The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 236

<'lusion. Oue great result of his considera- By o.ll that is before them. Tho Hebrew is tion he proceeds to state. The Septuagint simply," all [lies] before them." All that connects this clnuse closely with the last shall happen, all that she.II shape their verse of the preceding chapter," For I applied destiny iu the future, is obscul'O and un- nll this to my heart, aud my heart snw nll known,and beyond their control. Septue.gint, this." The righteous, and the wise, and their Te1 ..-d.v-ra ..-po ..-porr@rou ab-r~v. The Vulgate works, Rre in the hand of God (Ps. xxxi. 15; mixes this clause with the following verse, rro,. xxi. l); i.e.in his power, under his direc- But all things are kept uncertain/01· the future. tion. Mau is not independent. Even the go0d St. Gregory, "As thou kuowest not who aro nnd wise, who might be supposed to afford converted from sin to goodness, nor who turn the plainest evidence of the favourable side back from goodness to sin; so also thou dost of God's moral government, are subject to the not understand what is doing towards thy- 8Rme unsearchnble law. The very incompre- self as thy merits deserve. And as thou hensibility of this principle proves tho.t it dost not at all comprehend another's end, so comes from God, and men may well be con- art thou also unable to foresee thine own. tent to submit themselves to it,'Imowing that For thou kuowest now what progress thou he is as just as he is almighty. No man hast made thyself, but what I fGod] still knoweth either love or hatred. God's favour think of thee in secret thou knowest not, or displeasure are meant. Vulgate., Et tamen Thou now thickest on thy deeds of righteous- ,iescit honw, utrom amore an odio dignus sit. ness; but thou know est not how strictly they We <'annot judge from the events that befall are weighed by me. Woe even to the praise- a man what is the view which God takes of worthy lifo of men if it be judged without his character. We must not, like Job's mercy, because when strictly examined it is friends, decide that a man is a great sinner overwhelmed in the presence of the Judge becauee calamity falls upon him, nor again by the very conduct with which it imagines Euppose that outward prosperity is a proof that it pleases him" (' Moral.,' xxix. 34, of a life righteous and well-pleasing to God. Oxford transl.). Outward circumstances are no criterion of Ver. 2.-All things come alike to all; lite- inward disposition or of final judgment. rally, all things [are] like that which [happens] From the troubles or the comforts which we to all personB. There is no difference in the omselves experience or witness in others we treatment of persons; all people of every have no right to argue God's favour or dis- kind meet with circumstances of every kind. pleasure. He disposes matters as seems best Speaking generally, there is no discrimina- to him, and we must not expect to see every tion, apparently, in the distribution of good one in this world treated according to what and evil. Sun and shade, calm and storm, we should deem his deserts (comp. Prov. i. fruitful and unfruitful seasons, joy and 32 with Heh. xii. 6). De!itzsch and others sorrow, are dispensed by inscrutable Jaws. think that the expressions "love" and The Septuagint, reading difierently, has, "Latred " are too general to admit of being " Vanity is in all;" the Syriac unites two interpreted as above, and they determine the readings, "All before him is vanity, all as to sense to be that no one can tell beforehand all" (Ginsburg). There is one event to the who will be the objects of bis love or hate, righteous, and to the wioked. All men have or how entirely his feelings may change in the samo lot, whether it be death or any regard of persons with whom he is brought other contingency, without regard to their in contact. The circumstances which give moral condition. The classes into which men rise to these sentiments are entirely are divided must be noted. "Righteous" bevond his control and foresight. This is and "wicked" refer to men in their conduct true enough, but it does not seem to me to to others. The good. The Septuagint, be intended. The author is concerned, not Vulgate, and Syriac add, "to the evil," with inward sentiments, but with prosperity which is said again almost immediately. and adversity considered popularly ns indi- To the clean, and to the unolee.n. "'fhe cations of God's view of things. It would good" and "clean" are those who are not be but a meagre assertion to state that you only ceremonially pure, but, as the epithet cannot know whether you are to love or hate, "good" shows, are morally undefiled. To because God ordains all such contingencies; him that sacriftceth ; i.e. the man who attends whereas to warn against hasty and iufidel to the externals of religion, offers the obli- jl!.dgments on the ground of our ignorance gatory sacrifices, e.nd brings hie free-will of God's mysterious ways, is sound and offerings. The good . , . the sinne: i in tlio weighty advice, and in due harmony with widest senses. :e:e that sweareth, e.s he that what follows in the next verses. The inter- feareth an oath. He who fakes e.n oath pretation, "No man kuows whether he shall lightly, carelessly, or falsely (comp. Zech. meet with the love or hatred of his fellows," v. 3), is contrasted with him who regards it has commended itself to some critics, but e.e a holy thing~ or shrinks in awe from ie as inadn1iHsihle as the one just mentioned. invoking Gocl'11 ~ame iu such o Cf\SO 'l'hili OH, IX. 1-18.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 225