliver those who connnit it.
Verses 2, 3, i, and 5.
Critics, commentators, and students of Scripture have all acknowledged tlie manifest
incongruity, that .Solomon, tlie wisest and most absolute of monarchs, should in this section
have inculcated loyalty and submission to regal authority in general, without any reference to
his own royal dignity and autocracy. The reader of the Hebrew original is startled by the
unwonted ellipsis of tlie words counsel thee, introduced, contrary to Oriental idi(.)m and all
propriety of language, into the English version, of which words neither trace nor intimation
exists in the Hebrew. The line : ' Whoso keepeth the commandment shall experience nu
evil,' interpreted as. promising exemption from evil to him who obeyeth the mandate of an
earthly sovereign, is a c7-ux inierprdum, which admits of no solution. Nor is there any con-
nexion between obedience to kings and universality of death. But the reference of this
section of the didactic poem to King Messiah solves every difficulty, and evidences the reality
of the connexion. Even the Chaldee Targum, the production of a Christ-denying Eabbi,
declares King Messiah to be the sum and substance of these verses. He writes : ' In the
VEK. 2-8.] ECCLESIASTES. 43
time of the auger of tlie Lord, cease not to pray before Him : liasteninto His presence : go and
pray, and seek mercy from Him, that tliou persist not in any evil, for Jehovah the Lokd of
ALL WORLDS -will do whatsoever He pleasetli. "Wlien the edict of the King who rules the
whole world is decreed, it is speedily executed.' Jerome thus interprets the passage :
' I consider Solomon now to speak of the King, of whom Da\dd says : " The King shall
joy in thy strength, 0 Lord" {Psalm xxi. 1). And in another passage, which signifies the
one kingdom of the Father and of the Son, the Scripture saith : " Give the King Thy judg-
ments, O God, and Thy righteousness unto THE King's Son." " The Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." This King, the Son of God, is the Son
of the Father, who is King.'
])Ut tlie question recurs, Would the word King convey to the -Jewish reader of the Book
called Ecclesiastes, in the time of Solomon, the idea of King Messiah ? We reply, that the
Psalms of Da\id were sung in the Temple erected by Solomon, and that in many of the Psalms
the word King indisputably signifies King Messiah : —
Psalm ii. 6.
' Yet have I set My King upon my holy hiU of Zion.'
Psalm xlv.
Celebrates the mystical union between Christ and His Church. The King of this Psalm is
King Messiah.
Psalm xlvii. 6 and 7.
' Sing praises unto our King, sing prai.ses, for God is the King of all the earth.'
Psalm lxxii.
The King of this Psalm is King Messiah : Verse 11, 'All kings shall fall down before
Him, all nations shall serve Him ;' Verse 19, 'Let the whole earth be filled with His glory.
Amen, and Amen.'
Psalm lxxxix. 18.
' The Lord is our defence, and the Holy One of Israel is om- King.'
Psalm xcviii. 6 and 9.
' Make a joyful noise before the Lord the King, for He cometh to judge the earth.'
Psalm cxlix. 2.
' Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.'
In regard to tfic oath of God : ' The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a
priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.' Messiah is our Prophet, Priest, and King.
Verse 8.
The day of the death of every individual is appointed from all eternity by King Messiah,
the Son of God and Son of Man, the Lord of the spirits of all men, the sovereign arbiter of
human affairs, who openeth and no man shutteth, who shutteth, and no man openeth, and
who commandeth all the children of Adam, Jew and Gentile, ' Be ye also ready, for in siich
an hour as ye think not the Son of ^lau cometh.'
44 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. viii.
XV.
CHAPTER VIII. VERSE 9 TO CHAPTER IX. VERSE 12.
The temporal prosperity of the wicked, the frequent oblivion of the righteous,
the maladministration of human affairs, and the equality of destiny which alike
befalls the whole human race, all demonstratively prove a future state of rewards
and punishments, a sempiternity of misery to all Chiistless sinners, and a sempiter-
nity of glory to all the regenerate, the justified, the sanctified —
' Where the wicked cease from troubling,
Where the weary are at rest.'
All our blessings flow through Christ from the Father of mercies and God of
all consolation, undeserved and unmerited by any. These should eUcit adoration
of the good and gracious Giver, and self-dedication of ourselves and talents unto
Him, whose we are, and whom we are obligated to serve with every faculty of our
mind, and with every member of our body.
9 All this have I contemplated,
And have applied my heart to every work
Which has been done under the sun,
Even when one man ruleth over another man to his own hurt.
10 Yea, truly, I have seen the wicked buried.
And that they have gone in and out of the holy place.
Whilst they who have acted right have been forgotten in the city ;
This also is vanity.
11 Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed.
Therefore the heart of the children of Adam is fully set in them to
do evil.
12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and (God) is long-suffer-
ing to him,
Yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God,
Because they fear before him.
13 But it shall not be well with the wicked man, nor will (God) be
long-suffering ;
His days are as a shadow, because he feareth not before God.
14 There is a vanity which is acted upon the earth,
That there are righteous men to whom it happens
As if they had done the work of the ungodly.
And there are ungodly men to whom it happens
VER. 9 -IX. 12.] ECCLESIASTES. 45
As if they bad done the work of the righteous ;
I considered that this also is vanity.
15 Then I commended enjoyment,
Because there is no happiness under the sun to man,
But to eat and to drink and to be joyful.
And that this should continue with him in his labour during the
days of his life
Which God hath given him under the sun.
16 When I applied my mind to learn wisdom,
And to contemplate the toil which has been undergone upon the
earth.
For that by day and by night man enjoyeth no sleep with his
eyes,
17 Then I contemplated all the work of God,
That no man can discover the work
Which has been done under the sun,
Because though a man may labour to iind it out, yet he shall not
discover it.
Yea, though a wise man think that he knows it.
Yet he will not be able to discover it.
TX.
1 For all this I have laid to heart, even to investigate all this,
That the righteous, and the wise, and their w^orks are in the hand
of God ;
Also love and hatred.
No man can at all discern that which is before him :
2 All things come alike to all ;
There is one destiny to the righteous and to the wicked,
To the good and to the evil, to the pure and the impure,
To him who sacrifices and to him who doth not sacrifice ;
As is the good man, so is the sinner.
And the swearer as he who feareth an oath.
3 This evil exists in everything which has been done under the sun,
That there is one destiny to all.
Yea, also the heart of the children of Adam is full of evil.
And madness is in their heart while they live, and after they go to
the dead.
46 ECCLESTASTES. [chap. vin.
4 Verily for him who is joined to all the living there is hope ;
Because a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they must die,
But the dead are cognizant of nothing ;
And moreover to them there is no further reward :
Truly their memory is forgotten.
6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their jealousy, have long ago
perished,
Neither have they participation any more for ever
In all that is done under the sun.
7 Go, eat thy bread with gladness,
And drink thy wine with a cheerful heart ;
For God has long since graciously accepted thy works.
8 Let thy garments be at all times white,
And let thy head not lack perfume.
9 Enjoy life with thy wife whom thou lovest.
All the days of thy transitory life which He hath given to thee
under the sun :
For this is thy portion in life.
And in thy labour wherein thou labourest under the sun.
10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ;
For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wis-
dom,
In the abode of the dead, whither thou art going.
11 I have often observed under the sun.
That the race is not always won by the swift,
Nor the battle by the strong,
Nor yet sustenance by the wise,
JS[or yet wealth by men of understanding,
Nor yet favour by men of skill ;
But that doom and destiny h-appen to them all :
12 For that no man knoweth his doom.
As fishes that are taken in a lethal net.
Or as birds that are caught in a snare.
So, like unto them are the children of Adam ensnared in a lethal
time,
"When it falleth suddenly upon them.
VER. 9-ix. 12.] ECCLESIASTES. 47
C'HArTER VIII. VERSE 9.
' ^^^lat Imrt men do to others will return in the end to their nwn hurt.' — Henry.
Verse 11.
The followiug anecdote exemplifies this apophthegm of Solomon, and teaches that if crimi-
nality be not promptly visited with condign punishment, the heart will hecome so hardened,
and the conscience so seared, as frequently not to discriminate good from e\'il. The captnin
of a Bristol slave-ship was coasting the shores of Africa for traffic. On landing, a slave-dealer
offered him for sale two female slaves, each having an infant in her arms. The captain
refused to buy. The slave-dealer with surprise inquired why he landed if he would not purchase.
The captain olijected to the children. The slave-dealer asked if ho woidd buy the mothers
without the children. The captain consented, and the price was settled. The slave-dealer
then dashed out the brains of the two little innocents against a neiglibouring tree, and the
captain embarked the weeping bereaved mothers. The captain himself told this tale with
perfect sang froicl at a dinner-party in Bristol, and remarked that the slave-dealer seemed
unconscious that he had committed any crime. My informant, one of the guests, said to the
captain — 'Are you not aware, that you yourself are a,paHiccps criminis, for if you had not
consented to buy, the two innocents would not have been murdered?' My informant was a
most eminent solicitor in the city of Bristol, universally respected for his strict probity, sterling
integrity, and unimpeachable veracity, and was tlie professional adviser of my family for nearly
half a century.
Verses 12 and 13.
' If God love a righteous man, as certainly He does, he is happy though the world frown
upon him ; and if He hate a wicked man, as certainly He does, he is miserable thougli the
world sniUe upon him.' — Henry.
Verse 15.
Solomon qualifies his statement, that there is no happiness to man but to eat and to drink
and to be joyful, by the words under the sun ; as much as if he had said, that these consti-
tute man's earthly happiness, man's physical corporeal good, not the good of his soul, which
is peace with God, residting from an assurance of an individual interest in Christ's salvation.
Solonioii's object iii this and similar passages is to recommend cheerfulness of disposition,
contentment of mind, and avoidance of excessive anxiety and carefulness, casting all care upon
Him who hath loved His people with an everlasting love, and who delighteth to do them
good according to His eternal covenant on their behalf, in all things ordered and sure.
Verses 1G and 17.
The contemplation of Solomon embraced both the multifarious labours of man antl (idd's
providential administration of the universe. This contemplation was not superficial, but pro-
tracted and erudite, yet failed in botli particidars. If man cannot fully comprehend the works
of his fellow-men, much less can his intellect grasp the deep mysteries of Divine providence,
only partially discerned in time, and in their fulness inscrutable until we attain perfection of
knowledge and glory.
Chapter ix. verse 1.
The love and hatred of our fellow-men towards us are regulated by the interventiun ol
Divine providence. No man can foresee his futurity, that which hereafter shall befall him
48 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. viii.
ill his pHgrimage here below ; but all things, eveu man's love and hatred, are foreknown to
God, and by Him are regulated with infinite wisdom according to the counsel of His own
will.
Verse 3.
As death leaves man so eternity will find him. There is no change of heart after death.
He who dies in a state of unregeueracy will remain unregenerate through the countless ages
of eternity. He who dies a Christless sinner will remain a Christless sinner for ever and ever,
As God has loved His people with an everlasting love, shedding His abiding love in their
hearts, that in life and after death they may love Him who first loved them, so hatred to
Christ, His people, and His gospel, survives the grave, and abides in Christless sinners
permanent and inextinguishable throughout eternity. The madness, which instigated rejec-
tion of Christ in time, wQl endure when time shall be no more, as immortal as the never-dying
soul itself.
Vekse 4.
This aphorism, an ancient proverb current in the language and peninsula of Arabia,
inferentially teaches that life is the seed-time for eternity, that unless salvation shall be
obtained during life, it can never be realized after death. May we not also deduce therefrom,
that they who have been quickened from death in sin to life in righteousness by the regene-
ration of the Spirit, whatever may be their state or condition, are more precious in the Divine
estimation than those who abide in nature's darkness, however honoured in their day and
generation, or whatever benefits they may have conferred on their families, their country, or
the world ? Did Solomon select this aphorism from the proverbs of Arabia, or did the
Arabians borrow it from the book of Ecclesiastes ? The Arabic prefix 7 seems to indicate
that it had its origin in Arabia.
Veese 5.
By the declaration, that ' the dead have no further reward,' Solomon teaches, that God
will render to every man according to the deeds done in the body. Death is alike the
termination of man's probation and of man's laboirr in God's vineyard. 'Whatsoever thy
hand fiudeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor
wisdom in the grave (the abode of the dead), whither thou goest' {Ecclesiastes ix. 10).
Verses 5 and 6.
The dead are not cognizant of, nor have any participation in, mundane affairs : —
' By death transported to th' eternal shore,
Souls so removed revisit us no more.'
They wlio sleep in Jesus are indeed in rest, joy, and felicity, and repose with Abraham in the
Paradise of God. But they return not again to this world, until, rising in Christ's likeness,
they shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom, and shall reign with Christ ON earth.
' His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not ; and they are brought low, but he per-
ceiveth it not of them' {Joh xiv. 21). 'Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be
ignorant of us' {Isaiah Ixiii. 16).
