The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 214

that the o.ffiiction which subjects snffer at battle, a.nd perieh;" Ecclus. xiv. 12, "RP- the hand of a tyrant becomes insupportable, memberthat dea.th will not be long in coming, and calls for and receives God's interposi- a.nd that the covenant of the grave is not tion. Or "the evil" may be the wickedness showed unto thee"). And there is no dis- of the despot, which presses heavily upon charge in that war. The word rendered him, 11.nd uurler retributive justice will ere '' discharge" (mishlacliath) is found elsewhere long bring him to the ground, and so the only in Pa. lxxviii. 49, where it is translated oppression will come to an end. This seems "eending," "mission," or "band." The to be the most ne.tural interpretation of the Septna.gint here has l,.,rotTTo'Af,; the Vulga.te •passage. The Septuagint, reading differ- Nee sinitur quiescere ingru.ente bello. The ently, has, "For the knowledge of a man is Authorized Version is donbtlese correct, great upon him." Though what this means though there is no need to insert the pronoun it is difficult to say. "that." The severity of the law of military Ver. 7.-For he knoweth not that whioh service is considered a.nalogously with the shall be. The subject may be man in general, inexorable Jaw of death. The Hebrew or more probe.bly the evil tyrant. The clause ena.ctment (Dent. xx. 5-8) a.Ilowed exemp- contains a third ree.son for patience. The tion in certain cases; but the Persian rule despot cannot foresee the future, and goes on was inflexibly rigid, permitting no furlough blindly filling up the measure of his iniquity, or eva.sion during a.n expedition. Thus we being unable to take e.ny prece.utions oge.inst read that when CEobazus, the father of three his inevitable fate (Prov. x.xiv. 22). Quem sons, petitioned Darius to leave him one at DelLB vu.It perdere priu.s dementat. For who home, the tyrant replied that he would leave oe.n tell him when it shall be 1 rather, how it him all three, a.nd had them put to death. shall be. The fourth portion of the orgument. Age.in, Pythius, a Lydie.n, a.eking Xerxes to The infatuated man knows not the time when exempt hie eldest son from accompanying the blow will fall, nor, as here, the manner the army to Greece, we.e reviled by the in which the retribution will come, the form mouo.rch in unmeasured terms, and WAB which it will take. Septue.gint, "For how it punished for hie presumption by seeing his shall be, who will tell him?" The Vulgate son slo.in before his eyes, the body divi,led poraphraoes inaccurately, Qu.ia ignorat prtB- into two pieces, a.nd placed on either side of terita, et futu.ra nu.llo scire potest nu.ntio, the road by which the army passed, that a.ll "Because he knoweth not the pe.st, and the might be warned of the fate awaiting any future he can ascertain by no messenger." a.ttempt to evade military service (Herod., iv, Ver. 8.-This verse gives the conolusion 84 ; vii. 38). The passage in the text has a of the line of argument which confirms the bearing on the author,hip e.nd clo.te of our lest cle.use of ver. 5. There is no man that book, if, as seems most probe.hie, the reference hath power over the spirit to retain the is to the cruel discipline of Persia. This is spirit. If we take "spirit" in the sense of the third impossibility; the fourth follows. "the breath of life," explaining the clause Neither shall wiokednesa deliver those that to mean that the mightiest despot has no are given to it; its lord and master. Septua- power to retain life when his call oomes, gint, T~v 1ra.p' a.bT;js, "its votary." Ginsburg we hove the same thought repeoted virtually tra.nslates resha "cunning;" but this seems in the next clause. It is therefore better to foreign to the sentiment, which is concerned take roach in the sense of "wind" (Gen. with the despot's impiety, injustice, ond viii. 1), No one oan controlthe course of the general wickedness, not with the mea.ns by wind or know its woy ( comp. oh. xi. 5, where which he endeovours to escape the reward of the some ambiguity exists; Prov. xxx. 4). his deeds. The fact is, no evil despot, how- Koheleth gives here four impossibilities ever reckless a.nd imperious, con go long un- which point to the conclusion a.lreudy givPn. punished. He may soy in his heart, "There The first is man's innbility to check the is no God," or, "God hideth his face, and viewless wind or to know whence it comes or sees him not," but certain retribution awaits whither it goes (John iii. 8). Equolly im- him, and may not be avoided. Soye the potent is the tyrant to influence the clrift of gnome- events that is bearing him on to his end. God's judgmente a.re often likened to a wind ~A-yu TO 8iiov TOUS /Ca.lCOUS 1rpos "T¾v Bl1C11v, (seo Isa., xii. 16; Wisd. iv. 4; v. 23). Neither "Heaven drives the ovil always unto juclg- ha.th he power in the day of death; ra.ther, ment." over the day of death. The second impossi• bility oonoemsthe a.verting the hour of death. Ver. 9.-All this have I ■ een (eh. v. 18; Whether it comes by sickness, or accident, or vii. 23) ; i.e. a.ll that bas been mentioned ill design, the despot must .succumb; he oa.!1 the preceding eight verses, especially the neither foresee nor ward 1t off (l Som. xxv1, conviction of retributive justice. Ho g~ined 10 "The Lord shall smite him; or his day this experience by giving hie mind to the 11h~ll come to die; or he sh11ll go dowu into consideration of men's a.otions. There id 11  202 ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHEH. [oir. vm. 1-17.