PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes
William J. Deane [1853-1943] · 304,106 words · 327 reading sections
The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 1
THE PULPIT COMMENTARY, EDITED BY THE VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., DEAN OF GLOUCESTER; AND BY THE REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A. WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY THE VERY REV. F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., DEAN OF CANTERBURY. RIGHT REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., F.R.S.E. VERY REV. PRINCIPAL J. TULLOCH, D.D. REV. CANON G. RAWL…
1,088 wordsSECTION 2The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 2
earlier tenet, has flowed forth both in England, America, and Germany. The array of writers on both sides is enormons. The discussion has evoked the energies of innumerable controversialists, though the opponents of Solomon have in late years far outnumbered his supporters. If the more ancient opinion is upheld by …
1,054 wordsSECTION 3The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 3
only to Solomon. David, indeed, had many other sons, bnt none except Solomon could be designated "King in Jerusalem." It is true a.lso that the firi~t person is continually used in narrating experiences which are especially appropriate to this monarch; e.g. "I a.m come to great, estate, and have gotten more wisdom …
1,143 wordsSECTION 4The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 4
such P o.nd i would his readers be impressed by e. superiority to these princelets, mostly hea,thene, all of them beyond the pale of Israel, and, with one exception, in no respect celebrated P It is surely much more probable that the author for the moment forgets, or throws aside, hie assumed character, and alludes…
1,156 wordsSECTION 5The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 5
o.lity, and carnal enjoyments; but there is no hint in the history that these things were only parts of e. great experiment, steps on the path that might lead to the knowledge of happiness. Rather they are represented in the annals as the outcome of wealth, luxury, plea!Jllre-seeking, selfishness. It is impossible, too…
1,117 wordsSECTION 6The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 6
cannot be proved to belong exclusively to the Chaldee, and may have been common to other Semitic dialects. Bnt after making all doe allowances, there remain enough instances of late and rabbinical words and phrases to prove that the work belongs too. period posterior to Solomon. Certainly it is quite possible to press …
1,114 wordsSECTION 7The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 7
memory of its· possessor ever fresh, and confers upon him immortality (Wied. viii; 13; vi; 20). If one argues sadly that the good and the evil hn.ve the sam·e fate ( eh. ix. 2), the other often comforts himself by thinking that their destinies are very different, and that the righteous are at peace, and live for ev…
1,122 wordsSECTION 8The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 8
sidered whether or not the wind was in what we call a rainy quarter. Again, no one but a Jew living in his own country would talk familie.rly of frequenting the temple-worship (eh. v. 1); of seeing evil men honoured in the holy place, Jerusalem (eh. viii. 10); of a fool not knowing the way to" the city" pCTlf ezcellenc…
1,132 wordsSECTION 9The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 9
ground for its acceptance. And Dean Plumptre deserves great credit for the invention of the story, and its presentation in a most fascinating form. But regarded by sober criticism, does it satisfy the requirements of the case? Is it necessitated by the language of the book? Is there no other theory, less novel and viol…
1,036 wordsSECTION 10The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 10
imch iniquities shall be pnnished and corrected, and God allows them for a time to continne, with the view of proving men, a.nd to teach them humility, that in one sense they are not superior to brntes. (For man and brute succumb to the universal law of death; and that there is Iii distinction in the destination of t…
1,202 wordsSECTION 11The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 11
advice under three heads. We should lea.ve unanl!werable questions, and endeavour to do our duty with diligence and a.ctivity ; especially we ought to be la.rgely beneficent, as we know not how soon we ourselves may meet with adversity and need help (eh. xi. 1-6). This is the first remedy for impatience and discontent …
1,126 wordsSECTION 12The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 12
comfort there; he owns his infatuation, he calls himself" an old and foolish king" (eh. iv, 13), and already he sees the throne occupied by Jeroboam, "the poor and wise child" who should nsurp his seat. He remembers his countless wives and concubines, who had led him astray, and exclaims that women are the pest of the …