Calvin, in his Instihitcs (iii. 20, 24), thus writes : ' When the Lord withdrew the dead
from our society. He left to us no mean of intercourse with them ; nor, as far as we can pos-
sibly conjecture, has He left to them any mean of intercourse with us.' See page 520 of the
original French edition, published at Geneva in 1564, the very year the great Eeformer died.
VER. 9ix. 12.] ECCLESIASTES. 49
' WHiat fruit of earthly toils when from life's stage
Withdrawn ? Are they not strangers then to all
That passeth here, tlieir very names forgot
By the survivors ? Xor imports it whom
They loved or hated, since none court their smiles
Or dread their frowns ; this busy world to them.
They to its joys and griefs, for ever lost.' — Khohdeth.
Scripture in tliis and other passages authoritatively denies the return of the dead to the
earth, and consequently tlieir re-appearance to the living ; but Scripture nowhere denies the
reality of admonitory and premonitory dreams and apparitions. Indeed, God foretells the
seeing of visions and dreaming of dreams by the saints to be one sign of the near approach of
the Second Advent. That dreams and spectral apparitions divinely sent do occur is evident
from the dream or apparition seen by the Rev. Samuel Medlicott. The Rev. Dr. Sirr stated
this dream to me orally, and has inserted it in the very words of Rev. S. IMedlicott in his life
of the last Archbishop of Tuam, pages 7G2, 763 : 'I was at my brother's in Wiltshire, whither
I made my first move in search of health, early in March last year (183U). There, at a very
early hour one morning (I think four o'clock), the dear Archbishop (I shall never forget his
sweet face, though pale as death, and head uncovered) stood at the foot of my bed and said,
" I am tired of, and I will, or I have left Tuam ; and I will never return there." This greatly
disturbed, and of course roused me. I thought I had, as it were, seen a vision ; and mentioned
what I do here to Mrs. Medlicott as she awoke. But how was I indeed disturbed, how pain-
fully cast down, -u-hen in due time the heartrending tidings reached me, that ON that very
p.\Y .\ND AT THAT VERY HOUR HIS Gr.we HAD DEPARTED THIS LIFE !' The occurrence of Divine
dreams and apparitions is also evident from the dream of Dr. Milner before he was made
Dean of Carlisle, narrated by his niece ; from the dream or vision whereby Colonel Gardiner
was converted, recorded by Dr. Doddridge ; and more particularly from the prophetic dream
of Frederick the ^^'ise, Elector of Saxony, reported by D'Aubigne, in the very words of Spalatin,
in liis HistorY of the Reformation.^ This dream, foreshadowing in visions of the night the
world-wide influence of Luther's writings, the ire of the Popedom, and the spread of the
Reformation, was thrice vouchsafed to the Elector on the night preceding 31st October 1517.
Early in the morning of this day, the Elector related this dream to his Ijrother and co-Regent,
I )uke John, and to his Chancellor ; and on tliis very day Luther aifixed his theses to the door
of the church of Wittemberg, the first act and commencement of the glorious Reformation.
We shall never know till the revelation of the last day how much this dream secretly influ-
enced the Elector to protect the monk, whose iron pen, reaching from Wittemberg to Rome,
' ' I dreamt that the Ahuiglity sent me a monk, who was a true sou of PaiJ the apostle. He was
accompanied by all the saints, iu obedience to God's command, to bear him testimony, and to assure me that he
did not come with any fraudulent design, but that all he should do was conformable to the will of God. They
asked my gracious permission to let him WTite something on the doors of the Palace Chapel at Wittemberg, which
I conceded through my Chancellor. Upon this the monk repaired thither and began to write ; so large were the
eliaracters that I could read from Schweinitz what he was writiug. Tlie pen he used was so long that its extremity
reached as far as Eome, where it pierced the ears of a lion which lay there, and shook the triple crown on the
Pope's head. All the cardinals and princes ran up hastily and endeavoured to sujiport it ; you and I both
tendered our assistance. I stretched out my arm ; that moment I awidie with my arm extended, in great alarm,
and very angry with this monk who could not guide his pen better. I recovered myself a little. ... It was
only a dream.
' I was still h.ilf asleep, and once more closed my eyes. The dream came again. The lion, still disturlied
50 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. viii.
caused the Papal Lion (Leo. X.) to roar ; uor how much this dream contributed to the final
triumph of Reformation light over Papal darkness.
These four, to which others might easily have been added, are indubitable facts. They
are amply sufficient to verify the sparse occurrence in bygone years of premonitory dreams,
which Joel foretells will be more frequent before the Second Advent. Other authenticated
di-eams, some witliin my own knowledge, might have been adduced. Of these I feel obligated
to subjoin three, which, I believe, will greatly interest the reader.
On Sunday, 14th January 1838, my father communicated to Mrs. Coleman, to whose
memory this volume is dedicated, a dream he had on the preceding night, in which ■ three
texts were impressed on his mind : 1st, ' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ aud thou shalt be
saved;' 2d, 'Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life;' 3d, ' It is
finished.' My father considered this dream a premonition of his approaching dissolution, and
gave me the names and addresses of four friends to whom I was to communicate his death as
soon as it should occur. On Monday, 2 2d January, a physician, a particular friend, came
from Eyde to Ventnor to spend the day with us : he examined my father, considered he
was suffering from a slight cold, and pronounced that he would soon be well. My father
expressed to him an opposite opinion. On leaxnng the house the physician said to me, ' Don't
be alarmed, your father will soon recover.' Early in the morning of Thursday, 25th January,
my father said to the maid-servant who sat up with him, 'What sweet sleep I have had!'
He turned in his bed. After a short interval, the servant, not hearing him breathe as she
had pre\'iously done, rushed into om* room. Before Mrs. Coleman and myself could step
from one bedchamber to the other the vital spark was extinct, and my father was a corpse.
He died in his sleep at half-past two o'clock on that morning.
Mrs. Coleman herself had a very singular dream some time before our marriage. She
dreamt that she attended a chapel, the minister of which gave out as his text Psalm Ixviii. 1,
' Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered,' and that in the course of his sermon he
remarked that the text was mistranslated, and ought to have been rendered : ' God shall
arise. His enemies shall be scattered.' She mentioned this dream at the breakfast-table on
Sunday morning. A lady present exclaimed : ' I am so struck with your dream, that I must
accompany you.' They went together to the chapel. The minister gave out his text. Psalm
Ixviii. 1, and stated in his sermon that the Hebrew was in the future tense, aud that the true
interpretation was : ' God shall arise. His enemies shall be scattered.' The lady remarked —
'You have had some private intercourse with the minister.' 'No,' replied Mrs. C, 'he is a
perfect stranger to me. I have never had any intercourse with him, written or oral.' On
Psalm Ixviii. Mrs. C. in her Bible wrote this marginal note : ' This Psalm refers to Christ
Jesus, MY ONLY Saviour.' And her prayer, written in the same Bible, concludes with these
words : ' May I look vmto Jesus for pardon, and receive it, for heaven, and enjoy it, so that
liy the pen, began to roar with all his might, until the whole city of Rome aud all the States of the Holy Empire
ran up to know what was the matter. The Pope called upon us to oi>pose this monk, and addi-essed himself
]iarticularly to me, because the friar was living in my dominious. I again awoke, repeated the Lord's Prayer,
entreated God to preserve his Holiness, and fell asleep.
' I then dreamt that all the princes of the Empire, and we along with them, hastened to Rome and
endeavoured one after another to break this pen ; but the greater our exertions, the stronger it became ; it
crackled as if it had been made of iron ; we gave it up as hopeless. I then asked the monk (for I was uow at
Rome, now at Wittemberg) where he had got that pen and how it had came to be so strong. "This pen," replied
he, "belonged to a Bohemian goose a hundred years old. I had it from one of my old schoolmasters. It is so
strong because no one can take the pith out of it ; and I am myself quite astonished at it." On a sudden I
heard a loud cry. From the monk's long peu had issued a host of other pens. I awoke a third time. It was
daylight.' — D'Aubigng's History of the Reformation, Book iii. Chapter 4.
VER. 9 IX. 12.] ECCLESIASTES. 51
my compassionate Saviour may be truly precious to my soul, constraining me to thank Thee,
0 Lord, for thy written word, as a true light, and a sure guide in the path of peace. My God.
my God, hear the cry of my heart, answer tlie desire of my soul, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen
and Amen.'
The following dream is remarkalJe, as it foreshadowed the lamentable riots and incendiary
fires, which occurred in Bristol in the year 1831, and began in Queen's Square. A gentleman
resided in that square, with wliom, and with his family, I had some intercourse in the Isle of
Wight. One morning this gentleman, whilst breakfasting with his family, said : ' I h.we
HAD A REMARKABLE DREAM, THAT QuEEN'S SQUARE WAS IN FLAMES, AND THAT THE MIDDLE OF
THE SQUARE WAS FILLED WITH SOLDIERS.' After leaxdng the breakfast-table he again referred
to his dream, when his wife said, ' I hope we shall not suffer ? ' He replied, ' You will all
BE preserved, but I SHALL BE SAFE LANDED.' Shortly after, he was walking with a relative
of mine, and proposed going over Prince's Street Bridge, along the New Cut, towards Clifton.
She declined to go farther, observing, ' What a very dark cloud ' — rain must be coming.'
He was silent a few minutes, whilst they stood observing this cloud, and then said, in answer
to her remark : ' There is a MUCH darker cloud ! — sojie very heavy calamity hanging
over Bristol !' The dream which he had seen in the visions of the night was literaU}-
fulfilled. He died suddenly, six weeks before the riots commenced. His widow, as a
measure of precaution, was removed from the house. But she and all the family were pre-
served, and his house was exempted from that conflagration, which consumed the new prison,
the two toll-houses, the bridewell, and Lawford's Gate prisons, the bishop's jialace, the
mansion-house, the Custom-house, the Excise OfEice, and nearly fifty dwellings and warehouses
in Queen's Square and streets adjacent, and destroyed property to the amount of £100,000.
This cjentleman was remarkable for reticence and habitual reserve. In conversation his
language on all occasions was deliberate and concise. My relative communicated to me in
writing these identical words spoken by him at his own breakfast-table and during their walk.
I would also refer the reader to ' The Voice in the Dream ; a Tale of Age,' originally
written by my deceased friend, Eev. John East, Incumbent of St. Michael's, Bath, wherein is
narrated a dream or spectral vision vouchsafed on three successive nights to a dying votary
of pleasure, which dream was instrumental of her conversion, and premonitory of the blessing
of Mr. East's ministry to her soul. ' The Scripture claims the dream as a medium through
which God may speak to man. The Scripture declares, not as any strange thing, but as a
thing of course, that the influence of the Spirit of God upon the soul extends to its sleeping
as well as its waking thoughts.' — Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.
' Truly God speaketh once.
Yea, twice to him who regardeth it not,
In a dream, the vision of the night.
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon the bed :
Then He openeth the ears of men
And sealeth their instruction.'- -Joi xxxiii. 14-16.
Verses 7, 8, and 9.
This admonition is not addressed to the unregenerate, the Christless, or the worldling,
but exclusively to God's children. It is God's voice of love to all who possess saving faith
in Christ, mercifully to warn them against excessive anxiety concerning the tilings of time
52 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. ix.
aud seuse. It is an incentive to them to use the world, not abusing it. It is a promise to
them of the life that now is, as well as that which is to come.
' Go then, whilst Heav'n permits, and taste the sweets
Of life : vex not thy soul with anxious cares
And terrors vain ; nor from the world expect
More than it can afford, or God design'd ;
And if thy works are such as He approves.
With cheerful heart enjoy what He bestows.' — Khohddh.
Verse 10.
The Hebrew word, unhappily rendered grave in our version, does not signify the recep-
tacle of the body, but the receptacle of the soul, the uuder-world, the world of the dead.
' The Hebrew^ word (slicol) signifies the place appointed for the habitation of depaeted
SOULS, IN the interval BETWEEN DEATH AND THE GENERAL RESURRECTION. The Word describes
this place as the object of universal inquiry, the unknown mansion, about Avhich all are
anxiously inquisitive. The Sheol of the Old Testament, and Hades of the New, is indeed the
Hell to which our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Apostles' Creed, descended. It is the
paradise to which he conveyed the soul of the repentant thief. It is the place whither His
soul went and preached to the souls, not in prison, as Ave read in our English Bible, but m
SAFE KEEPING, which ONE WHILE HAD BEEN disobedient ; but as the expression one while had
BEEN implies, were at length recovered from that disobedience, probably by the preaching of
Noah, and before their death had been brought to repentance and faith in the Redeemer to
come. To these souls our Lord went in His soul and preached. But what could He preach
to them ? Not repentance. They had repented of their disobedience before they were sepa-
rated from the body by death, or they had not been found in the bundle of life. But if He
went, and proclaimed to them the glad tidings, that He had actually offered the sacrifice of
their redemption, and was now about to enter into glory ; this was a preaching that would
give new animation and assurance to their hope of the consummation, in due season, of their
bliss. And this, by the way, I take to be the true sense of this text of St. Peter.' — Bishop
Horsley, Biblical Criticism, vol. ii. pp. 329, 330.
