The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 238

43; 2 Sam. iii. 8); while the lion W&e con- may be approximately represented in Eng- sidered M the noblest of beast.s, the type of lish Ly tho words "record " and " reward." power And greatness ( comp. Prov. xxx. 30; Yer. 6.-Also their love, and their hatred; Isa. xxxi. 4). So the proverbie.l saying in and their envy, is now (long ago) perished. the text means that the vilest a.nd meunest All the foeliugs which o.re exhibited o.nd <"reatnre possessed of life is better tha.n the developed in the life of the upper world are highest and mightiest which has sncoumbed annihilated (comp. ver. 10). Three are t.o death. There is an apparent contradic- selected ns the most potent passions, such as tion between this sentence and such pa.ssages by their strength and activity might itlea.lly as claim a preference for death over life, e.g. be supposed to survive even the stroke of eh. iv. 2; vii. 1; but in the latter the death. But all are now e:t an end. Neither m-iter is viewing life with all it.s sorrows have they any more a portion for ever in any and bitter experiences, here he regards it as thing tha.t is done under the sun. Between affording the po~sibility of enjoyment. In the dco.d and the living an impassable gulf the one case he holds death as desirable, exists. The vie1v of death here given, in- because it delivers from further sorrow and tensely gloomy and hopeless as it appears to puts an end to misery ; in the other, he be, is in conformity with other passages of deprecates death as cutting off from pleasure the Old Testament (see Job :xiv. 10-14: and hope. He may also have in mind that Ps. vi. 5; :xxx. 9; Isa. :x:x:xviii. 10-19; now is the time to do the work which we Ecclus.xvii.27,28: Bar.iii.16-19),and that have to perform: "The night cometh when imperfect dispensation. Koheleth and his no man can work; " Ecclus. xvii. 28, contemporaries were of those " who through " Thanksgiving perisbeth from the dead, as fenr of death were all their lifetime subject from one that is not; the living and sound to bondage" (Heb. ii. 15); it we.a Christ who shall pro.ise the Lord" (comp. Isa. x.:xxviii. brightened the da1·k valley, showing the 18, 19. blessedness of those who die in the Lord, Ver. 5.-For the living know that they bringing life and immortality to light through shall die. This is added in confirmation the gospel (2 Tim. i. 10). Some e:xpositou of the statement in ver. 4. The living have ho.ve felt tlie pessimistic ulterances of this at least the conscionsnes~ that they will passage so deeply that they have ende1i• soon have to die, and this leads them to voured to accotmt for them by introducing work while it iB day, to employ their an atbeistio objector, or an intended oppo- faculties worthily, to make use of oppor- sition between flesh o.nd spirit. But there tunities, to enjoy and profit by the present. is not a. trace of 11ny two such voices, o.nd They have a certain fixed event to which the suggestion is quite unnecessary. The they must look forward ; and they have not writer, while believing in the continued to stand idle, lamenting their fate, but their existence of the soul, knows little o.nd has duty and their happiness is to accept the little that is cheering to sa.y about its con- inevitable and make the best of it. But the dition; and what ho doea say is not incon- deo.d knaw not anything. They e.re cut off sistent with a judgment to come, though he from the e.ctive, bustling world; their work has not yet arrived at tbe enunciation of is done; they have nothing to expect, nothing this great solution. The Vnlgate renders to labour for. What passes upon earth the last clause, Nee habent partem in hoo affects them not; the 1..-nowledge of it 8/BCU.W et in opere quad sub sole geritur. But ree.ches them no longer. Aristotle's idea. "for ever" is the correct rendering of c71v7, we.s that the dea.d did know something, in a. e.nd Ginsburg concludes that Jerome's trans- hazy and indistinct way, of what went on lation can be traced to the Hagadistic inter- in the upper world, and were in some slight pretation of the verse which restricts its degree influenced thereby, but not to such a scope to the wicked. The author of the Book deo-ree as to change happiness in to misery, or of Wisdom, writing later, takes a much more vile versa (' Eth. Nicom.,' i 10 a.nd 11). hopeful view of death o.nd the. departed (see Ji either have they any more a. reward; i.e. no eh. i. 15; ii. 22-24; iii. 1 ; vi. 18; viii. 17: fruit for labonr done. There is no question xv. 3, etc.). here about future retribution in another Vere. 7-12.-These verses give the appli- world. The gloomy view of the writer at cation of the facts just 1Dentione,I. The this moment precludes all idea. of such an adjustment of llnomaliee after death. For inscrutability of tho moral government of the memory of them is forgotten. They the world, the uncerlo.inty of life, the con- Lave not even the poor reward of being dition ·of the dead, lea.d to the conclusion ietnemLered by loving posterity, which in a"ain that one should use one's life to the tLc mind of au Orieutul wa.e an eminent :i:st a.cl vanla;;e; and ,Koheleth repeals his blessing, to be much desired. There is a parouowasia iu uker, "memory," and sakar, caution concerning the issue~ e.~d dure.tio!' '· rew11rd," which, as Plumptre suggests, of lite, Cll, IX, 1-18.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 227