1,181 wordsSECTION 13The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 13
rnay s11,fely conclude that the langnage of our book exhibits no trace oi Greek parentage. An apparently strong case has been produced by those who see evidences of Greek philosophy in Ecclesiastes. Echoes of Stoical teaching are heard in the language that speaks of the endless recurrence of the same phenomena in …
1,145 wordsSECTION 14The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 14
are matters of ob!!ervation which must.strike any thinker. Is the doctrine concerning the. dissolution.of ID,8,n's compound being at death derived from Lucretius P Ecclesiastes says ,that men and beasts have one destiny; they have a living principle, and, when this is withdrawn, their bodies C1'11mble into dust. He…
1,190 wordsSECTION 15The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 15
of God. A profound belief in a. governing Providence underlies all hie utterances; it is the mysteriousness, the secret working, of this govern- ment that arrests hie attention and leads him to contrast with it man's ignorance and impotence, and to lay skill, prudence, science, under the feet of the great Disposer …
1,212 wordsSECTION 16The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 16
himself with the reflection that in good tim,i God will jadge the righteous and the wicked (eh. iii. 16, 17). The '9'ague but emphatic "there"- ,, there is a time there''-implies the world beyond the grave, the adverb referring probably to God, who is named in the preceding clause. This sitme thought emi,bles the' wise…
1,147 wordsSECTION 17The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 17
convey this instr11ction the anthor does not compose a carefolly ordered and well-arranged dissertation, nor does he propound a moral discourse ; he takes another method; he puts forth his views under tbe mask of Solomon, the king whose name had become proverbial for wisdom. He makes this celebrated personage recount h…
1,092 wordsSECTION 18The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 18
cloxy of the final verses could not be questioned, the inspiration of the work was acknowledged, and it bas ever since been received alike by the Jewish and Christian Ohurcbes. 'l'hat it is not quoted in the New Testament, and is thus far deprived of the authorization afforded by such reference, detracts in no respect …
1,029 wordsSECTION 19The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 19
has tried his hand at this work, and the difference of the results aniv(;d at is at once a proof of the difficulty of the subject. Between the idea, on the one hand, that the book is a rough mass of materials, without form, argument, or method, and that which regards it as a well-balanced poem, with strophes and antist…
1,165 wordsSECTION 20The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 20
EXPOSITION. OHAPTER L name is nowhere actually given, as it is in the two other works a.scribed to him (Prov. Ver. 1.-TBE TrrLE. i. 1 ; Cant. i. 1). Other intimations of the Ver. 1.-The words of the Preacher, the assumption of Solomon's personality are son of David, King in Jerusalem; Septua- found in eh. i. 12, "I…
650 wordsSECTION 21The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 21
Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity eort" (St. Chryeostow, • Hom, xii. i11 (<'omp. eh. xii. 8). "Yanity" is hebe/., Ephes.'). which moo.us "breath," and is used meta- Vor. 3.-What proll.t hath a man of all hie . phoricRlly ~f anything transitory, frail, nn- labour which he taketh under the sun 1 Here : Bati…
1,006 wordsSECTION 22The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 22
green loCLves on a thick tree, some fall· and place;" and then carries the idea into the some grow; so is the generation of flesh following verse: "Arising there, it proceedeth and blood, one cometh to an end, and another southward," etc. The Vnlgate supports the is born. Every work rotteth and consnmeth rendering; but…
957 wordsSECTION 23The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 23
,peculation in cl&Bsi0&l 1mtbors. Oommen• LXX. trnnsle.tes, "All words aro wcnrl- t.11tors cite Aristoph1mes, 'Clouds,' 1293- sorne;" i.e. to go through the whole cntalo~ne Aifr,., µ~v (so. r, 8d>-a'l"Ta.) obsi., ')'l')'Vf1'CII of such things as those mentioned in the 'E.,.•#•&,rra,v .. ~., 'lr01'Clµ~v .,..,._.(,.,,,…
931 wordsSECTION 24The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 24
the instmclione or profeRsed teachers, man 6µ.ol\<ryouµlvou, 1ta.l JL'l3evbs 1'Mou ,ra.woii /,.M' mnkcs no reu.l u.dvance in knowledge or the ~ TUJJI a.u'TWJI Iv riili• rii li,o,1(1jtTfl /Sv-rl#V, mysteries in which he ie involved; the Ver. 10.-Is there· any thing whereof it pnru.clox is incxplicu.ble. We hu.ve, in Pro…