Verse 11.
' Thus the wicked worldlings are deceived, attributing to fortune that which is ordered by
the secrete providence of God ; for that the reward according to men's doings is not in this
life, but chiefly in the life to come.' — Bishops' Bible.
XVI.
CHAPTER IX. VERSE 13 TO CHAPTER X. VERSE 15.
A PARABOLIC manifestation of Messiah, bruiser of the serpent's head, Eedeemer
of the spiritual Israel, during His incarnation despised and rejected of men, now
regnant at the right hand of the Majesty on high, whilst Satan, the god of this rebel
vKu. 13-x. 15.] ECCLESIASTES. 53
world, reigneth in the children of disobedience, who see no beauty in Messiah that
they should desire Him.
Christ, incarnate wisdom, clearly predicted in the Book of Proverbs, more
(jlAScurely shadowed forth in this book, is the sum and substance of revelation, even
of the words of the wise, who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Expediency of submission to the j^owers that be. Perfection not to be expected
in rulers, nor in the distribution of their patronage.
There is a retributive justice, which even in this life frequently visits men for
their transgressions, and which, in the world to come, will visit those who know not
God, nor the gospel of His grace, and will for ever exclude them from the kingdom
of His glory, the city not made with hands, whose maker and builder is God.
13 This wisdom have I also contemplated under the sun,
And it has greatly influenced me :
14 There was a small city, and few men within it,
And there came a powerful king against it, and besieged it.
And built great towers against it.
15 And there was found therein a poor wise man,
And he by his wisdom saved the city ;
Yet no one remembered that self-same poor man.
16 Then thought I that wisdom is better than strength.
Although the wisdom of that poor man is despised.
And his words are not obeyed.
17 The words of wise men obeyed with humility.
Are better than the shout of one who ruleth over fools.
18 Better is wisdom than weapons of war.
One sinner destroy eth much good.
X. 1 Dead flies cause the oil of the perfumer to ferment and become
fetid,
(So) doth a little folly him who surpasseth in wisdom and honour.
2 The heart of a wise man is at his right hand,
But the heart of a fool is at his left.
3 Yea, even in the pathway when the fool walketh.
His wisdom faileth him,
And he proclaims to every one that he is a fool.
4 If the spirit of the ruler be roused against thee, abdicate not thy
office.
For submission pacifies great offences.
54 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. tx.
5 There is an evil I have observed under the sun,
Which looked like an oversight which proceeded from the ruler.
6 Folly is placed in many high stations,
And the rich sit in degradation.
7 I have seen servants upon horses,
And princes walking as servants on the ground.
8 He who diggeth a pitfall himself shall fall into it,
And he who breaks down a wall a serpent shall bite him.
9 Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith,
And he who cutteth down trees shall be endangered thereby.
10 If the iron instrument be blunt.
And he has not sharpened the edges.
Then he must put .forth more strength ;
But superiority of success pertains to skill.
11 Surely the serpent which has not been charmed will bite.
And a babbler is no better (than an uncharmed serpent).
V2 The words of a wise man's mouth are grace,
But the lips of the fool destroy himself.
13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is folly,
And the end of his speech is grievous madness.
14 Yea, the fool multiplieth words,
The result of which no man knoweth.
And what shall be the consequence thereof, who can tell him ?
15 The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them.
Because he hath not understanding to go to the city.
Chapter ix. verse 14.
The small citv is ;i syinbul of tliu invisible and spiritual Ohurcli, aud the few men
WITHIN IT of the few choseu, the elect of the Father, the redeemed of the Son, and tlie sancti-
fied of tlie Holy Ghost, who have entered by the strait gate, and walk in the narrow Avay.
The powerful king is Satan, the prince of the power of the air, who said to Christ
concerning the kingdoms of this earth : ' These are mine, and to whomsoever I wiU I give
them.' He is the enemy and accuser of the saints, who goeth about seeking wliom he may
devour, intent to destroy their consolations, if he cannot destroy their souls. ' They had a
King over them, which is tlie angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue
is Aliaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name ApoUyon (destroyer).' — Apocalyi^se ix. 1 1 .
Verse 15.
' Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was ricli, yet for your
VER, 13-x. 15.] ECCLESIASTES. 55
sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich' (2 Corintliians viii. 9).
' The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where
to lay His head' {Mattlinv Vm. 20). They parted His garments, and cast lots upon His
vesture. He was buried in another man's sepulchre. The Hebrew word here rendered poor
occurs only in the Book of Ecclesiastes, and in this book four times, namely, iv. 13, and
thrice in this passage.
Vekses U, 1.5, AND 16.
' The Catholic expositors generally affirm that Solomon speaks metaphorically ; tiiat by
THE CITY we are to understand the church, by the besieging king the devil and his
FOLLOWERS, by THE POOR WISE MAX CHRIST HIMSELF, who led a life of poverty, and by His
wisdom delivered from the power of the devil His people, all who are in Him, and tliat no
one remembers that same poor man, because few are tlie grateful, many are the ungrateful.' —
Niclwlas (h Li/ra.
Verse 17.
The words wise men are here employed in the same acceptation as in xii. 11, namely,
to signify the writers of Scripture, who, by inspired wisdom imparted to them, make others
wise unto salvation. The contrast is between Scripture impressed on the heart by the still
small voice of tlie Spirit and the ephemeral blatant vociferation of the sceptic and infidel.
Chapter x. verse 1.
(Jil impregnated with aromatics. Olive oil was an essential ingredient in tlie hoi}-
anointing oil, described in Exodus xxx. 23-38, wherewith the vessels of the sanctuary, and
prophets, priests, and kings were anointed, and is largely used in the perfumes compounded
in the East. The Hebrew word here rendered oil is the same which is translated perfume,
chapter vii. 1 . It is so translated \n. 1 , because that verse refers to the fragrance of the per-
fumed oil. It is here rendered oil, because x. 1 refers to the substance of the oil effervescing
from the admixture of dead flies. 'A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.' — 1 Corinthians
V. 6, and Gnlatians v. 9.
Verse 2.
The wise act with dexterity, fools in their actings resemble left-handed men.
Verses 8 and 9.
The infliction of retributive justice upon nations, families, and individuals for sins com-
mitted, is a fact most patent to observation, though too generally unheeded or ignored. I
have been conscious of it in my own experience, and have clearly discerned in the lives and
vicissitudes of others, that whatever men sow that they shall also reap. The confession of
Adoni-bezek is the heartfelt experience of multitudes in every age, and every cKme : ' As I
have done, so God hath requited me' {Judges i. 7). There is no day of judgment for nations,
however responsible monarchs and their counsellors may be hereafter for blood shed in
unrighteous wars. Whatever injustice men sow to others, they, sooner or later, will generall}-
reap in their own bosoms, or in their posterity. God does now, by secular infliction, visit the
sins of fathers upon their children. If God's children transgress, they will be chastised, for a
manifestation of His holiness and their sanctification ; but His loving-kindness will He not
utterly take from them, nor nullify His everlasting covenant, in all things ordered and sure.
56 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. ix.
How many believers, misguided and infatuated from ignorance or neglect of prophetic truth,
advocated Catholic emancipation, whereby England apostatized from her Protestant consti-
tution, and gave political power to Apocalyptic Babylon ! That generation sowed the seed,
this generation is reaping the harvest. That generation sowed to the wind, this generation is
reaping the whirlwind. Two, eminent in rank and prominent in piety, who have long since
entered into bliss, seem to have been retributively punished in their posterity. The parents
voted in Parliament for Eome. Their children are gone to Eome. Nathan said unto David,
' The Lord hath put away thy sin.' Nathan also said, ' The sword shall never depart from
thy house.' Of Papal Eome, I would say with Petrarch : —
' Thou hell on earth ! a marvel huge 'twould be,
If Christ at last pour not His wrath on thee.'
The reader will find ample illustration of God's retributive justice in the celebrated dis-
course of Joseph Mede on Adoni-bezek's confession of God's retributive punishment upon him.
And the remark well merits attention, made by an old inhabitant of Bristol, that the families
in that city, which had acquired wealth by the slave-trade, lost that wealth as rapidly and
mysteriously as it had been acquired. ' Be sure your sin will find you out.' — Numhers xxxii. 2.3.
Vei!SE 10.
• Arte helpeth nature.' — Bishops Bible.
Verses 12-15.
The FOOLISH man delineated by Solomon in this paragraph does not signify one deficient
in intellect and natural understanding, but one destitute of the saving knowledge of God and
of Jesus Christ whom He has sent ; one destitute of saving faith, abiding in the same nature's
darkness wherein he was born, unregenerate, unjustified, unsanctified, and imsaved, without
hope and without God in the world. In this sense, the words FOOL, foolish, FOOLISHNESS, and
FOOLISHLY, are to lie understood wherever they occur in the Book of Psalms. ' The FOOL has
said in his heart. There is no God.' The baneful effect upon the souls of men of vain words
and foolish babblings against Divine truth the FOOL knoweth not in time, and none can tell
him. But the Day of Judgment will reveal the souls deluded to perdition by his instrumen-
tality, and man on the Day of Judgment will be responsible both for his own disbelief and
for every communication of that disbelief to the souls of others.
Verse 15.
The city, ' whose builder and maker is God ' {Hebrnvs xi. 10) ; the city of glory which
God hath provided for His saints (Jlebrews xi. 1 6) ; the continuing city, the city to come,
which all God's children wish for and earnestly desire (Hcbrcivs xiii. 1 4) ; the city into which
nothing shall enter that defUeth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie,
but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life (Apocalypse xxi. 27) ; the city,
' without which arc dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and adulterers, and idolaters, and
whosoever loveth and ruaketh a lie' (Apocahjpsv xxii. 15) ; the city from wliich all who are
fools, in the Divine estimation, shall for ever be excluded. They who are not memliers of the
kingdom of grace shall never inherit the city and kingdom of glory. The fool knoweth not
the way to this city and kingdom of glory, being blinded and led astray by Satanic devices
of false religion, by the deceitfulness of his own heart, the fascinations of the world, and the
VER. 13X. 15.] ECCLESIASTES. 57
inacliinations of the devil. He lives and dies in the same state of uatui-e's darkness in which
he was born into the world, and dies uuregenerate, unsanctified, unsaved. ' Good were it,'
for every such Christless sinner, 'if he had never been horn.'— 3farJc xiv. 21.
' And a highway shall be there, and a path,
And it shall be called the holy way ;
No unclean person shall pass through it,
But He Himself shall be with them walking in the way.
And the simple shall not mistake the path.'
Isaiah .\..\.\v. 8, h/j Barnes.
XVII.
CHAPTER X.— VERSES 16-20.
The infelicity of the ten tribes as governed liy the former servant of Solomon,
J.eroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, contrasted with the prosperity
of the twelve tribes during the reign of King Solomon.
Solomon's prophetic intimation of the faU of the royal house of Jeroboam, and
of tlie utter extinction of his posterity, to the great joy of the ten tribes, abounding
in provisions, wine, and riches.
Solomon's admonition to the disaffected to muzzle their tongues, to keep a
strict guard over their words, and to abstain from seditious language.
16 Woe be unto thee, 0 land, whose king wa.s a servant.
And whose princes feast in the morning.
17 Blessed art thou, 0 land, wliose king is the son of nobles,
And whose princes feast in due season, for refection and not for
revelry.
18 Through much indolence the roof falleth in.
And through remissness of hands the house drippeth through,
19 To the joy of those possessing provisions and wine, which cheers life,
And money, which supplies all things.
20 Revile not the king, no, not in thy thought.
Even in the recesses of thy bedchamber revile not the rich man.
For a bird of the air shall carry the report,
And that which hath w4ngs shall publish the matter.
Verse 16.
Jeroboam, who had been SERVANT to King Solomon.
58 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. xi.
Verse 17.
The prosperity of the nation during the whole reign of Solomon is thus described in
1 Kings iv. 24, 25 : ' Solomon had dominion over all the region on this side of the river, from
Tiphsah even to Azzah (that is, from Tliapsacus on the Euphrates to Gaza on the coast of the
Mediterranean, the most southern seaport of Phoenicia) over all the kings on this side the river :
and he had peace on all sides round about him. Arid Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every
man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of
Solomon.'
' Solomon is said to be of noble and royal extraction, being the son of David, King of
Israel. His princes are said to feast in due season, tliat is, " They eat to live, but do not
live to eat.'" — Henry,
Verse IS.
The falling in of the flat roof of the house, and fissures in its walls admitting rain, betoken
the entire and utter destruction of the whole edifice, the symbol of the demolition of the royal
house of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin.
Verse 20.
Even Mendelssohn is compelled to admit that the four last lines of this chapiter are
undoubtedly poetry. If these four lines are poetry, on what principle is it denied that the
rest of the Book of Ecclesiastes is poetry ? These lines teach us, that known unto God are
all human acts and saj-ings, however veiled in deepest mystery. In His own time, when it
seemeth Him good, by His unseen Providence He will bring to light tlie hidden things of
darkness, and unveil the secrets of human hearts.
