The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 82

judicial courts. or of the social and political best, with many modem commentators, to evils of which he speaks in this book. That refer the adverb to God, who has just been he had a prophetioo.l for~sight of the spoken of in the preceding clnuse. A similn.r disasters that would accompany the reign of use is found in Gen. xlix. 24. With God, his successor, and endeavours herein to pro- apud Deum, in his oounsels, there is a time ;ide consolation for the future sufferers, is o. of judgment and retribution for every n.ct of pious opinion without historical basis, o.nd man, when n.nomalies which have obtained cannot be justly used to support the genuine- on earth shnll be rectified, injustice ehall be ness of Urn work. punished, virtue rewarded. '!'here is no Ver. 17.-I said in mine hee.rt, God shall need, with some commentators, to read c~, judge the righteous and the wicked. In "he appointed;" the usual reading gives a new of the injustice that prevails in earthly satisfactory sense. tribunals, Koheleth takes comfort in the Ver. 18.-The comfort derived from the thought that there is retribution in store thought of the future judgment is clouded for ernry man, when God shall award sen- by the reflection that man is as powerless as tence according to deserts. God is a the beast to coutrol his destiny. Concerniug righteous Judge strong and patient, and his the estate of the sons of men; rather, it decisions are infallible. Future judgment happens on account of the sons of men. God is here plainly stated, e.s it is at the tlnal allows events to take place, disorders to con- conclusion (eh.· xi. 14). They who refuse to tinue, etc., for the ultimate profit of men, credit the writer with belief in this great though the idea that follows is hnmiliat- doctrine resort to the theory of interpolation ing and dispiriting. The LXX. has ..-,pl and alteration in order to account for the :>..a:>..,as, "concerning the speech of the sona language in this and analogous passages. of men." So the Syriac. The word di"bra1, There can be no doubt that the present may iudeed bear that meaniug, as it is also text has hitherto al ways been regarded as used for "word" or "matter;" but we can- genuine, and that it does clearly assert not conceive that the clause refers solely to future retribution, though not so much as a words, and the expression in the text sigui- conclnsiou firmly est.a.blished, but rather as fies merely "for the sake, on account of," a belief which may explain anomalies and as in eh. viii. 2. That God might manifest afford comfort under trying circumstances. them; rather, that God might test them; Ut For there is a time there for every purpose probaret eos Deus (Vulgate). God allows and for every work. The adverb rendered these things, endures them patiently, aud ''there" (cJt, ,ham) is placed emphatically, does not at once redress them, for two rea- nt the end of the seutence. Thus the Septua- sous. The first of these is thnt they may gint," There is a reason for every action, and serve for the probation of meu, giving them for every work there (b«'i)." Many take it opportuuity of making good or bud use of to meau "in the other world," and Plumptre them. We see the effect of this forbearance cites Eurip., 'Med.,' I073- on the wicked in eh. viii. 11 ; it hnruens ,Ev6~,µ~Poi;ov, ,o.>,.J,..' i,u'i· -rCX 6' iv8d.8t: them in impenitence; while it nourishes the Ila.-71p aqm:>..e.-. faith of the righteous, and helps them to persevere (see Dan. xi. 35 and Rev. xxii. "All good be with you I but it must be there; 11). And that they might see that they Here it is stolen from you by your sire." themselvee are beasts. 'fhe pronoun is But it is unexampled to find the elliptical repeated emphatically, "that they thom- "there," when no place has been mentioned sel vea are [like] beasts, they in themselves." in the oontext, and when we are precluded This is the second reason. Thus they learn from interpreting the dark word by a signifi- their own powerlessness, if they regard mere- cant gesture, as Medea may have pointed ly their own animal life; apart fro01 their downwards in her histrionic despair. Where relation to God and hope of the future, they the words," that day,'' are used in the New a.re no better than the lower creatures. Sep- Testament (e.g. Luke x. 12; 2 'I'im. i. 18, tuagint. "And to show (.-o;; ~••~a,) that etc.), the context shows plainly to what they are beasts." So the Vulgate and Syriac. they refer. Some take the adverb hero in The Masoretic rending adopted in the Angli- the sense of "then." Thus the Vulgate, can Version seems best. JU6tum et impium .iudicahit DeUB, et terr.pus omnis rei tune erit." But really no time has Vera. 19-21 are best regarded o.s a paren- been mentioned, unless we oonceive the thesis explanatory of vers. 16-18, eluci- writer to have been guilty of a clumsy dating mau's impotence iu the presence of tautology, expressing by "then" tlie same the anomalies of life. The conclusion in idea as " a time for every purpose,'' etc. Ewald would understand it of the past; but ver. 22 is connected with vers. 16-18. We this is quite arbitrary, and limits the signift- must acknowledge that there are disorders erition of the llenteuce uunOO<'ssarily. It i11 iu th" wor!d which we onnnot remedy, 1md Gil, lII, 1-22.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 65