969 wordsSECTION 25The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 25
the me!nory of p0sterity, see Ecch1s. xxxvii. ment by which ho canied on his resc:i.rcbes, 26; xhv. 7, eto.) whicll were directed, not merely to the col- Ver. 1-2-oh. vi. 12.-Division I. PROOF lecting of facts, but to investigo.ling thl) causes and conditions of things. Concerning OF THE VANITY OF EARTHLY TIIIN'Gs }'…
974 wordsSECTION 26The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 26
clsewhero only in the Oho.Jdee portion of to connect it with what follows, e.nd to cc,n- Bz,l\ (v. 17; vii, 18). , Whichev!lr •sense. is. fi)1e tbe clai18e to one idea; time: "l have takon, the import is much t,be same. Wh&t obtained great and over greater wisdom"- is implied is the unsubstrmtial an<J un- I have contin…
968 wordsSECTION 27The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 27
to know ma.cl.neSB a.ncl. folly (ob. ii. 12). The And Anaoreon's (xxxi.), e/>-..,, 6'>-.o, µa.vijvca,. former word, hokloth (intensive plural), Thus far we ho.ve had Koheletll'e secret by its etymology point.a to a confusion of thoughts-what he communed wHh his own thought, i.e. an unwisdom which deranges heart (ver. 1…
844 wordsSECTION 28The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 28
Solomon (oh. xii. 9-14), which, however, assumes that the Preacher could not have spoken about himself in the third person. (2) The Preacher writes of himself in the past tense (ver. 12), which Solomon would not have done, it is thought, though a late writer might have done so, putting his words into Solomon's mouth. T…
904 wordsSECTION 29The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 29
wny. 5. But a dt:eply thinking and religious man. When he looked \lpon the,myste1·y of life he felt prrplexed. He saw that, apart froru God and religion, life was au emptiness and vanity. Yet was he not thereby driven to despair, or.impelled to reuo.unce lifo ae an unmixe"d evil; but rather offered it as his opinion…
881 wordsSECTION 30The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 30
long in'one stay. 'All things are full of labour ancl weariness; man cannot utter ii: tho eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing'" (ver. 8)-by which he means that the changefnl condition is never done; there never comes a time when the eye says, "Enough ! " or the ear repeats, "Behold !…
861 wordsSECTION 31The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 31
mental world, perverted judgments, erroneous beliefs, false conclusions. (3) In the moral world, wicked principles and depraved actions, sins of every ltiud, transgressions of human and Divine law, 2. Of things wanting or defects, may be reckoned these: (l) In the material realm, scenes where some element is wanting…
820 wordsSECTION 32The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 32
II, BECAUSE, AS THE CIRCLE 011' KNOWLEDGE WIDENS, THE SPHERE OF IGNORANcg APPEARS TO ENLARGE. One is prone to imagine that, as the circle of information widenB, that of ignorance contracts-which it does in the sense that, the more one knows, the sum of what remains to be known diminishes; but in another and importan…
1,028 wordsSECTION 33The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 33
HOMILIES BY V ARIOUB AUTHORS. Ver. 2.-" All i,s vanity." If we regard this book,·as Solomon's own record and statement of his remarkable experience of burp.an life, it must be deemed by us a most valuable lesson as to the hollowness and emptiness of worldly greatness and renown. If, on the other hand, we regard the…
579 wordsSECTION 34The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 34
citizens and subjects, to lament over the unprofitableness and vanity of civil lire. Similarly, whoI). a Church experiences declension from the Divine standard of faith, purity, and consecration, how natural is it that the enlightened and spiritual membern o,f th~t Ch6rch should, in their grief over the general deadnes…
851 wordsSECTION 35The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 35
I. THE FACTS UPON WHICH '.l'HE CONVlCTION OF THE VAlIITY OF LIFE 1B FOUNDED, 1. The unsatisfying character of human toil. Labour is the destiny of man, and ie in most cases the indispensable condition of not only life itself, but of those things for t.he sake of which many men value life-wealth, comfort, pleasure, and…
850 wordsSECTION 36The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 36
ordered otherwise tbe.n they actually arc. It is the lan11ua11e of one who observe~ nature, and is baffled by its mysteries; who asks what all ~e;ns, and why everything is as it is. Even at that distant time it was recognized that the processes of nature are cyclic. 'l'he stare accomplish their revolutions, and the …