' Treason can not be wrought so secretly, but it will be knowen.' — Bishops Bihlc.
XVIII.
CHAPTEE XL— VEESES 1-6.
Injunction of chanty to the souls and bodies of men, with the promise an-
nexed thereto, that the seed sown, the instruction given, and the charity bestowed
iu faith, shall not return void, but shall ultimately accomplish those eternal- pui^
poses of love which God hath graciously designed. They who sow in faith shall
reap in joy.
As the clouds by their down-pour of rain fertilize the earth, and as a tree in
whatsoever position it may fall remains the property of the owner to his benefit, so
wealth expended to promote the glory of God and the salvation of immortal souls
is treasure laid up iu heaven imperishable and everlasting.
1 Cast thy bread-corn upon tlie surface of the waters,
For after many days thou shalt find it.
2 Give a portion to seven, and even to eight,
VER. 1-6.] ECCLESIASTES. 59
For thou knowest not what evil existeth upon the earth.
3 When the clouds are full, they pour down rain over the earth,
And when a tree falleth toward the south or toward the north,
In the place where the tree falleth there it lieth.
4 He who observeth the wind will not sow,
And he who regardeth the clouds will not reap.
5 As thou understandest not how the wind bloweth,
As (thou understandest not) how the bones grow in the womb of
the pregnant,
Even so thou canst not understand the work of God,
Who worketh all things.
6 In the moi'uing sow thy seed.
And in the evening let not thine hand rest.
For thou canst not tell which shall succeed, this or that,
Or whether they both shall be alike prosperous.
Verse 1.
The same Hebrew word is rendered hrcad-corn in Isaiah xxviii. 28. The imagery of this
verse seems derived from the practice of sowing rice and other vegetable seed upon water
covering and irrigating the soil. As the water subsides, the seed strikes its roots into the
moistened earth, and produces au abundant harvest. Sir John Chardin thus describes the
manner of planting rice : ' They sow it upon the water, and, before sowing it, wliile the earth
is covered with water, they cause the ground to be trodden by oxen, horses, and asses, who go
mid-leg deep, and this is their way of preparing the ground for sowing.' ' Blessed are ye that
sow beside (upon) all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass' (Isaiah
xxxii. 20). The triennial ti'ansit of the fleet of Solomon outwards and homeward through the
canal of Sesostris from Suez to the Xile, and down the Nile to the coasts of the ^lediterraueau
Sea, would render familiar to the crews of these vessels the Egyptian method of irrigating and
sowing their lauds, and would render this imagery intelligible to very many Israelites, who
had heard from these sailors how the Egyptians fertilized and cultivated the soil of the ^'alley
of the Nile. Sir Gardner Wilkinson, in his Modern Egypt and Thrhcs, affirms the follo^^■ing
productions to be sown in Eg}'pt during the inundation of the Nile, — rice, Indian corn, millet,
sugar-cane, cotton, coffee, indigo, madder, water-melons, onions. To this enumeration of the
existing products of modern Egypt I cannot forbear adcUng the remark, that Herodotus,
. Theophrastus, Diodorus, Pliny, and Lucian, all attest the superabundant growth in ancient
times of the Papyrus Nilotica, the Papyrus antiquorum, the Cyperus papyrus of Linnasus, the
paper-reed of Egypt. Indeed, throughout Western Asia and the Roman Em^aire, paper was
generally manufactured from this native product of Egypt unto the days of St. John, and
even after. This is evident from the Coptic version of 2 John 12, where the Greek word
PAPER is rendered by the identical word which in Isaiah xviii. 2 signifies the papyrus both in
Hebrew and the Coptic tran.slation. Nevertheless, not one plant either of the papyrus or
lotus (both which plants were formerly so admired, valued, and abundant) now exists either
in the Nile or in the marshes of Egypt. This is the statement of the late William Arnold
60 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. xi.
Bromfield, M.D., of Eyde, a first-rate botanist, who traversed the Nile from Alexandria to
Khartoun, a distance of two thousand miles, and the lake Menzaleh, in quest, but found none.
See pages 180 and 235 of his Letters from Egypt and Syria (kindly presented to me by his
sister), printed for private circulation only. This entire extinction of the papj-rus throughout
the land of Egypt is corroborated by Sir Gardner Wilkinson : ' As far as my own observation
goes, and from what I can learn from the people, the Cyperus papjTus is now unknown in
Egypt.' — Modern Egypt and Tliehcs, vol. i. p. 441. The papyrus, though extinct throughout
the length and breadth of Egypt, now flourishes in Sicily, in the lakes and rivers of Central
Africa, near Khan ilinyeh, in a stream to the north of Jaffa, and most luxuriantly in the
impenetrable morasses which on all sides encircle the waters of Merom. See Tristram's Land
of Israel, Livingstone's Zambesi, and Hayter's Report upon the Herculaneum Manuscripts,
1811, containing most splendid coloured plates of the papyrus growing in Sicily. The dis-
appearance from Egypt of tlie papyrus and lotus, the lily of the Nile, so abundant and valued
when Herodotus visited the land of Mizraim, is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah
xix. 6, 7 : ' The reeds and the flags shall wither. The paper-reeds by the brooks, by the
mouth of the brooks, . . . shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.'
The beauty and pertinency of this imagery of casting bread-corn upon the surface of the
waters will be self-apparent, when we consider that watees is the prophetic symbol for
' peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues' {Aj)ocalypse xvii. 15).
'Thy bread-corn' signifies that which is thine own, and has been honestly acquired.
Henry justly remarks, ' It is no charity, but injury, to give that winch is none of our own to
give.' Our bread-corn should be seed-corn. Our mercies should be imparted in charity to
others, that others may share with us in the bounties of heaven.
The covenant-promise made in this verse to tlie spiritual sower of seed in God's vineyard
is not the assurance (jf a present, but of a future harvest of souls. Instantaneous conversions
and present revivals, blessed be God, do indeed occur, but they form the exception, not the
rule. As the cereal seed cast into the ground remains latent in the earth before the appear-
ance of ' first the blade, then the ear, and after that of the full corn in the ear,' so in general
the seed of the gospel, sown by man and implanted by the Spirit in the human heart, first
imperceptibly progresses and matures, and secondly takes root downwards, and bears fruit
upward to God's glory, and man's eternal salvation.
Verse 3>
As the clouds, saturated with moisture by evaporation, pour down rain to irrigate and
fertilize the earth, so believers, recipients of spiritual and temporal blessings from their
Heavenly Father, are obligated with those blessings to benefit the souls and bodies of men. As
a tree, in whatever direction it may fall, remains the property of the owner ; so wealth
employed to God's glory is not treasure lost, but will receive its reward of grace in the world
to come.
Verse 4.
To understand the application of this verse, we must bear in mind that in Judea there
are only two seasons, winter and s\immer. Winter, or the wet season, commences with the
early rain, which generally falls in October, is characterized by continuous wet, with brief inter-,
missions, and terminates with the latter rain, which falls in April or ^lay. From May to
October is the dry season, dui-ing which the sky is cloudless ; there is no rain, but very heavy
dew. The early or sprouting rain moistens the arid earth, qualifies it for cultivation and
VER. 1(3.] • ECCLESIASTES. 61
sowing, and causeth the seed sown to take root downward and bear fniit upward. The latter
or luii-vest rain fills and plims the ears before the ingathering of tlie seed-crops. Hence the
agriculturist of Judea must be prompt to plough and plant his land immediately after the
early rains, lest the subseciuent heavy showers of winter should ariest field-operations ; and
must quickly gather into his gamer the precious bread-corn, as soon as the fields are white
and ripe for tlie hai'vest. See Eobinson's Physical Geography of the Holy Land, pp. 263-268.
The two fi.xed and determinate seasons of Palestine essentially differ from the variable uncer-
tain climate of the British Isles. The imagery of this verse is derived from the climate of
Palestine, not from the climate of England. The moral taught by this Palestinian imagery is,
that God's children should be always ready to every good work, to promote the spiritual and
tempoi'al interests of man, knowing that, in due season, they shall reap, if they faint not ;
that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord ; that Christ will say to them : ' Inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto me.'
Verses 1-6.
These six verses, chiefly and almost exclusively admonitory of charity to the soul.s of
men, seem a special exhortation to God's children to be faithful witnesses for Christ. 1
suggest this paraphrase : — •
Make known Messiah, the bread of life, to sinners of mankind, because labour for Clirist
shall not be in vain in the Lord. Sow the seed of the gospel broadcast, for thou knowest not
the extent of evil in the world. As the clouds saturated with moisture irrigate and fertilize
the earth, and as a tree prostrated by storm remains the propertj- of the owner, so the seed of
the gospel you sow in faith shall prosper whereunto God hath sent it. As he who, after the
early rain, delays to plough and sow, as he who, after the latter rain, omits to reap, so baneful
are procrastination and unfaithfulness in God's vineyard. None can trace the course of the
wind, whence it cometh and whither it goeth, none can understand the gi'owth of the embryo
in the womb of the pregnant, so above the ken of human perception is every one born of the
Spirit. In the morning of life propagate the gospel, in the evening of life labour for God in
season and out of season, and be thou faithful unto death ; for thou knowest not which of the
twain shall most promote God's glory and man's salvation.
CHAPTER XI. VEESE 7 TO CHAPTEE XII. VERSE 8.
Cheerfulness and enjoyment of life are recommended to youth, who at the
same time are solemnly warned against the deceit and sinfulness of the human
heart, and are reminded that God will judge all men, and will bring into judgment
every act of every man, whether it be good or evil.
Solomon enjoins the young to dedicate their youth to God, to walk in His
faith, and fear, and love, and to prepare for death and judgment, that when death
62 ECCLESIASTES. • [chap/xi.
shall sever their souls from their bodies, they may enter into that rest which
remaineth to the people of God.
Graphic and inimitable allegorical portraitures of old age and death, and of
their premonitory symptoms.
7 Sweet indeed is the light,
And cheering to the eyes to behold the sun.
8 Therefore, should a man live many years, let him rejoice in them all,
Yet let him remember the days of darkness, that they may be
many ;
All that occiirreth is vanity.
9 Rejoice, 0 young man, during thy youth,
And let thy heart cheer thee during the days of thy youth,
But 0 thou that walkest according to the ways of thine heart, and
according to the sight of thine eyes,
Know^ thou that for all these things
God will bring thee into judgment.
10 Therefore remove sorrow^ from thine heart,
And dispel evil from thy body ;
For childliood and the morning of life are vanity.
XII.
1 Remember now thy Creators in the days of thy youth,
Before the days of evil come,
And the years draw nigh, wherein thou shalt say,
' I have no pleasure in them.'
2 Before the sun and the light both of the moon and of the stars are
obscured,
And before the clouds return after rain ;
3 In the day when the guards of the house shall tremble,
And the men of might shall bow themselves,
And the grinders shall cease because they are feAv,
And those that look out of the windows shall become dim,
4 And the two-leaved street-doors shall be closed.
When the sound of grinding shall be low.
And he shall start up at the chirping of a bird,
And all the daughters of song shall be brought low.
5 Also he shall be afraid to ascend a height, and fears shall be in
the way,
VKK. 7-xii. 8.] ECCLESIASTES. 63
And the almond shall disgust, and the locust shall be loathsome,
And concupiscence shall cease,
For man goeth to his everlasting home,
And the mourners go about the streets.
6 (Remember now thy Creators in the days of thy youth),
Before the silver cord is paralysed,
And the golden balls are sunken down.
And the bucket is broken at the spring.
And the coiled rope is run off at the well :
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
8 Vanity of vanities, saith Khoheleth,
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Chapter xi. vekses 7-9.
' Solomon does not coudemn science, prudence, mirth, riches, honours, etc., but only their
abuse, viz., the useless studies, unreasonable pursuits, and immoderate desires of those who
pervert God's blessings to their own destruction.' — Khoheleth.
Vekse 10,
I consider that, by metonymy, sorrow and evil are here substituted for the causes of
sorrow and evil, and that the meaning of the verse is : ' Abstain from sin, especially from
youthful lusts, which will bring sorrow to thine heart, and evil and suffering to thy body.'
Chapter xii. verse 1.
The Hebrew word rendered creators is plural in 305 Hebrew manuscripts, more than a
moiety of all the Hebrew manuscripts of Ecclesiastes which have been collated. This plural
term CREATORS, implying a Trinity in Unity, that creation was the work of three Persons in
one Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, is substantiated by the
three following texts, according to the Hebrew verity : Gen. i. 26, 'Let Us make man in Our
image, after Our likeness.' Isaiah liv. 5, ' Thy Makers are thy husbands, Jehovah of Hosts is
His name.' Psalm cxlix. 2, ' Let Israel rejoice in his Creators.' See chapter v. 8, wlaere the
High Ones is predicated of God, and see Note thereon in the Critical Appendix. Cocceius,
Parkhurst, and Julius Bate all render the word Creators in the plural. That many scribes
should have substituted the singular noun in the place of the plural, and that the ancient
versions should have rendered Creator instead of Creators, need excite no surprise, when
we consider the ignorance of this sublime mystery in many Israelites, and the implacable
liostibty against it in many others. But that any monotheistic scribe should have written
the plural, unless the plural was the reading of his protograph, seems an utter impossibility.
