The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 216

e.nd from the holy place; e.nd they departed absque timore ullo filii hominum -perpetrant e.ud ·were praised 1n the oity, bece.use they mala; Septuagint, "Because there is no hnd eo done;" Vulga.te, "I he.ve seen the contradiction (a.niN11u1s) made on the part impious buried, who also, while they still of (a.wo) those who do evil speedily, therefore Ii ved, were in the holy pince, e.nd were praised the heart of the sons of men is fully per• in the city ns if men of just doiuge." Com• suaded (lwA.71po,PoptJ811) in them to do evil." menting on this version, St. Gregory writes, The long-suffering of God, instead of leading " The very lre.nq uillity of the peace of the such men to repentance, hardens them in Church concenls mauy under the Christian their infi<lelity (Ps. lxxiii. 11). Primarily, name who are beset with the plague of their the referei;ice is still 1.o tyrannical despots, own wiokednees. But if a light bl'eath of who, in their seeming impunity, a.re em• persecution strikes them, it sweeps them boldened to pursue their evil course. But away at once aa chnff from the threshing- tbe statement is true generally. As Cicero fioor. But some persons wish to bear the says, "Quis ignorat maximam illc:cebram mark of Christian calling, because, since the esse peccaudi impunitatis spem?" (' Pro name of Cllrist has been exalted on high, Milone,' xvi.). nearly all persons now look to appear faithful, Ver. 12.-Thongh a. sinner do evil a hun- o.nd from seeing otllere called thus, tlJey e.re dred times. The sentence begins again, a.a e.she.med not to seem fe.ithfnl themselves; ver. 11, with asher, foll.,wed by a participle; but they neglect to be the.t which they boast and the conjunction ought to be rendered of being cnllod. For they assume the reality "becCLnse," the etatemeut made in the former of iuwurd excellence, to adorn their outward verso being resumed and strengthened. The e.ppearo.noe; and they who stand before the Vulgate bas attamen, which on~ verdion heavenly Judge, naked from the unbelief of follows. 'l'he Septuagint goes astray, trans- their heart, CLre clotlied, in the eight of men, lating, ~s 'l,µap-re11, "He that has sinned has with e. holy profession, at least in words" done evil from that time." The sinner is (' Moral.,' xxv. 26). This is also vanity. The hern suppo~ed to have transgressed con- old refrain recurs to the writer ae he thinks tiuua!ly without check or punishment. The on the pi-osperity of the wicked, ancl the expression, "a hundred times," is wed in- conclusions which infidels draw therefrom. definitely, as Prov. xvii. 10; Isa.. lx:v. 20. Here is another example of the vanity that And his days be prolongad; better, p1·olo11geil1 prevails in all earthly circumstances. his days for it; i.e. in the practic" of evil, Ver. 11.-The verse states one. of the with a kind or contentment and satisfaction, results of God's forbearance in punishing the pronoun lo being the ethic dative. Con- the evil. Because sentence age.inst a.n evil trnl'y to thtl usual course of temporal retri- work is not executed speedily. The vtrse bution, the sinner often livea to old nge. begins with o.8her, "because," ns in eh. iv. The Vnlgate has, Et per patientiam s11sle11• 3; vi. 12, which connects the eenteuce with tafor, which signifies that he is kept in li:'e the e.Uegntion of vanity just preceuing, as by God's long-suffering. Ginsbmg gives, well CLS with whCLt follows. Pitl1gam, "sen- "1111d ie perpehlatod," i.e. in his progeny- tence,"" edict," is a foreib,u word of Perdian which ie u. possible, but not CL prububle, origiu, found in Esth. i. 20 and in ChCLlclee reutlering. Yet surely I know; ro.ther, portions of Ezra (iv. 17) aud D11niel (iv. H, though I for my part know. He hCLs seeu etc.). God seems to ue to delay in punishing sinners prosper; this experience has been the guilty because we behold only one little forced upou him; yet he hol,ls an inwnrd portion of the course of hie providence ; convietiuu that God's moml government could we tnke n more comprehensive view, will Yindicnto itself nt Boll.le time nucl in nnorualiee would disappear, CLnd we should some signal numner. It shall be well with see the end of these men ( Pe. lxx.iii. 17). them tha.t fea.r God, which fear before him. But a coutracted, sceptical view leads to This fa not nmlly tautological; it is com- two evils-first, u. weakening of faith in pared to St. Paul's expression (I 'l'im. v. 3), God's moral ·government; nnd second, a "widows that are widows indeed" (~VTws), miserCLble fatulism which denies man's re- implying that.they arfl, in fnct nnd life, wliat sponsibility and snps hie energy. Of the they profess to be. Delit.zsch nnd Plumptre former of these results Koheleth hero treats. suggost thnt in Koheleth's time "God- Therefore the heart of the sons of men. fca1·01·e" hnd become the name of u religious The heart is name,l ae the sent of thought class, ae tho OJ1asidim, or "AssitleCLus," in and the prime mover of nclion (comp. eh. ix. 1 Jllacc. ii. 42; vii. 13, eto. CertCLinly a 3; Esth. vii. 5; lllatt. xv. 18, 19). Is fully trace of this so-nnme,l pnrty is seen in P0. set in them to do evil i literally, is full in cxviii. 4; !,fol. iii. IG. When this ucljust- them • i.e. their heCLrt becomes filled with ment of nnomalies shall tCLke placo, whether thou;hts whioh are directed to ovil, or full in this life 01· in CLnother, tho writer enys not of c~trnac hence "emboldened" (Revised he1'8. In spite of all contrnry nppenro.nccs, \' cr.;ion ° n;Mgiu) to do evil. Vulgnte, he holds firm to his faith tl1ut it will be m,U  204 ECCtESlASIJ.'ES; OR, 'l'HE PllEACHEU. ~ell. Vil!. 1-11,