859 wordsSECTION 37The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 37
Ver. S.-The i11satiability of sense. Man is on one side aldn to the brutes, whilst ho is on the other side akin to God. Sense he shares with the, inferior animals; but tho intellect and conscience by 'l'l"hich he may use his senses in the acquisition- of knowledge, :rnd his physical powers in the fulfilment of a mor…
825 wordsSECTION 38The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 38
dition of mental' life. And transition frotn one· mode of excitement to another is a constituent ofa pleo.sura.ble life. 'l'hus, in the case of the intellectual man, the aim is to know and to study ever new things; whilst in the case of the n;ian of energy ~nd nctivity, the impulse is to view new scenes, to undertake n…
822 wordsSECTION 39The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 39
wi11dom of the i:age almost Divine, But the wise ma.n knows himself too well to be thus deluded. The wisest man is aware that there are (1) problems he cannot solve; (2) errors he cannot correct; (3) evils he cannot remedy. On every side he is reminded how limited are his speculative and his practical powers. He is oft…
985 wordsSECTION 40The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 40
Vers. 4-1.-The stability of nature. The Preacher was struck with the strong contrast between the permanence of nature and the transiency of human life; e.nd the thought oppressed and pained him. We may take bis view of the subject-and our own. We look at the stability of nature- I. As IT APPEABS To OUR SENSES. To the …
652 wordsSECTION 41The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 41
begin upon the earth a life which will abound in all that is beaulifnl and blessed, in nll that is great and noble, when the "cyerlasting hills" have ornmbled int• dust.-C. Vers. 7, 8.-WearinlJSS and rest. We have here- I. _TRF. co~1PLAINT-O'.F THE: UNSATISFIED, "All things are full of weariness" (Roviscd Version). …
1,005 wordsSECTION 42The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 42
Ver. 11.-0blivion and its consolation11. We have here- [, A NATURAL HUMAN ASPIRATION. We do not like to think that the time is coming when: we shall be wholly forgotten; we should like to live on in the memory of men, especially in the memory of the wise and good. We shrink from the idea of being entirely forgotten…
920 wordsSECTION 43The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 43
Vers.1-11.-The summary of a life's ezperience. "Solomon and Job,"says Pascal, "bad most perfect knowledge of human wretchedness, and have given us the most complete description of it : the one was the most prosperous, the other the most unfortunate, of men; the one knew by experience the vanity of pleasure, the othe…
615 wordsSECTION 44The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 44
\ranity, n. not.hing.'" But thie nothing is, however, the symbol of universal being, and this pnssing bubble is the epitome of the history of the world." It seemed to him that life yielded no permanent resulta, tha.t it was insujferahly monotonous, and that it was destined to end in utttr oblivion. The futility of effo…
923 wordsSECTION 45The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 45
receive us into everlasting habitations when the days of our stewardship Bl'e over, and this visible, tangible world fades away from us. II. The second reflection of the.royal Preacher is that BUMAN LIFE IS lNBUFFERABL~ MONOTONous ; that under all outward. appearances of vadety and ohabge there is B dreary sameness…
917 wordsSECTION 46The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 46
chance of being omitted from the sacred canon. But it has its place in the Word. of God; and those who have known anything of the doubts and speculations contained in it will find it profit~ble to trace the course of thqught that nms through it, until they find the solid and positive teaching which the Preacher at last…
751 wordsSECTION 47The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 47
remind the antiquary of a magnificent empire now Ion" passed away." And so tho process goes on. Everything passes. A few years ago~ ano we were not; a hundred years hence, and there may be none who ever heard our names. And a day will come when • The cloud-ce.pp'd towers, the gorgeous pe.l&cea, The solemn temples, th…
811 wordsSECTION 48The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 48
final possession of speculative truth which he now vainly anticipates a.s the consum- mation of hiY intellectual happiness. And what is true of science is true, indeed, of all human activity. It is ever the contest that pleases us, and not the victory. 'l'hus it is in play; thus it is in hunting; thus it is in the s…
892 wordsSECTION 49The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 49