Though, for some inscrutable reason, Jehovah, the incommunicable name of God, nowhere
occurs in Ecclesiastes, yet the mystery implied in the combination of the singidar noun
Jehovah with tlie Hebrew plural Elohim (God) is clearly indicated in this passage.
Baj/s of Evil. — ' The continuing of life is but the deferring of death.'— Henry.
64 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. xi.
VeESE 2, LINE 1.
Obscuration and defect of mind, intellect, imagination, and memory, which enlighten man
as the sun, and the moon, and the stars enlighten the universe.
Verse 2, line 2.
Incessant succession and recurrence of pains and griefs, of mental and bodily infirmities,
as in humid regions rain incessantly follows rain.
Vekse 3.
The guards of the house — the arms and hands.
The men of viic/ht — the thighs, legs, and feet.
' When the firm columns bend
Beneath its weight, unable to support
The tottering ta,hvic.'--Khohehih.
Tlie, f/rinders — the teeth.
Those that look out of the windoivs — the eyes looking through their orbits.
Verse 4.
The two-leaved street-doors — the lips.
The soitnd of grinding — mastication from defect of teeth is noiseless and defective.
(S'Art// start iqj at the clLirping of a bird — sleep unsound and distui'bed.
Baiightcrs of song — deafness arising from the ears imperfectly conveying sounds of music
or voice.
' Music itself hath lost its charms, no more
The sweetest voice or tuneful instrument
Affect the deafen'd ear.' — Khohcleth.
Vekse 5.
The almond and the loeust. — Appetite, mastication, and digestion fail in old age. The
almond-fruit and the edible locust, so desired and palatable in youthful days, are in old age
loathed and rejected. Leviticus xi. 22 proves that the species of locust named by Solomon in
this verse, miscalled in our version thereof and in Leviticus a grasshopi^er, was eaten by the Jews.
Niebuhr recounts four species of locusts eaten by the Moslem Arabs and Jews, but not
by the Turks. He remarks : ' Europeans do not understand how the Arabs can eat locusts
with pleasure. The Arabs, who have had no intercourse with Christians, in their turn cannot
believe that Christians can esteem as delicacies oysters, crabs, shrimps, lobsters, etc. etc'
Niebuhr states that in all the towns from Babelmandeb to Bosra, locusts are brought to market
strung together. And he enumerates many different methods of cooking locusts for food in
Arabia. — Description de VAraiie, par ]\L Niebuhr, p. 151.
' The locusts are an agreeable, Avholesome, and nutritious aliment. They are eaten as
meat, are ground into flour, and made into bread. They are even an extensive article of
commerce.' — Kitto's Biblical CycJopccdia.
' Locusts are here an article of food, nay, a dainty : and a good swarm of them is begged
of heaven in Arabia no less fervently than it woidd be deprecated in India or in Syria. The
locust of Arabia is a reddish-brown insect, twice or three times the size of its northern
homonym, resembling a large prawn in appearance, and as long as a man's little finger, which
VKR. 7-xii. S.] ECCLESIASTES. 65
it equals also in thickness. This locust, when boiled or fried, is said to be delicious, and
boiled and fried accordingly they are to an incredible extent.' — Palgrave's Arabia, vol. ii.
p. 138.
' Locusts have been eaten from olden times as well as the carob-pod. The acridophagi
were locust-eaters, and locusts have been and still are objects of commerce, and are esteemed
a delicacy with many from Morocco to the Persian Gulf — Cassell's Bible Dictionary.
That locusts were eaten by the ancients is evident from the sculptures from Konyunjik,
now in the British Museum. See plate of men bearing dried locusts fastened on sticks, from
these sculptures, in Fairbairn's Imperial Bible Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 106. Diodorus Siculus,
Pliny, Shaw, Eawulf, Price, Jackson, Burckhardt, etc. etc., testify to the same facts.
Vekse 6.
The silver cord — the silvery or white shining tendons or ligaments, by which the muscles
are attached to the bones, and by the elongation or contraction of which the limbs are moved.
The golden balls — the eye-balls sunken or pressed down in their sockets, and dimmed as
regards their lustre or brightness. Golden may refer to the yellow cadaverous hue which the
eyeballs assume in death.
The bueket, used in drawing water, alternatively filled and emptied — the heart, which
draws up the blood from the body by tlie veins, empties the lilood into the lungs, aird thence,
when the blood has received its vitalizing power from the absorption of oxygen, receives back
the vital stream of life, and pours it through the arteries again into the body.
The spring — the lungs, the fountain or source of life, oxygenating the blood by scattering
it in innumerable ramifications over the bronchial cells, and thus exposing it to the air.
The coiled rope, or rope coiled round the windlass— -the circulation of the blood in the body
figuratively denominated the well. From the body the venous blood is drawn, and into the
body is again returned in never-ceasing circuitous flow, whilst life remains.
This allegory, thus interpreted, signifies : —
Before the sih'er tendons are paralysed,
And the limbs have lost their power of motion,
And the bright eyeballs are sunken in their sockets,
And light and .•^ight are extinguished in them.
And the heart no longer fills with the stream of life,
Because breath is excluded from the lungs,
And the lieart no longer pulsates,
And circulation ceases in the body.
Thus sadly, yet oh how truthfully, does Khoheleth describe the baptism of death, the
putting off the earthly tenement of clay, the separation of the corruptible from the incorrup-
tible, the four stages of decay culminating in death, namely : —
Loss of power in the limbs,
Loss of sight in the eyes.
Loss of breath in the lungs and of pulsation in the heart,
Loss of circulation in the body.
Then the vital stream being witlulrawn, the materials of the body corrupt and fall to
pieces, separating into the elementary atoms of dust, from which the tenement of clay wa.s
I
G6 ECCLESIASTES. [chap. xi.
constructed, whilst the soul (i'vxv) takes its flight to uukuown space, and the spirit {irvevfj-a)
returns to God who gave it —
Till the Lord of life has spoken,
Till the chains of death are broken,
Then to the body raised in might
The Lamb shall give eternal light
And a well of water flowing
To His branches endless growing.
Grafted in the heavenly tree.
Saviour ! let us live in Thee.
Then shall the Alpha and Omega, tlie Beginning and the Ending, the Eesurrection and
the Life, who is before all things, and by whom all things consist, reunite the scattered
elements of dust, and build again the bones, and lay sinews (the silver cord) upon them, and
bring flesh upon them, and cover them with skin, and put breath into them ; and all, who
have been planted together in the likeness of Christ's death, shall be planted together in the
likeness of Christ's resurrection.
This allegorical language of the Book of Ecclesiastes manifestly indicates the circulation
of the blood, discovered by the illustrious Dr. WiUiam Harvey, and first published by him at
Frankfort, A.d. 1628. But this fact does not warrant the supposition of Dr. John Smith, that
Solomon was himself acquainted with this mystery of the economy of the human frame, that
Solomon discovered it, and that Dr. Harvey re-discovered it. Solomon and all the other
writers of Scripture wrote as they were moved by the omniscient Spirit. But the inspired
writers have handed down mysteries for our illumination, on whom the ends of the world are
come, with the full import of which they themselves were but imperfectly acquainted. We
have no warrant to assert that Solomon practised anatomy, or that he possessed that intimate
knowledge of the structure of the human body which can only be acquired by dissection.
Though the Bible contains the germs of true science, it was not designed to teach scientific
truth, but to make men wise to salvation. These germs of science, interspersed in Scripture,
demonstrate the omniscience and prescience of God.
For a full explanation of Solomon's allegorical portraiture of old age and death, the reader
is. referred to the ornate, concise, and classical volume of Dr. Mead, the elaborate dissertation
of Dr. John Smith, and the philosophical, soul-stu-ring sermon of Bishop Horsley on
Ecclesiastes xLi. 7.
Vekse 7.
Man consists of two parts, of an immortal soul and an organized mortal body. Union of
soul and body is life. Separation of soul and body is death. Ee-animation and resurrection
of the body, and its reunion with the soul, is resurrection-life, — when God's children shall
arise in Christ's likeness, and shall be ever with the Lord. ' We all look, not only for the
calorification of our souLS, but of our bodies in the life to come.'— (Joseph Mode.) To all whose
names are written in the Lamb's book of life, free from every defilement of soul and from every
infirmity of body, possessing reunion with, and recognition of, aU who have died in the Lord, —
to them will ever be perfection of sanctificatiou and plenitude of glory,— 'what eye hath not
seen, what ear hath not heard, and what it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive.'
Universality of death is the result of universality of sin. Both evidence man's need of
a Mediator, mighty to save. Messiah is the resurrection and the life. Messiah, the good
Shepherd, 'laid down His life for the sheep' {John x. 15), for all their sins, both original and
actual. Messiah, 'the propitiation for the whole world' {I John ii. 2), 'tasted of death for
VER. 7-xii. 8.] ECCLESIASTES. 67
every man' {Hcbmvs ii. 9), having made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and
satisfaction for the original or birth-sin of every child of Adam, of the lost as well as of the
saved, so that the whole human race have a beneficial interest in Christ's redemption,' and all
who die in infancy, before they attain the knowledge of good and evil, are redeemed from
eternal perdition. Thus far more than a moiety of the human race have been redeemed by
jVIessiah's vicarious blood-shedding from sin and death and hell, and have been saved with
an everlasting salvation.
Verse 8.
Kliohdeth, that is, the REPENTANT INVALID. See note on i. 1, 2, Preface, and Critical
Appendix.
XX.
CHAPTER XIT.— ATEESES 9-12.
The design of Solomon in writing this book was to impart spiritual knowledge
in sententious Oriental diction, primarily adapted to Jewish tastes and feelings.
This book was written under the inspired guidance of the Holy Spirit, and is,
in common with all the other canonical Scriptures, the voice of the good and
gracious Shepherd to all nations, languages, tongues, and peoples.
In this book God speaks to man. From this book man should seek Divine
admonition. In exact proportion as human writings contradict this or other
portions of the Bible, so far they emanate from him who was a liar and a murderer
from the beginning, and ought summarily to be rejected by aU.
9 Furthermore, because Khoheleth was wise,
He again taught the people knowledge,
For he had pondered, and investigated, and arranged many proverbs.
10 Khoheleth sought to find out acceptable words,
And to write righteousness, even words of truth.
11 The words of the wise resemble goads,
And resemble plantation-fences,
They are sent forth from one Shepherd
To be ingatherers (unto Him).
12 And further, by these, my son, be thou admonished :
Of making many books there is no end.
And much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Verses 9 and 10.
Klwhckth, that is, the REPENTANT invalid. See note on i. I, 2, Preface, and Critical
Appendix.
68 ECCLESIASTES. [chap, xit:
Vekse 9.
Was wise— was of the mimber of those who were not only recipients of heavenly wisdom
to their own salvation, but who were inspired to write, as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost, Holy Scriptures, which make wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
ITe agai7i taught. — He had previously instructed the people in the books of Proverbs and
Canticles. This Book was his third appointed task, to testify to them of Messiah, to teach
them how to live and how to che, to edify their souls, and make them wise unto salvation.
The Hebrew word rendered Pkoverbs signifies also Pakables, and therefore compre-
hends both the Book of Proverbs and also the Parable or Allegory of the Canticles. The
remark of Jerome is very striking : ' For the instruction of the people Solomon composed
proverbs and parables, which present an external signification, but convey also an internal
recondite sense. That parables teach more than the patent meaning of the words is evident
from the fact, that our Lord spake to the multitude in proverbs and parables, but privately
expounded their meaning to His disciples. Hence it is self-evident, that the teaching of the
Book of Proverbs is not, as simple folk imagine, always externally patent, but, as gold is
extracted from the bowels of the earth, as the kernel is found inside the nut, as chestnuts are
enveloped in rough, hirsute, prickly pericarps, so in the Book of Proverbs the Divine teaching
is to be laboriously and diligently investigated and sought out.'
Verse 10.
To write righteousness is to write the righteous words of God, to write God's righteous
will indefectibly, without human addition or subtraction. Solomon coidd not so have written
unless he had been enlightened by the inspiration of the eternal Spirit. Furthermore,
Solomon clothed the righteous will of God in scripture acceptable to man, in idiomatic lan-
guage, perspicuous and appropriate both to the Jews and to the neighbouring nations.
Vekse 11.
AH the words of Scripture emanate from the Shepherd and Bishop of Souls, who by the
Spirit's infallibility enlightened and guided all the writers of the canonical Scriptures, so that
Scripture, as it came from the Deity, is gold seven times purified in the fire, free from all dross
and all human adulteration, defect, or error. Equality of inspiration pertains to every portion
of God's Word. The Old Testament is as much inspired as the New Testament. Biblical
history is as much inspired as prophecy. The Epistles are as much inspired as the four
Gospels, as the very words recorded to have been spoken by Christ during His incarnation.
