The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 83

which God a.Howe in order to demonstrate vanity. The distinction between mrrn and our powerleeenees ; therefore the wisest beast is annulled by death ; the farmer's course is to make the beet of present cir- boasted superiority, his power of conceiving oumstances. e.nd J?lanning, his greatness, skill, strength, cun!1rng, all come under the category of Ver. 19.-For that whioh befalleth the vamty, as they cannot ward off the inevi- sons of men befalleth beasts; literally, table blow. chance are the Bone of men, and chance are Ver. 20.-All go unto one ple.ce. All, beasts (see on eh. ii. 14); SqJtuagint, "Yea, men and brutes, are buried in the earth and to them cometh the event (uv11d.11-r11µ11.) of (eh. xii. 7). The author is not thinking of the sons of men, and the event of the beast." Sheol, the abode of departed spirits, bat Koheleth explains in what respect man is on merely regarding earth as the universe.I tomb a level with the brute creation. Neither are of all creatures. Plnmptre quotes Lucretius, able to rise superior to the law that controls 'De Rer. Nat.,' v. 260- their nature.\ life. So Solon says to Crcesus " Omniparens eadem reram commune sepul- (Herod., i. 32), na,, lu-r, lf118p,,nros uvµ,pop-f,, chrum." "Man is naught but cha.nee; " and Arta- ba.nua reminds Xerxes that chaucee rule " The mother and the sepulchre of all." men, not men chances (ibid., vii. 49). Even Thus Bailey, • Festns •- one thing befe.lleth them. A third time is the ominoua word repeated, "One chance is " The course of ne.l ure seems a course of to both of them." Free-thinkers perverted death; this dictum into the materialistic language The prize of life's brief mce, to cease to quoted in the Book of Wisdom (ii. 2) : " We run; are born at he.pltaze.rd, by chance (11.v-ro<TXE· The sole substantial thing, death's nothing- '6lws)," etc. But Koheleth's contention is, not ness.'' that there is no law or order in what happens All are of the dust (G~n. iii. 19; Ps. civ. to man, but that neither man nor beast ca.n 29; cxlvi. 4). - So Ecclas. xii. 10, "All dispose events at their own will and plea- things that are of earth shall turn to earth sure; they are conditioned by a force superior age.in." This is true of the material part of to them, which dominates their actions, men and brutes a.like; the question of the sufferings, and circumstances of life. As destiny of the imme.terio.l part is touched in the one dieth, so dieth the other. In the the next verse. matter of succumbing to the law of death Ver. 21.-Who knoweth the spirit of man man has no superiority over other creatures. that goeth upward, and the spirit of the This is an inference drawn from common beast that goeth •downward to the earth 1 observation of exterior facts, and touches The statement is here too categorically ren- not any higher question (comp. eh. ii. 14, dered, though, for dogme.tiral purposes, the 15; ix. 2, 3). Something similar is found Me.sorites seem to have punotuuted the text in Pa. xlix. 20, "Man that is in honour, and with a view to such interpretation. But, as understandeth not, is like the bee.sis that Wright o.nd others point out, the onulogy of perish." Yea, they have e.11 one breath two other passages (eh. ii. 19 and vi. 12), (ruac11). This is the word used in ver. 23 where "who knoweth" occurs, intimates for tlte vital principle, "the breath of life," thnt the phrases which follow nre interro- as it is called in Gen. vi. 17, where the gative. So the translation should be, '' Who same word is found. In the earlier record knoweth as regards the spirit (ruach) of the (Gen. ii. 7) the term is nishma. Life in all sons of men whether it goeth upward, and animals is regarded as the gift of God. Says as reg,uds the spirit (ruach) of the beust the psalmist, " Thou sendost forth thy whether it goeth downwar,1 under the spirit (ruach), they are created" (Ps. civ. earth?" Vulgate, Quis novit si spiritus, 30). This lower pl'inciple presents th• etc.? Septuagint, Tls ElllE 1r11Euµ11. viwv -rou se.me phenomena in men and in brutes. rt11Bpdrrrou fl Cl.11a/3a.Cve, alrrO &va,; u Who ever Man he.th no pre-eminenoe above a beast ; saw tho spirit of the sons of man, whether i.e. in regard to suffering and death. This it goeth upward?" The Authorized Ver- ie not bare materialism, or a gloomy deduc- sion, which gives the Masoretic reading, is tion from Greek teaching, but must be ex- supposed to harmonize better with the nsser- plained from the writer's standpoint, which tion at tho end of the book (eh. xii. 7), tlmt is to emphasize the impotence of man to the spirit returns to tho God who gave it. effect his own happine,s. Taking only a But there is no formal denial of the immor- limited and phenomenal view of man's cir- tality of the soul in the present passo.ge a& cumslunces and destiny, he speaks e. general we render it. The question, iudee,1, is no\ truth which all must acknowledge. Sep- touched. The author is confirming his tuugint "And what hath the man more previous assertion that, in one point of view, than tl'.e beast? Nothing." For all is wan is not superior to brute. Now he s,iys, E"r:L1•:s1ASTES. ~· 66 ECCLESIASTES ; OR, THE PREACHER. [en. rn. 1-22.