theory or RllJ" solut.ion. Doubts, which frequently settle do,vu into definite agnosticism, beset the m.m who is given to great intellectual activity. Aud then too the fact remains that we ca?not by_ sheer reasoning come to any definite conclusions 'as to any nf the great quest.Jons wl11cl1 most concern our bap\-iucss:…
989 wordsSECTION 50The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 50
EXPOSITION. doeth it 1 What docs it effect towards real CHAPTER IL happiness and contentment? How does it Vers.1-11.-Section 2. Vanity of driving help to fill the void, to give lasting satis- ajter pleasui·e and wealth. faction? So we have in Prov. xiv. 13, "Even in laughter the heart is rnrrowful ; ·, Ver. 1.-Dis…
737 wordsSECTION 51The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 51
•• Dulce est desipere in loco," sl\ys Hornce It is probably derived from the Zend (' Carm.,' iv. 12. 2S); 'Ev µ/;v µa.1110µ/110,1 pafridaeza," an euolosme." (For the trees in µJ.J..a µafvoµa, (Tlleognis, 313). Till I such pn.1·ks, see C1mt. iv. 13, 14; and for o.u might see. His purpose we.s to discover ir estimate …
954 wordsSECTION 52The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 52
wards, servants born in my house ; Septua- which Solomon divided his kingdom for fiscal gint, ol,co-y•v•ii: called in the Hebrew," sons and economical purposes (I Kings iv. 7, etc.), of the houeo" (Ger. xv. 3). They were much but countries generally exterior to Palestine, more esteemed by Iheir mnstcrs, nnd showed with…
980 wordsSECTION 53The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 53
AulhorizoJ. Version is not very probable, the lust of the flesh, aud the lust of tho eyoP, though somewhe.t supported by Kimchi, o.nd the vain-glory of life, is not of the Fnther, Luther, etc., and the Greek Venetian, which but is of the world. And the wol'id pnsse~h hos, rJ"6rJ",,...,,µ.a. r,,al <rvrJ"rf,µ.aTa., a …
1,003 wordsSECTION 54The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 54
tho some experiment os the king di<l? He consistent with Kohcleth's religion to refer could not do so under more favouroblo con- this termination to fate or accident. With ditions, and will only repeat the same pro- all hie experience, he could only conclude cess and reach the some result. But the that in one import…
988 wordsSECTION 55The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 55
As Jon~ AS the world lnsts; but speaking perish" (Pe. xlix. 10). So Dnvid lamcnfs gcnemlly, obli\·ion is the_ portion of nll; the death of the mnrrlered lender, "Should pnsl<'l"it~- soon forgets the wisdom of ono and Abner die ns n fool dicth?" (2 Sam. iii. 8:J). tlie follr- of nnolher. Where the belief in Plumptre con…
957 wordsSECTION 56The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 56
CLnd the treasures which he bas amassed. (Deut.. vi. 10, 11), Koheleth cannot bear to Beoanse I should lee.ve it (my labour, i.e. its contemplate where it touches himself-not results) unto the me.n the.t shall be e.fter me. from envy or grudging, butfrom the feeling It is impossible thnt Solomon could thus of dissatisf…
1,006 wordsSECTION 57The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 57
This and the Authorized Version, which are have to de[I\ subsequently (see on oh. iii. more or less apprornd by most critics, make 12; vi. 2). And th[lt he should make hie the writer cnuuoiute II kind of mortified soul enjoy good in his labour ; i.e. t[lste the Epicureanism, quotations in confirmation of enjoyment o…
1,024 wordsSECTION 58The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 58
"Absumet hares Cmcnb11 digaior (ver. 24); Knobel, the arbitrary distribution Servatll ccntum olavibus." of the goo<l things of this life; but, put thus baldly, this could hardly be terme<I a" feed- The moral government of God is here recog- ing on wind;" nor could that expression be nized, ns below, eh. iii. 15, 17, …
875 wordsSECTION 59The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 59
oi total abstinence, which the Preacher is not commending or even thinking of, this much is eYident, that no one need hope to secure true happiness by surrendering himself without restraint to the appetite of intemperance. Nor is the issue different when the experiment is conducted with moderation, i.e. without losing …
851 wordsSECTION 60The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 60
each little different. "I perceived," said he, "that one event happeneth to them all" (ver. 14). "Ae it happeneth to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?" (ver. 15). This observation apparently had struck him with much force, ae he refers to it more than once (eh. viii. 14 ; ix. 2). …
1,068 wordsSource & rights
Public domain historical Pulpit Commentary. Source page identifies the volume as Public Domain; text extracted from its historical PDF.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.