The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 156

he.a insatie.ble desires which he has to check fying. Commentators refer ·in illustration or oonoeal, and so is no better off than the fool, to the fable of the dog e.nd the shadow, and who equally is unable to gratify them. The the proverb, " A. bird in the hund is worth two extremities of the social scale are taken two in the bush." ~the rich wise man, and the prudent poor man-and both are shown to fail in enjoying Vere. 10-12.-Seotion 11. All things are lif<' ; and what is true of these must be also forelt,wum and foreordained by God; it is trne of all that come between these two tl8el.ess to murmur agai11st or to discuss this limits, "the appetite is not filled" (ver. 7). great/act; a.nd as the future is beyond our Ver. 9.-:Better is the sight of the eyes knowledge and control, it is wise to make than the wandering of the desire (nephesh, " the soul," ver. 7). This is a further con- the best of the present. firmation of the miserv and unrest that Ver. 10.-That whioh hath been is named accompany immoderate desires. " The sight aJrea.dy; better, whatsoeve'I' hath been; long of the eyes" means the enjoyment of the ago hath its name been given. The word present, that which lies before one, in con- rendered "already," kebar (oh. i. 10; ii. 12; . trast to the restless craving for what is dis- iii. 15; iv. 2), "long a.go," though used else- tant, uncertain, and ontofreach. The lesson where in this book of events in human taught is to make the best of existing cir- history, me.y 11.ppropriately be applied to the cumstances, to enjoy the present, to control Divine decrees which predetermine the cir- the roaming of fancy, and to narrow the vast cwnste.nces of me.n's life. This is its signi- field of appctency. We have a striking ex- ficance in the present passage, which asserts pression in Wisd. iv. 12, peµfla.rrµos i1r,6v- that everything which happens has been plas, by which is denoted the giddiness, the known and fixed beforehe.nd, and therefore reeling intoxication, c.aased by unrestrained that man cannot shape his own life. No passion. Tlie Roman satirist le.shed the sin e.ttempt is here me.de to reconcile this of unscrupulous greed- doctrine with me.n's free-will and consequent responsibility. The idea has already been " ~ed qum revereutia. legnm, presented in eh. iii. I, etc. It comes forth Qnis metus ant pudor est unquam prope- in Isa. xiv. 9, "Shall the clay say to him ra.ntis avari?" that fa.shioneth it, Whe.t ine.kest thou? or (Juven., 'Sat.,' xiv. 177.) thy work, He bath no bands?" (comp.Rom . .. Nor law, nor checks of conscience will he ix. 20); Acts xv. 18 (according to the Textus hee.r, Receptus), "Known unto God are all his When in hot scent of gain and full career." works from the beginning of the world." (Dryden.) The same idea. is brought out more fully in the following clauses. Septuagint, "If Zock:ler quotes Horace, 'Epist.,' i. 18. 96, anything ever. was, already bath its name •qq.- been called," which gives the correct sense .. Inter cancta Jeges et percontabere doctos, of the passage. The Vulgate is not so Qua ratione queas tre.d ucere leniter revum ; happy, Qui futwrus est, jam t1ocatum eat Num te semper inops agitet vexetque nomen ejus, being rather opposed to the cupido, grammar. And it is known that it is man. Num pa.vor et rerum mediecriter utilium What is meant by the Authorized Version spes." is doubtful. If the first clause Juul been "To sum up a.ll-Consnlt and con the wise translated, as in the margin of the Revised In what the art of true contentment lies: Version, "Whatsoever he be, his nume was How fear and hope, that re.ck the human given him long ago," the conclusion would will, come nnturally, "and it is kuown thut he .Arc but vain dreams of things nor good is man" (Adam), and we should see an nor ill." allusion to man's name and to the ground (Howes.) (adamah) from which he was ta.keu (Gen. ii. 7), as if his very name betokened his Me.re. Aurel., 'Meditat..' iv. 26, "Has any weakness. But the present version is very advantage happened to you? It is the obscure. Cox gives, "It is very certo.in bounty of fate. It was all preordained you that even the greatest is but o man, and by the universe.I cause. Upon the whole, cannot contend with him," etc. But the life is but short, therefore be just and pru- Hebrew will not admit this rendering. dent, and make your most of it; and when The clause really amplifies the previous you divert yourself, be always on your statement of man's predetermined destiny, guard" (J. Collier). Well is it added that and it should bto rendered, "Aud it is this insatiability of the soul, which never known what a man shall be.'' Every in- leads to contentment, is vanity and vexation dividual comes uu<ler God's presoieut ~uper- of spirit, a feeding on wind, empty, unsatiB- intendence. Septuagint, 'E-y11rfJ1Tlhj /i i1Tn11 OH, VI, 1-12.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 141