These words stinmlate the slothful, the indolent, the lethargic, to faith and obedience, and
fence and guard from sin, the world, and the devil, the trees of righteousness, which God hath
planted. The words of Scripture impressed on the heart by the Spirit are God's instriunent
to ingather soids into the kingdom of grace, and to prepare them for the kingdom of glory.
As in verse 9 Solomon calls himself wise in reference to the wisdom manifested inliis inspired
writings, so in verse 1 1 he applies the term wise to all the other writers of the canonical
Scriptures.
The exclusion of the Scriptures from the national schools of Ireland, and from Govern-
ment education in India, is national dishonour to the God of the Bible. England's sin, unless
departed from and .repented of, will cause England's punishment. Education from which tlie
Bible is systematically excluded is not from above, but from beneath.
VER. 9 12.] ECCLESIASTES. 69
Vehse 12.
' Rabbi Solomon interprets the words " by these, my son, be admonished," of the books
of sacred Scripture. He writes : " And furtlicr by the books of sacred Scripture, my son, be
admonished." ' — Nicholas dc Lyra.
Seek instruction primarily from the Word of God. Test aU human writings by this
iufalUble standard : ' To the hxw and to the testimony : if men speak not according to this
word, it is because tliere is no light in them' {Isaiah vui. 20). How much error is current
in the world, because men draw their rehgiou from the turbid streams of human invention,
in preference to the pellucid fountain of eternal truth, the Word of God !
Nothing human — not books, nor arts, nor literature, nor science — can impart salvation.
Xone can sincerely and experimentally say : ' This God is my God for ever and ever, He shall
be MY guide unto death,' ' Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid,' but
they who have been born from above, who have been taught and enlightened by the Spirit,
who by regeneration have been grafted into Christ, who by the sovereignty of Divine grace
have been made fruit-bearing branches of the true Viue, having the law of God written upon
the fleshly tablets of their hearts. Instated in the everlasting covenant,
' These all to the end shall endure.
As sure as the earnest is given :
More hap2)y, but not more secui-e,
The glorified spirits in heaven.'
XXL
CHAPTER XIL— VERSES 1.3, U.
The final section of this didactic poem inculcates three fundamental truths :-
1 . That the fear oi the Lord is the beoinnino- of wisdom.
2. That this fear, implanted in the heart by the Spirit, will ever be jjroduc-
tive of prompt obedience to God's will, and of the discharge of all prescribed duties
to God and man.
3. That the judgment-day, when ' the dead, small and great, shall stand before
God,' when ' the books shall be opened,' when ' the dead shall be judged out of those
things written in the books,' will be a day of universal revelation, universal retri-
bution, universal separation of the sheep from the goats, universal consignment to
sempiteruity of glory or sempiternity of misery.
13 To the conclusion from this whole disquisition let us be obedient,
' Fear thou God, and obey His commandments,'
Because this (conclusion) every man (should obey),
14: Because God will bring every work into judgment,
With resj^ect to every secret matter,
Whether it be good or whether it be evil.
'70 ECCLESIASTES. [ohaf. xii. 13, 14.
VeKSES 13 AND H.
' Here let us end
The great inquiry. Since not wealth nor power,
Nor pleasure's tempting charms, nor even those
Of science, still more luring, better skilled
To flatter human pride ; in fine, since nought
Below the sun can sohd bliss afford,
Where shall we find tliat sovereign good, for which
The soul is ever panting ? Hear the sum
Of our instructions : Whatsoe'er the wise
In every age have taught, is all compressed
In one short precept : let an awful sense
Of God's almighty power and boundless love
Influence thy life, and keep His righteous laws ;
Thou need'st to seek no farther ; this the soul
And substance of religion ; all beside.
An empty shadow : For this end alone
Was man created ; his whole happines.'j
On tliis depends.' — Khoheleth.
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PROOFS THAT THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS EXCAVATED A NAVIGABLE CANAL
FEOil THE NILE TO THE EED SEA, AND THAT THE NAVIGATION OF
THIS CANAL WAS THE ONLY ROUTE WHEREBY THE MERCHANT FLEET
OF SOLOMON COULD SAIL FROM EZION-GEBER TO TARSHISH, AND
FROM TARSHISH TO EZION-GEBER EVERY THREE YEARS.
The larger portion of the treasures of gold and silver amassed by Solomon was
imported into Palestine by bis two fleets, built at Ezion-geber on tbe Red Sea. One
fleet navigated tbe lengtb of tbe Red Sea and of tbe Persian Gulf, saiUng round tbe
peninsula of Arabia, and coasting and traflicking witb tbe entire sea-sbore of tbe
kingdom of tbe Queen of Sbeba. Tbis fleet imported tbe greatest part of tbe gold,
also almug-trees and precious stones. Wbetber tbis fleet traded as far as Hindostan
writers are not agreed. To tbe best of my knowledge no proof bas ever been
adduced tbat tbe mercantile marine of Solomon ever traded witli India, or tbat tbe
wise and royal autbor of Ecclesiastes bad any direct communication witb any
country or people eastward of tbe river Indus. Tbe otber fleet 'went to Tarshish'
(2 Cbrou. ix. 21), and is tberefore called 'a navy of Tarshish' (l Kings x. 22),
and brougbt back triennially a freigbt of ' gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.'
I prefer to render ' gold, silver, elephants' teeth, trunks of trees, and masts
FOR ships.' Tbe commodities represented by tbe two last nouns were constituent
parts of tbe freigbt or cargo imported into Ezion-geber by tbe Tarsbisb fleet. Apes
and peacocks, if sometimes brougbt for amusement or exbibitiou, could scarcely be
designated part of tbe triennial freigbt. A writer of tbe past generation sbrewdly
asks : ' Would Solomon's dealing in sucb commodities bave been any proof of bis
wisdom V We would also remark, tbat gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks were
not of l)ulk suflicient for tbe freigbt of a single sbip, mucb less of tliis navy of
Tarshish. Lexicograpbers bave concocted derivations of tbese two words from
tbe languages of India, languages altogetber unknown to Solomon. Tbese terms
occur only in Kings and Cbronicles, and are confessedly aud by universal consent
foreign nouns embodied in tbe Hebrew Scriptures. Botb nouns occur in Coptic,
wbicb was botb tbe motber tongue of tbe daughter of Pbaraob, tbe first wife of
72 ECCLESIASTES.
King Solomon, and the language of Lower Egypt, traversed by this Tarshiah fleet.
They exactly correspond with the Hebrew terms in Kings and Chronicles. The
former noun will be found in page 1 1 4 of the Coptic Lexicon of La Croze and
Scholtz, edited by Woide, namely, 'Xllv4, o-reXexo?, aebor truncus caudex,' and
in page 2 72 of the Coptic Lexicon of Peyron, where it is rendered ' irvefn-iv, ramus,
PALMES, a-reXexo'i, TRUNCUS.' The secoud noun occurs in page 25 of the Coptic
Lexicon of La Croze and Scholtz, namely, ' GUIR, malus, arbor navis,' and in page
5 1 of the Coptic Lexicon of Peyron, where it is rendered ' malus navis.'
I could have wished to corroborate the meaning of these two Coptic terms by
reference to the dialect of Upper Egypt, but a good Sahidic lexicon is yet a desi-
deratum. Dr. Ford, Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, whilst editing the remains
of the Sahidic New Testament, prepared a Sahidic lexicon for the press, and showed
it to me a few weeks before his decease, stating his intention to publish it, and
also a Sahidic version of Job. After the death of Dr. Ford, I called on his son
Frederick Ford, Esq., but could obtain no information respecting this manuscript.
The disappearance of this Sahidic lexicon is an irreparable loss to Oriental literature.
This manuscript Sahidic lexicon filled a quarto "book about the size of the Arabic
Grammar of Erpenius, edited by Golius. It was most carefully written. AVhilst 1
was turning over its pages Dr. Ford stated that it was quite ready for the press,
and that on receipt of letters he expected from Germany, he meant to pul)lish both
this Sahidic lexicon and the Sahidic version of Job. The next intelligence I
received of Dr. Ford was the announcement of his decease. This did not surprise
me, as when I called he received me in his study, in his dressing-gown and slippers,
being (Bger. Never will be erased from my memory his condescending kindness
in so freely conversing with me, then an undergraduate, on Oriental literature, and
showing me his literary treasures, especially the subscription copy of Walton "s
Polyglott, formerly belonging to Bishop Butler.
Prime mast-timber was more essential to ancient than to modern ships.
Ancient ships, even carrying 600 men, were almost entirely propelled by one large
square sail suspended on one mast. As the strain of the mast on the hull rendered
it necessary to frap or undergird, and ropes for frapping were an essential part of
the ship's gear, so the strain of the huge square sail on the mast required the
hoicest and toughest wood for the mast. The import of mast-timber into Ezion-
geber would be far less expensive than the land-carriage of trees from Lebanon to
Ezion-geber. If it be objected to this proposed rendering from the Coptic, that
the ancient versions and our authorized version concur, we reply, that no writer has
ever followed implicitly and in all things the ancient versions. Do not the ancient
versions designate Solomon A preacher, who never preached one sermon in all his
life?
The supposition of a Tarshish in the Indian Ocean is a myth. No Tarshish in
the Indian Ocean is recorded in any history, sacred or profane, nor is there any
historic mention of ships having been built by King Solomon on the shores of the
c
&
ECCLESIASTES. 73
Mediterranetan Sea. The transportation by land of the 'navy of Tarshish' from
the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, and from the Mediterranean to the Eed Sea,
seems utterly impracticable. These are groundless inventions concocted to evade a
difficulty, and to explain away the Scriptural assertion, that ships were built at
Ezion-geber to sail to Tarshish. The very building of this fleet at a port of the Red
Sea evidently shows that the Red Sea was its home-station. If its voyages termi-
nated on the coast of the Mediterranean, why did not Hiram construct it at Tyre,
and thus obviate the Herculean labour of transportation ? The only Tarshish of
Scripture is a seaport on the coast of Spain, not for from the Straits of Gibraltar,
and the only two courses whereby a fleet could sail from the Red Sea to Tarshish,
are by the circumnavigation of Africa, or by the transit of the ancient canal of
Sesostris, aliaa Rameses ii., from Suez to the Nile, descending the Nile, and coasting
the southern shores of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Gibraltar. (See Map of
Africa.) The Periplus of Hanno, and other recorded attempts to circumnavigate
Africa, demonstrate the utter impracticability of the former course trieunially Ijy
any merchant fleet of antiquity. The length of the outward and homeward voyage,
circumnavigating Africa, would exceed 30,000 miles — more than the cii'cumference
of the earth ! ! ! The length of the voyage forwards and backwards by the canal of
Sesostris would be less than 5500 miles, of which the distance from Suez to the
Mediterranean would be inland navigation in smooth water.
In this age, when infidelity so lamentably prevails, difficulties in the inter-
pretation of Scripture, which may be stumbling-blocks to sincere inquirers, demand
investigation and solution. The Scriptures state that Solomon built his fleets at
Ezion-geber, and ascribe to him no other port of ship-building. They likewise
assert, that one of his merchant-fleets traded triennially with Tarshish. The pro-
blem how ancient merchant-ships built on the Red Sea could be navigated to Spain
has ever been a crux interpretum. The transit by the canal of Sesostris solves the
problem, and demonstrates the practicability of what the Scriptures assert. The
merchant-ships of Solomon, especially those of his Tarshish fleet, were doubtless of
the finest build and of the largest size then constructed by the ancients, yet were
solely and exclusively employed as coasting-vessels. Both fleets continuously
hugged the shore, and probably never on any one occasion sailed out of sight of land.
If it be asked, how it can be proved that the Tarshish fleet of Solomon navi-
gated the canal of Sesostris, the reply is that 1 Kings ix. 26 asserts that Solomon
built his ships at Ezion-geber, and 2 Chron. ix. 21 asserts that the king's ships
WENT TO Tarshish ; and 2 Chron. xx. 3 6 teaches that Jehoshaphat built ships at
Ezion-geber ' to go to Tarshish.' The word of God cannot be broken. To effect
this voyage, the author submits, there are only two courses, — one by the circum-
navigation of Africa, rounding the Cape of Good Hope ; the other by the transit of
this canal. The former course was impracticable to the merchant-ships and seaman-
ship of antiquity. Hence of necessity results the conclusion, that Scripture implies,
though it does not specifically state, the adoption of the other course, namely, the
K
U ECCLESIASTES.
navigation of the canal of Sesostris 1jy this merchant fleet of Solomon. Had not
this fleet passed through Egypt, and communicated to Israel the Egyptian method
of irrigation and agriculture, how could the imagery of chap. xi. 1, ' Cast thy bread
uuon the waters, and thou shalt find it after many days,' have been intelligible to
the Jews in the days of Solomon ?
