The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 134

I have seen under the sun (so var. 16). "No wealth thou'lt take to Acheron's dark 'fhe fnct that follows ie, of course, not uui- shore, verso.11:r true, but occaeionolly seen, and ie a Naked, th' infernal bark will bear thee very bitter evil. The 80ptu11gint calla it o'er." d#wrr.-l11; the Vulgate; infirmitas. Riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt ; B1;>-all take nothing of ~~ labo~ ; rather, /<Yr rather, preser'lled by the possessor, hoordcd hu labour, the prepomt1on bemg :;i of price. and guarded, only to bring their lord added He gets nothi~g by his long toil in· amassing grief when by some reverse of fortune he wealth. w:m,ch he me.y carry away in his loses them, as explained in what follows. h~nd, as. his own possession. The ruined Dives points a moral for all men. Ver. 14.-Those riches perish by evil travail; thing or circumstance. There is no Ver. 16.-This also is a sore evil. The thought o_f ver. 15 is emphatically repeated. need to confine the cause of the loss to un- In all pomts as he came; i.e. naked, help- successful business, ae many commentators do. less. And what profit he.th he that labonreth The rich man does not seem to be a trades- man or speculator; he loses his property !.or th~ ~d 1 The answer _is ~rnphatically liku Job, by visitations for which he is in n~ . noth1_ng. .. We h~:i:e had similar questions m eh. 1. 3; 11. 22; m. 9. To labour for the way answerable-by storm or tempest, by wind is to toil with no result, like the robbers, by fire, by exactions, or by lawsuits. "feeding on wind," "pursuing of vanity" And he begetteth a son, and there is nothing w~ich _is the key-note of the book. The in his hand. The verb rendered " be- wmd 18 the type of all that is empty getteth" is in the po.at tense, and used ae it delusive, unsubstantial. In Prov. xi. 29 were, hypothetically, equivalent to "bath he we have the phrase, "to inherit the wind" begotten a son," supposing he has a son. His Job calle futile arguments "words of wina°" misery is doubled by the reflection that he (Job xvi. 3; xv. 2). Thus tho Greek has lost all hope of securing a fortune for hie proverb,' Av,µovs B11pa.v lv 811<.-60,s "to try to children, or founding a family, or passing on catch the wind;" and the Lati~ "Ventos an inheritance to posterity. It ie doubtful pascere,'' and "Ventos colere" (see' Erasmus to whom the pronoun "his" refers. Many 'Adag.,' B,'l/. "lno.nis opera"). Septuacint' consider that the father is meant, and the clause says that when he has begotten a. son, ~a.l ,.,(s 11 ,repft1'a~,a, a,~oii if µoxBEi els ~ve;ov; he finds he has nothing to give him. But And whnt 1s Ins gam for which he labours for the wind?" the suffix seems most n11turally to refer to Ve~. 17.-The misery that a.ccompanies the son, who is thus left a. pauper. Vulgatc the rich man's whole life is summed up Generavit fil,ium qui in summa egestate erit'. here, where one has to think chiefly of his Having a thing in the hand means having distress after his loss of fortune. All his power over it, or possessing it. . da.ys e.lso he ea.teth in darkness ; i.e. posses Ver. 15.,-The case of the rich man who his life in gloom and cheerlessness. 1,z:,.-~:1 ho.s • lost his property is here generalized. Who.t is true of bim is, in a measure, true "all his days," is the 11ccuso.tive of tim~' n~t of every one, so fe.r as he can carry nothing ~he object of the verb. To eat in da.rk~ess away with him when he dies (Ps. xlix. 17). IS not a common meto.phor for spending a As he oe.me forth of his mother's womb, gloomy life, but it is a very na.turo.l one ond naked shall he return to go as he oame. ~~ analogies in_ this hook (e.g. eh. ii'. 24; There is a plain reference to Job i. 21, !11· 13, etc.), and Ill such phrases us to ,, sit "Naked came I out of my mother's womb m darlmess" (Micah vii. 8), and to "walk and naked sho.11 I return thither." Th~ in d~rknes_s '.' (Isa. 1. 10). Tho Scptuugint, mother is the eal'th, human beings being readmg d1flerently, transla.tes, Kai -ye ircio-o., reg11rded as her offspring. So the psalmist al 7]µ.Epa, aU.,-olJ iv u,c&.,-u Ka} Ev ,rEvOe, so.ye, "My frame was curiously wrought in "Yea, and all his days are in darkness and the lowest parts of the earth" (Ps. oxxxi.x. in mourning." But the other versions reject 15). And Ben-Sir11, "Great trouble is this alterntion, and few modern commentators created for every man, uncl a heo.vy yoke is adopt it. And he hnth muoh sorrow and upon the sons of Adam, from the dny that wrat~ with his ~iolmess; literally, and much they go out of their mother's womb till the vezation, and sic/mess, and wrath; Revised day that they return to the mother of all Version, he is sore vezed, and lwt/1 sickness things." 1 Tim. vi. 7, "We brought and wrath. Delitzsch takes the last worus nothing into the world, neither can we as an exola.rnation, "And oh for his sorrow carry unything out." Thus P1·opertius, a1:1d hatred I" . The man experiences ull ~mds of _vell:o.twn when his phtns foil or • Eleg.,' iii. 5. 13- !nvolve _him rn t~ouble and privntion; or he " Haud ullas portubis opes Acherontis ad 1s morbid and d1sca.scd in mind a.nd body• undo.s, or be is angry nnd envious when otliers sue: Nuuus a.b iuforna, btultc·, vehere rate." ceed better tho.n himself. The sentiment i~ 118 ECCLESIASTES; OR, 'l'HE PRE.A.OHER. [en. v. 1-20,