The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 302

soribecl in the following verses, though be so.id in its favour, e.nd me.ny gree.t writers whether the expressions therein used rege.rd have decle.red themselves on its side. Wright litere.l e.natomice.l fe.cts, or e.re e.llegorica.l supposes (o.n<I makes a good case for his represente.tions of the gre.due.l dece.y of the theory) the.t Koheleth is referring especially fe.culties, he.a been gree.tly disputed. Pro- to the closing do.ye of winter, which in Pales• bably both opinions conte.in e. pe.rtie.l truth, tine are very fatal to old people. The as will be noted in our Exposition, Ginsburg seven last de.ye, indeed, are noted even now considers the.t the e.llusion is not to the ills as the most sickly aud dangerous of e.11 the that in the course of time e.11 flesh is heir to, year. The approach of this period casts a but re.ther to the.t preme.ture deca.y e.nd dark shadow upon e.ll the inhabite.nts of the suffering occe.sioned by the unrestre.ined house. The theory is partly borne out by gre.ti.fioation of sensual passions, such e.s the text, but, like the other solutions, does not Cicero intime.tes (' De Seneot.,' ix. 29), wholly correspond to the wording. In the "LibidinoB& et intempere.ns e.dulescentia present verse the approach of old e.ge, the effetum corpus tradit senectuti." There is winter of life, is likened to the rainy season nothing specie.Uy in the text to support in Palestine, when the sun is obscured by this view, e.nd it is most reasonable to clouds, and the light of heaven darkened by see here genere.lly e. figurative description the withdrawal of that luminary, and neither of decay, whatever may be the co.use. I moon nor stars appear. And the clouds return have no plee.sure in them. Ere the time after the rain; i.e. one storm succeeds another comes when e. man shall se.y, "I have no (Job xxxvii. 6). The imagery is intended pleasure in life." Thus the aged Barzillai to represent the e.biding and increasing asks," Can I discern between good and evil? ine-0nveniences of old e.ge. Not like the Ce.n thy servant taste whe.t I eat or what I spring-time of life and season, when sunshine drink? Can I hear any more the voice of and storm e.re interchanged, winter and old singing-men and singing-women? " (2 Sam. age ham no vicissitudes, one dreary charac- xix. 35). ter invest.a them both. The darkening of the Ver. 2.-From this verse onwards there light is a common mete.phor for sorrow and is gree.t diversity of interprete.tion. While sadness (see Job xxx. :.1.6; xxxiii. 28, 30; some think that the approe.ch of dee.th is Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8; Amos viii. 9). The represented uncler the image of o. storm, symbolism of the details in this verse has others deem the.t whe.t is here intended is been thus elucidated: The diurnal light, first the debility of old e.ge, and then, e.t ver. appertain to lhe soul, the nocturnal to the 6, death itself, which two stages e.re described body; the sun is the Divine light which illu- under ve.rious metaphors e.nd figures. While mines the •oul, the moon o.ud the stars are the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the the body and the senses which receive their ate.re, be n.ot darkened. Under these figures mdie.nce from the soul's effulgence. 'rhese the evil days spoken. of above, the advent are all affected by the invasion of old age. nn.d infirmities of old age, nre represented. Some consider that this verse depicts the It would be endless and unprofite.ble to ohe.nges which pass over the higher and recount the explanations of the terms usecl more spiritue.l part o!'me.n'a nature, while the in the following verses. Every commente.tor, succeeding imagery refers t-0 the urea.king. nucientaud modern, husexerted his ingenuity up of the corporeal fro.me. ',Ve should say to force the poet's lu.nguo.ge into the shape rather that ver. 2 conveys e. genera.I impres- which he hus imagined for it. But, e.s we said sion, and that this is then ele1boro.ted into above, there a.re at least two distinct lines or particulars. According to the interpretation interpretation which he.vo found favour with mentioned e.bove, a ge.thering tempest is the grno.t majority of expositors. One of here depicted, the dete.ils of which are these regards the imagery e.s applice.ble to worked out in the following verses. the effects of o. hee.vy storm upon o. house and Ver. 3.-The gradual decay which Cl'Beps its iumo.tes, explaining every detail under over the body, the he.bite.lion of tho spirit, this notion ; the other regr1rds the terms usou. fa dcpioted under the figuro of e. house u11d o.s referring to the man himself, udumbrntiug its p,1rts (comp. Job iv. 19; 2 Cor. v. 1; ~ the gradue.l decay of old age, the various Pet. i.13, 14). In the day when. the keepe1·s members and powers that ure affected boiug of the house she.II tremble ; i.e. this is tho represented under tropes and images, Doth case when, eto. 'fhe hands and 11rms aro interpretations o.re beset with difficulties, approprintely called the keepers of tho o.nd are only with some stl'aining ancl o.ccom- house, for with them (as Volek quotes frulll modo.tion forcetl into a conoistent harmony. Go.Jen) me.n 6.-l\1(« ,eel <f>poup,, .,.1, uwµ.a 1rav- But the lu.tter seems to us to present fewe1· Tolo,s (" arms and guarcls hfa body in various perplexities the.n the other, and we have ways 11 ) . The she.king and palsy of old men's adopted it here. At the sf\mo time, we limbs aro thus gre.phice.lly describecl. This think it expedient to give the other view, would be one of the first symptom~ di~cerncd together with our own, o.s there is much to by an observer. Taking the alteme.ti ve in-  ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. [on. xrr. l-14