It would be most singular, should the engineering skill of ancient Egypt in
the days of Sesostris surpass in efficiency the skill of the engineers displayed in the
construction of the French canal from the Mediterranean Sea to Suez. The level
of the Mediterranean is ordinarily the same as the level of the Red Sea. Hence the
French canal must be a gigantic dike filled with stagnant water. The Egyptian
canal, on the contrary, having its course from the NUe, which empties itself hj rapid
currents into the Mediterranean, had a continuous flow of water from the Nile to
Suez. The Egyptian canal was most eflicient for navigation, and only required
occasional excavation to remove the sand which had drifted or fallen into it. Time
will show whether the French canal wUl prove as efficiently navigable as that con-
structed by Sesostris ; and wiU manifest the relative advantages and disadvantages
of a staanant canal contrasted with those resulting from a current stream.
Strabo, Pliny, Aristotle, and other authorities, aftirm the existence of this
canal, and refer its formation to Rameses ii., Sesostris, or other ancient Pharaohs.
Herodotus ascribes its original excavation to Pharaoh-Necho, misled by, or mis-
uilderstandiug, his Egyptian informant, and attributes to Pharaoh-Necho credit
which solely pertains to Sesostris, alias Rameses ii., who originated this canal,
whereas Pharaoh Necho merely cleansed it from accumulations of sand, and restored
its pristine navigation. Some parts at least of this canal, now filled with the sand
of the desert, were in use long after the Christian era. Solomon's marriage with
Pharaoh's daughter would secure him its free and uninterrupted navigation.
The length of this canal must have exceeded one hundred miles from its
circuitous route, traces of which are now in many parts visible from Suez to the
north of Belbays. From Suez, the direction was north through the ancient Bitter
Lakes, and then by a detour its course was westerly, passing by or near to Shekh-
Hanaydik, El-Rigabeh, and Ras-el-Wadi, to the Nile. (See the sketch-map of this
ancient canal.) Herodotus states that the navigation of this canal occupied four
days. Now Strabo informs us that the current always flowed from the Nile to the
Red Sea, whereby the water of the Bitter Lakes was sweetened, and fish and water-
fowl, previously unknown in the lakes, abounded. As Herodotus obtained his
information in Egypt, it seems to follow that the navigation of four days was with
THE CUERENT from the Nile to the Red Sea; but that against the current,
from the Red Sea to the Nile, the navigation would occupy a proportionably longer
time.
The width of this canal Herodotus affirms to have been sufficient for the pas-
sac^e of two triremes side by side. The existing mounds, from one and two feet to
fifteen and twenty feet in height, are generally from thirty to forty yards apart,
ECCLESIASTES. 75
caused by the flilliug in of the sand from each side. The canal was doubtless of
different widths according to local requirements, but appears in every part to have
been sufficiently wide and deep to admit the navigation side by side of two of the
largest vessels of antiquity throughout its whole extent.
Vestiges of ancient towns built on the borders of this canal are now clearly to
be traced. Among the debris of Abookesayd or E-Sagheea (probably Heroopolis)
Sir Gardner Wilkinson discovered a monument bearing the sculptures and name of
Rameses 11., otherwise called Sesostris, the original projector and excavator of this
canal.
See Herodotus 11. 158.
Strabo xvn. 1, 25, 26.
Zach's Monatl. Correspondenz, vol. xxvi. p. 385.
Wilkinson's Ancient Egyiitians, vol. i. p. 69.
„ Egypt and Thebes, vol. i. p. 310.
Robinson's Palestine, vol. i. pp. 586, 588.
See also Gesenii Thesaurus Linguce HebrcBCB under K'^ti'iri, and Vitringa on
Isaiah, in which elaborate commentary the author establishes two positions —
1. That the Tarshish of the Old Testament is a seaport on the coast of Spain ;
and 2. That the circumnavigation of Africa was impracticable by the merchant-
ships of Solomon.
Solomon, by his two merchant-fleets Ijuilt at Ezion-geber, annually imported
from Ophir and Tarshish into Judea six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold.
Exodus xxxviii. 25 and 26 proves that the weight of the Jewish talent exceeded
one hundred pounds Troy weight. Each pound of pure gold without alloy would
be worth full fifty pounds. So that Solomon's importation of gold greatly exceeded
three millions of pounds sterling. This computation is grounded on the supposition,
that the Hebrew talent of gold was equivalent in weight to the Hebrew talent of
silver. ]\Iadden and other authors of eminence infer from a passage in Josephus,
which, however, admits of a different interpretation, that the talent of gold was
double the weight of the talent of silver, and Madden estimates its weight at
1,290,000 grains. According to this calculation, the value of gold annually
imported by Solomon was more than doulile the amount I have stated above. To
this yearly import into Judea of six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, be
the value more or less, we must add Solomon's importation from Arabia, Lower
Eg'}qDt, North Africa, and Spain, of silver, ivory, precious stones, spices, and
timber — the precious metals he purchased from chapmen and others who
trafficked on their own account (1 Kings x. 15, and 2 Chronicles ix. 14) — the
presents and contributions he received from neighljouring monarchs and princes
— and the taxation he levied on Judea (1 Kings xii. and 2 Chronicles x.) Thus,
in wealth chiefly acquired by this lucrative commerce, as well as in adminis-
trative wisdom, Solomon surpassed all his contemporaries, and was incomparably
76 ECCLESIASTES.
the richest and wisest monarch who ever swayed a sceptre. By this prosperity
Satan blinded his eyes, secularized his heart, and caused his backsliding and tem-
porary apostasy. Few men can bear prosperity. The fall of Solomon should warn
all to watch and pray against sin, the world, and the devil. ' Wherefore let him
that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall' (1 Corinthians x. 12). ' What I
say unto you I say unto all. Watch ' {Mark xiii. 37).
CRITICAL APPENDIX.
DE CARMINE DIDACTICO.
Alterum est Salomonis opus ad hanc speciem Didacticam pariter referendum,
cui titulus nSnp, sive Concionator ; vel potius fortasse Sapientia Concionatrix : in
quo quanquam multte sint passim intersperste disjuuctse sententise, multis parabolee,
alia tamen est totius ratio, alius color, longe dispar stylus. Etenim una est universi
operis forma, unum et simplex argumentum, De rerum liumanarum Vanitate, sub
persona Salomonis, in perdifficili qusestioue dubitantis, in utramque partem dis-
putantis, et ex ancipiti cogitandi cura sese tandem expedientis. Stylus autem
hujusce operis plane singularis : dictio est laumilis plerumque et submissa, sed im-
primis obscura, s-iepe laxa, et dissoluta, et sermoni proprior ; nee in compositione
et structura multum viget poeticus character : QU^ forsan videri possunt argu-
MENTi NATUR.E ALTQUATENUS TRiBUENDA.- — Lowth, De Sacra Pocsi ffebrcBorum.
Metricum sane esse bunc librum, pariter ac Davidis Psalmos, Proverbia,
EccLESiASTEN, Canticum Canticorum, confessa res est. — Medica Sacra, Auctore
Eichardo Mead, M.D.
KHOHELETH.
Chapter i. 1, 2, 12 ; vii. 27 ; xn. 8, 9, 10.
On the same principle as D7SJ is rendered by Hitzlig, and other eminent critics,
INTELLIGENCE, from the Arabic, because the significations of that noun in Hebrew
are inappropriate to Ecclesiastes iii. 1 1 ; and as D^Sp and D"'''Dri are interpreted from
foreign languages, because they occur not in Hebrew ; so I give to rhrip, Khoheleth
(the appellation Solomon predicates of himself), its signification in Arabic, because
Solomon was neither a preacher nor a convener of assemblies. Khoheleth is indeed
a noun ' d'unite ou plutot d'individualitiS,' deriving its form from the Arabic.
' II semble que, le i' ajoute h, la fin de ces adjectifs verbaux soit destine il les trans-
former en des noms d'individualite en sorte que ij^ signifieroit proprement
UN savant unique en son GENRE. On a observe avec beaucoup de justesse que
78 ECCLESIASTES. [ceitical
cette forme intensitive paroit avoir aussi ete admise dans la langue Hebraique, et
qu'elle rend raison de I'espece d'anomalie du mot TVHp, qui, sous une forme en appar-
ence feminine, est toujours en concordance avec des verbes du genre masculin, et
est efi'ectivement employe comme attribut de Salomon, et, par consequent comme
un nom ou adjectif masculin.' — Grammaire Arabe par A. I. Silvestre de Sacy.
Castell in his Heptaglott Lexicon gives this signification to the verb in Arabic :
' I. conj. exaruit cutis pec, ex midta spirituali exercitatione. V. couj. exaruit cutis
pec, ex multa spirituali exercitatione, lente incessit, infirmo statu fuit, marcuit.
VII. conj. Debilis fuit' And Freytag, in his Arabic Lexicon, renders the verb :
' I. Aridus fuit multo religiose cultu. V. Lente et infirmis passibus incessit. VII.
Marcuit, debilis fuit, conciditque ob senectutem.' This verb occurs not in the Koran,
nor in the Consessus of Hariri, nor in Arabscah's Life of Tamerlane. May it not
have been brought into Juclea by the Queen of Sheba, or by Solomon's mercantile
marine from Ophir or some other Arabian port ? Schroeder derives and interprets
it from the Arabic : ' nSnp proprie p^enitentia, ut videtur, per metonymiam
sumtum pro homine p^nitente, quo nomine Salome in Ecclesiaste se insiguivit.'
— See his Hebrew Grammar, p. 306.
Professor Lee asserts, that ' the Hebrew n and the Arabic * added to nouns,
supply a sort of superlative power,' equivalent to singular, excellent, in
English. See his Hebrew Lexicon, p. 145, and under JlSnp, Khoheleth, p. 525.
As nbnp is confessedly a form derived from the Arabic, why should it not
be rendered according to its signification in Arabic, which signification is alone
appropriate to the character and circumstances of Solomon ?
The authority of Castell, Schroeder, Baron de Sacy, Professor Lee, and Frey-
tag, is an ample justification of the interpretation of Khoheleth proposed in this
volume — an interpretation strictly accordant with Oriental idiom and historic
verity.
Chapter l verses 1 and 12.
"!7D drops the formative 1 in the Benoni participle.
Chapter i. verse 7.
The Hebrew verb nbti is rendered to overflow (Joshua iii. 15). The sub-
stantive derived from this verb signifies in Syriac fluxus, impetus aquarum,
inundatio, illuvies. — CasteU's Heptaglott Lexicon.
Chapter l verse 8.
xSl is the reading of twenty MSS., two editions of fifteenth century, lxx.,
Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldee.
APPENDIX.] ECCLESIASTES. ' 79
Chapter i. verse 11.
The two Hebrew words D'^JE'NT aud D^iinN are interpreted of persons, not
of things, both in the Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, and ought to be so rendered
wherever they occur alone without substantives. Job xviii. 20 amply justifies the
rendering of this verse.
Chapter i. verse 12.
Schroeder affirms in his Hebrew Grammar that the Hebrew preterite frequently
answers to the English present tense : ' Prseteritum ssepe de eo quod quis facere
solet, vel quod omni tempore eodem modo se habet aopta-ro)^ usurjjatur, atque per
nostrum prcesens commode exponitur' (p. 334). Eodiger states that 'a frequent
secondary use of the prgeter tense of the Hebrew is to indicate a state of being,
which, beginniug at some former period, still continues to exist at the time of nar-
ration.' mn is thus rendered in our English authorized version in the following
texts : ' And now I am become (^n^H) two bands' (Genesis xxxii. 10); ' I am
(*n'^n) in derision daily' (Jeremiah xx. 7); 'I am (^H^Tl) like a drunken man
(Jeremiah xxiii. 9) ; '1 am (TI^^H) a father to Israel' (Jeremiah xxxi. 9) ; '1 am
(Tl'^n) like a broken vessel' (Psalm xxxi. 12).
Chapter i. verse 13.
CSCJTl is the reading of six;ty-one MSS., one edition of fifteenth century, Syriac,
Chaldee, aud Vulgate.
Chapter i. verse 16.
75? is here rendered in in all the ancient versions, and by Noldius in very
many texts.
Chapter ii. verse 3.
E'DE'n is the reading of two Hebrew MSS., Lxx., Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic.
Under the sun occurs twenty-five times in Ecclesiastes. Under heaven occurs
only once (iii. l).
Chapter ii. verse 25.
13&0 is the reading of eight Mss., lxx., Syriac, and Arabic.
Chapter hi. verse 1.
Every individual— so Chaldee and x. 3.
Chapter iii. verse 12.
Cheerfully to do good. ' It is a frequent case in Hebrew that when two verbs
immediately follow each other, either with or without the copula between them, the
first of them serves merely to qualify the second, and must be rendered adverbially.'
— Moses Stuart's Hebrew Grammar, p. 370.
80 ECCLESIASTES. [critical
ChAPTEE III. VERSE 15.
The Vulgate, which seems followed in Cranmer's and the Bishops' Bibles,
reads : ' Et Deus instaurat quod abiit.'
God ivill disclose the past. In vindication of this rendering, see the note of
Schultens on Job iii. 4.
Chapter hi. verse 21.
