2 Sam. xx. 15; 2 mugs xix. 32; Jer. Iii. 4). spised, etc. In the instanoe above mentioned 'fhe Vulgnoo rounds off the account in the the poor man's wisdom wns not despifed, text by addin~. et perf8cta est obsidio,,"antl and his words were beard nnd .o.Uended to ; the beleaguering wa.s completed." but this was an 11bnorwal oo.se, ooc11sioned Yer. 15.-Now there was found in it a by the extremity of the peril, Koheletb poor wise man. The verb, rega.rded ns im- st11tes the result which usually attends wis- 11ersc,11nl, may be thus taken. Or we may dom emanatiug from a disesteemed source. cnn!iuue the subject of the precedina verse The experience of Ben-Sil'll, pointed to the and consider the king as spoken ot "He same issue (see Ecclus. xiii. 22, 23). Horace, came across, ruet with unexpectedly, a poor 'Epist.,' i. I. 57- mnn who was wise." So the Septuagint. The word for " poor" in this passage is " Est animus tibi; sunt mores et lingua fidesque, misker,,, for which see note on eh. iv. 13. He by his wisdom delivered the city, When Sed quadringentis sex septem millia de- the besieged city bad neither soldiers nor sunt; arms to defend itself against its mighty Plebs eris." enemies, the man of poor estate, hitherto un- "In wit, worth, honour, one in vaiu abounds; known or little regarded, ea.me forward, and If of tho knight's .estatE) he lack ten by wise counsel relieved his countrymen pounds, from their perilous situation. How this was He's low, quite low I" done we are left to conjecture. It may have (Howes.) been by some timely concessions or nego- " Is not this the carpenter's Son?'·' asked tiations; or by the surrender of a chief the people who were ·•offended at Christ offender as at Abel-Betb-ma.acbah; or by (Mark vi. 2, 3). • the assassination of a general, as at Bethulia Vers. 17, 18.-Section 10; Here follow (Jud. xiii. 8); or by the clever application of mechanical arts, as at Syracuse, under the some prove1·bial sayings conceming wisdoni direction of Archimedes (Livy, xxiv. 34; anil its opposite, which draw the moral from Plutal'Ch, • Marcell.,' xv,-xviii.). Yet no the story in the text. • • • man remembered that same poor man. As Ve'r. 17.-The words ,of wise men nr'e soon as the exigence which brought him heard· in ,quiet more the.a-the cry of him forward was past, the poor man fell back .tlvlt r.tleth among fools. This :verse would into his insignificance, and was thought of be better translated, Words of, tlte wise in no more; he gained no personal advantage quiet are heard oetter .than the shout of a by his wisdom; his ungrateful countrymen chief among fools, The Vulgo.to t11kes the forgot his very existence. Thus Joseph was tranquillity to appertain to the heal'ers, thus: treated by the chief butler (Gen. xl. 23). Verba sapientium audiur,,tur in s:Uentio; but, Classical readers will think of Coriolanus, as Delitzsch points out, the contrast between Scipio Africanus, TbemiBtocles, Miltiades, " quiet" and "cry" shows that it is the who for their services to the state were man, and not his auditors, who is quiet. rewarded with calumny, false acclll!atiou, '!'be sentence says that o. wise man's words, obloquy, and banishment. The author of uttered calmly, deliberately, without pom- the Book of Wisdom gives o. different pous declamation or adventitious aids, are of and ideal experience. "I,'' he says, "for more value than, the blustering vociforo.tiori the sake of wisdom sho.11 have estimation of an arch-fool, who seeks to force accepto.nc.e among the multitude, and honolll' with the for his folly by loudness and swagger ( co111p. elclei·s, though I be young. . . . By the lea. nx. 15; and see Isa. xlii. 2 and Matt. means of her I shell obtain immortality, and xii. 19, passages which speak of the pe11ceful- lenve behind me an everlasting memorial" ness, reticence, and unobtrusiveness of truo (Wisd. viii. 10-13). wisdom, as seen in tho Son of God). The Ver. 16.-Then ee.id I, Wisdom is better verse introduces o. kind of exception to tho than strength. The latter part of the verse general rejection of wisdom men tioncd above. is not a c01Tection of the former, but the Though the multitude tum a deaf eo.r to a whole comes under the observation intro- wise man's counsel, yet this tells in the long duced by "I said." The story just related run, nnd there are alwo.ys some teach11ble kaJs to this assertion, w hicb reproduces the persons who sit at his feet. and learn from guome of eh. ,·ii. 19, wherein it .is asserted him. "He that ruleth among fools i.• is 110b that wisdom effects more than merephysico.l one that governs !I silly people, bl).t one who str~ng th. There is an interpolation in the is o. prince of fools, who ~a.kes the highest Old Latin Version of Wisd. 'l'i. 1 which place o.mong such. seems to have been compiled from this Ver. 18.-Wisdom is better than weapons pru;sage and Prov. xvi. 13, "Melior est sapi- of war. Such is the moral which l{oheleth entia q uam vires, et vii- prudens qnam fortis." desires to draw from the little narro.tivo Nevertheless the poor me.n'B wisdom is de- given above (see vcrs. 14-16; and eh. viL ECCLESIASTES: on, 'l'HE PHEACHEit 231
19). Wisdom con do what no moteriol force ont of keeping with the context. Adam's can effeot., and often produces results which sin infected the whole race of man; Achan's e,ll the implements of wor could not com- transgression co.used Israel's defeat (Josh. mand. :But one £inner deatroyeth much vii.11, 12); Rehoboam's folly occasioned the good, The happy consequences which the great schism (1 Kings xii. 16). The wide- wise mon's counsel might accomplish, or reaching effects of one little error are illus- has olready accomplished, may be over- trated by the proverbial saying which every thrown or rendered useleBS by the villany one knows, and which runs in Latin thus: or perversity of a bad man. The Vnlgate, "Clavus unus perdit equi soleam, sole3 reading differently, has, Qui in uno pecca'Derit, equum, equus equitem, eques castra, eastra mu/ta bona per,det. But this seems to be rempublicam."