'iSI is the rendering of sixty-six MSS., two editions of fifteenth century, one
edition 1518, Lxx., Syriac, and Arabic.
In rendering these passages interrogatively, and in translating n an num, I
am supported by the Chaldee, lxx., Syriac, and Arabic versions. To descend to
THE earth is synonymous with destruction, annihilation (Jeremiah xiii. 18 ;
Ezekiel xxvi. 11).
Chapter iv. verses 1, 7.
11^ in Kal, followed by another verb, denotes to do again what is expressed
by the latter verb.
Chapter v. 7, 8.
DTQi, THE Most High Ones, is plural, like Creators, xii. 1, and Psalm cxlix.
2, and like 'Thy Makers are thy Husbands,' Isaiah liv..5. and like Elohim passim.
These plural nouns and the following texts manifestly prove a plurality of Persons
in the Godhead : Genesis iii. 22, xi. 7, xx. 13, xxxi. 53, xxxv. 7 ; Deuteronomy iv. 7,
V. 26; Joshua xxiv. 19; 1 Samuel iv. 8; 2 Samuel vii. 23; Psalm Iviii. 12;
Proverbs ix. 10, xxx. 3 ; Job v. 1 ; Isaiah vi. 3 and 8 ; Jeremiah x. 10, xxiii. 36 ; Daniel
iv. 5, 6, 15 (8, 9, 18), vii. 18, 22, 25, 27 ; Hosea xi. 12 (xii. l) ; Malachi i. 6.
P"in^ occurs nine times in Ecclesiastes, and nowhere else. The rendering the
EMINENT is by the substitution of the concrete in place of the abstract, a usual
poetic license.
In the translation presented to the reader, the seventh verse comprehends the
two first words of the eighth verse.
Chapter v. verse 9.
Xin is the reading of the Keri, and of eighteen of the MSS. collated by Kenni-
cott. ' The word TH^ has no article, because pX has none, and both mean sub-
stantially the same thing.' — Moses Stuart.
"2 dignitatis seu pretii pro magis quam, 1 Chron. v. 2, 1 Chron. xi. 21.' —
Noldii Gone. Heb. Part., p. 157.
Chapter v. verse 12.
h'^yy is the reading of LXX., Syriac, and Vulgate.
Chapter vi. verse i.
nSin is the reading of twenty-three MSS., some very ancient, and of two
editions.
APPENDIX.] ECCLESIASTES. 81
Chapter vi. verse 12 and vii. 14.
' inx post. Proprie subsecutio. Est nomen.' — Sclmltensii Gram. Heb.
Chapter vii. verse 1.
A striking paronomasia.
Chapter vii. verse 6.
A striking paronomasia.
Chapter vii. verses 17, 18.
The translation die eternally is obtained by transferring the letter 3 to the
beginning of verse 18, and making verse 17 to terminate with Jiy xSl. As the
most ancient manuscripts are not generally di\dded into words, both Kennicott
and Horsley consider a division of letters into words different from the received
text to be not only justifiable, but not even to amount to a different reading. I
consider Jiy xSi employed to signify that the death against which Solomon warns
the wicked man was not temporal but eternal death, not the separation of the soul
from the body, but the condemnation both of soul and body to the second death,
sempiternity of punishment for ever.
Chapter vii. verse 25.
''l^l is the reading of eighty-five Mss., one edition, Chaldee, Vulgate, Symma-
chus, and of the Greek version published by Villoison.
Chapter viil 1.
njSJ''' is the reading of fifteen mss. of Kennicott, and of many mss. of De Rossi,
and of one edition, Chaldee, and Vulgate.
Chapter viil 2.
The insertion of counsel thee in our authorized version is a violation of all
propriety of language, and without any precedent in tlie Hebrew Scriptures. It is
true that the formative 1 is wanting in the Benoni participle laiC but how often
is the mater lectioiiis "1 defective from the addition of the Hebrew punctuation 1
1J3^ indeed, generally, drops 1 in the Benoni participle. The Vulgate correctly
renders : ' Esjo os re^is observo.'
Chapter viii. 5 and 6.
A time of judgment, by hendiadys (see Btxiavt's Hebrew Grammar, pages 272
and 382). The literal rendering would lie a time and judgment.
Chapter ix. 2.
5J1^"1, and to the evil, is sanctioned by all the ancient versions, but has not
been found in any Hebrew ms. It is absolutely essential to the integrity of the
text.
L
82 ECCLESIASTES. [critical
Chapter ix. 9.
Seven Hebrew mss., lxx., and Chaldee omit "|73n "'12'' Sd, the insertion of
which is an evident error of the scribes.
Chapter ix. 18 and xil 1.
"I Redundat. Non sunt pauca hsec rediindantia. — ^Noldii Go7i. Heb. Part.
Chapter x. 9.
ypm is the reading of seventy-five mss. and of three editions of the fifteenth
century.
Chapter xi. 9.
0 thou that walkest. — The Hebrew word "jSn is rendered a traveller in
2 Samuel xii. 4, and would bear that acceptation if considered as the Benoni parti-
ciple with the formative 1 defective, as it is defective in many Hebrew words, and
is generally defective in the Benoni participle of "TTTl, or it may be so rendered with
tJ'^K understood. The same meaning is obtained in either case. I consider the
noun to be in the vocative case. This translation obviates all necessity of the sup-
position of irony, and makes a clear distinction between innocuous hilarity and
devotion to the sinful impulses of the unregenerate heart. The unauthorized
addition of a/Acu//o? into the text by the lxx., closely followed by the Arabic,
shows how clearly they discerned the difficulty, and how anxious they were to
evade it.
Chapter xii.
13.
INT'V — This verb is in the singular in five of Kennicott's Hebrew MSS., which
the exigentia loci evidently requires.
Chapter xil 5.
ya^ signifies to disgust, to loathe, to reject, but never signifies to flourish
as rendered in our version.
Chapter xii. 5.
7DnDS shall he loathsome. Gesenius thus renders the passage : ' Molesta est
seni locusta, quia segre ab Ulo manducatur et concoquitur, quanquam grati saporis.'
(See his Thesaurus linguoe Hehrcece, p. 444).
Chapter xil 6.
On the three last lines of this verse Dr. Mead thus comments : — ' Tria, quae
concionem concludunt, incommoda revera sunt aenigmata, et (Edipi conjectoris
indigent.' The translation of xii. 6 is from the pen of an eminent physician, con-
versant with Hebrew, and therefore well qualified both to interpret Solomon's
enigmatical language, and to describe the bodily infirmities culminating in death
figuratively signified thereby.
APPENDIX.] ECCLESIASTES. 83
bin — Societas liominum tauquara fune coUigata. — Fuerstii (June. Heh.
Funis, funiculus quo ligatur (ut Arab. S}t. Chald.) — Sinionis Lex. Heh.
A cord or rope by which things are bound. — Pa]-khurst's Heh. Lexicon.
To bind as with a rope. — Lee's Hebrew Lexicon.
hx^^ — Res vohibilis, quaj continuo volvitur. — Simonis Lex. Heh.
Res vohibihs, qu£e cito et continuo volvitur. — Gesenii Thesmcrys Philo-
logicus.
Anything round, revolving. — Lee's Hebrew Lexicon.
Matter in circulation. — Bate's Critica Hebroea.
Chapter xii. 8.
The words vanity of vanities repeated in the second hut- is the reading of
seven Hebrew MSS., and of the Syriac, and is essential to the parallelism of the
stanza.
Chapter xii. 9.
Ipm is the reading of eleven MSS. and of one edition.
Chapter xir. 13.
The four last words of this verse have presented an insuperable difficulty to
the authors of the ancient versions and to modern critics. The words are elliptical.
The ellipses are natural, and when supplied, tlie meaning is clear and perspicuous.
I supply S|1D from the first hemistich, and llOtJ'' from the second hemistich, and read
010^''') man h^ (fjiD) n> *3.
LIST OF AUTHORS QUOTED IN THIS WORK.
Herodotus, . . . 74
Kitto,
64
Josephus, . . . 10, 11, 12
Lee,
78, 83
Strabo, . ' . . . 74
Lowth, Bishop,
77
Septuagint, . . . xx., xxi., 29, 82
Madden,
ix., 75
Peschito-Syriac Version, . , 28, 29
Maimonides,
5
Coptic Version, . . . xx., 59
Mead, M.D.,
66, 77, 82
Chaldee Targum, . . xii., 4, 43
Mede, Joseph,
39, 56, 66
Arabic Version, . . . xx., 29
Nicholas de Lyra,
55, 69
Vulgate, . . . . 80, 81
Niebuhr,
64
Cranmer's Bible, 5, 20, 36
Noldius,
79, 80, 82
Bishops' Bible, . 5, 20, 36, 52, 56, 58
Palgrave, .
6.5
Augustine, . . . 2, 5, 8, 41
Parkhurst, .
83
Jerome, . . . 5, 7, 43, 68
Petrarch, .
56
Barnes, . . . . 57
Pierotti,
10, 11
Bate, Julius, . . . 83
Kobinson, . .
. 4, 11, 61
Blayney, .... 6
Bromfield, M.D., ... 60
Rodiger,
Sacy, Baron de.
79
77, 78
Calvin, . . . . 22, 48
Schroeder, .
78, 79
Cassell, . . . . 18, 65
Schultens, .
81
Oastell, . . . . 78
Simon,
83
Chardin, Sir John, ... 59
Sirr, D.D.,
49
Coptic Lexicon of La Croze and Scholtz, 72
Smith of Jordanhill,
xviii.
Coptic Lexicon of Peyron, . . 72
Smith's Dictionaiy of the Bible,
51
D'Aubignd, . . . . 49, 50
Stanley,
4
Eadie, . . . . 7, 19
Stuart, Moses,
19, 79, 80, 81
East, .... 51
Tristram, .
4, 11, 12, 60
Faber, .... 4
Vestiges of the Natural History
of Creation, 7
Fairbairu, . . . . 19, 65
Vitringa, .
75
Freytag, . . . • 78
Fuerst, . . . . 83
Gesenius, . . • xix., 75, 82, 83
Wesley,
Witsius,
Wilkinson, Sir Gardner,
10
viii.
59, 60, 75
Hayter, .... 60
Henry, . . .8, 47, 58, 60, 63
Wilson,
4
Honsley, Bishop, . . . 52, 66
Khnheleth, Author of, . . xv., 10,
12, 22, 25, 2S, 32, 49, 52, 6.3, 64, 70
Kennicott, ] theii- c
De Rossi, ) *'™
ullatious of Hebrew MSS. pas-
in the Critical Appendix.
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Imperial 8vo, price Twelve Shillings.
PSALTERIUM MESSIAFICUM DAVIDIS
REGIS ET PROPHETiE.
A EEVISION OF THE
AutlLorized Englisli Yersions of the Book of Psalms,
With QUOTATIONS from PRE-REFORMATION WRITERS,
vindicating, in accordance with the interpretation of the new testament,
David's prophetic manifestation of messiah, the alpha and omega,
THE shepherd, PROPHET, PRIEST, AND KING, THE PATTERN AND
EXEMPLAR OF ALL THE BLOOD-BOUGHT SHEEP OF IMMANUEL,
OF EVERY AGE AND OF EVERY CLIME.
' This is a most praiseworthy, laborious, and learned work. It has evidently' been to the author
a labour of love. The work bears marks of close, diligent, and reverential study throughout. The
author is an excellent Hebraist, and has a thorough acquaintance with both patristic, mediaeval, and
Refonnation Theology.' — The Record.
' In preparing his work, the author merits commendation for the labour which he has bestowed
upon the collation of manuscripts, editions, and versions, and for his industry id collecting passages from
many authors of all periods. On these accounts the volume will be useful to the critic and the expositor,
who will find in it much curious matter worthy of attention.' — Journal of Sacred Literature.
' The title of this valuable work is accurately indicative of its contents. To appreciate the
excellence of this book, it must be not only read, but studied. The quotations from the writings of the
ancient Christian and Jewish authors, with reference to the Psalms which BIr. Coleman views as pro-
phetical of the futui'e exaltation of Christ in the Millennial kingdom, and of the events by which its
establishment is to be preceded, are intensely interesting. The work is beautifully printed in a large
and clear type.' — Aehill Missionary Record.
' A very valuable edition of the Psalms, peoving, that which has long been with us a settled con-
viction, that they are all Messianic' — 27te Rainbow.
Post 8vo, price Seven Shillings and Sixpence.
A MEMOIR OF THE REV. RICHARD DAVIS.
FOR THIRTY-NINE YEARS A MISSIONARY IN NEW ZEALAND.
' Hitherto we have had but little in the way of authorship from New Zealand, and nothing that
has appeared, for fulness, variety, and completeness of information, is for a moment to be compared
with this well-filled volume. It does for New Zealand, already an interesting colony, and destined to
occupy a chief place in the south, what the missionary enterprises of John Williams did for the grou]is
of which he treated. It is thoroughly a missionary work, and a great addition to the missionary
library.' — Dr. Campbell's British Standard.
LONDON: JAMES NISBET AND CO., 18G5.
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