The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 304

oessation would be e.n ominous sign (see makes a new stanza begin here: '' When Jer. xxv. 10; Rev. xviii. 22). Another one rises at the voice c,f the bird," and sees interpretation considers this ,clause to ex- here a description of tlie approach of spring, press the imperfeot vocal uttemnce of the as if the poet ea.id, "When the young and Jld me.n ;. but it is hardly likely tlmt the lusty are enjoying the return of genial e.uthor .would co.II speech "the voice of weather, and the concert of birds with the grinding," or of tho'mill, a.a a metaphor which no musician can compete, the aged, for "mouth." And he ahall rise up at the sick in their chambers, are beset with fears voice of the bird. This is a. very difficult and are sinking fast." We fail altogether to sentence, e.nd hNI been very varionsly ex- read· this meaning in ou1· text, wherein we plained. It is usually taken to mee.n that recognize only a symbolic.-i.1 representation the old me.n sleeps lightly and awakes (for of the old man's vocal powe1s. It is obvious "rises up" · may.mean 'DO more than the.t) to cite Jnvenal's minute and painful descrip- e.t the chirrup of a bird. The objection to, tion of old age in 'Sat.,' x. 200, etc., and this ,interpretation is the.t' it destroys the Shakespeare's lines in 'As You Like It' figmative character of the description, in- (act ii. sc. 7), where the reference to the troducing suddenly the personal -subject. voice is very striking- Of course, it bas another signification in the " His big, manly voice, picture of the terror-stricken household; Turning again toward childish treble, pipc3 and' many interpreters who thus explain the And whistles in his sound." allegory translate the clause differently. Thus Ginsburg renders, "The swallow rises Cox paraphrases, "The song-birds drop to shriek," referring to the habits of that silently into their nest.!!,'' alarmed at the bird in stormy weather. But there are tempest. gro.mmatical· objections to this translation, Ver. 5.-Alao when they shall be afraid ILS there are against another' suggestion, of that which is high. There is no" when" "The bird ( of ill omen) rn.ises its voice." in the original, which runs, "Also, or yco, We need not do more than refer to the they fear on high." "They" are old men, rnystice.l elucido.tion which detects here 11, or, like the Frenob on, "people" indefinitely; reference to the resurrection, tho voice of and the clause says that they find difficulty the bird being the archangel's trumpet in mounting an ascent, o.s the Vulge.te which calls the dead from their gro.ves. renders, Ezcelsa quoque timebant. Shortness Retaining the allegory, we must translate of breath, asthmatic tendencies, fa.ilure of tile clause, "He [ or, 'it,' i.e. the voice] rises muscular power, make such e.n exertion to the bird's voice ; " the old mo.n' s voice arduous and burdensome, just as in the becomes a "childish treble," like the piping previous verse a similar cause rendered of a little bird. Tho relaxation of the singing impossible. The description is now muscles of the larynx nnd other vocal organs arriving· at the l1LSt stage, and o.llegorizing occasions a great difference in the pitch or the closing sceue. The steep ascent is the power of tone (compare what Hezekiah ~ays, tJia dolorosa, the painful process of dying, Isa. xxxviii. 14, "Like n crane or a swallow from which the natural man shrinks; for as so did I chatter," though there it is the low the gnome says- murmur of sorrow and complaint that is Tov (fiv "tttp ov6,lr &s b ")'Tlpd.trlCOW lp[i. meant). And all the daughters of musio sha.11 be brought low. "The daughters of "None dotes on life more than the og,d song" o.re the organs of speech, which ore mo.n." now humbled aud fail, so tbe.t the man The old man is going on the nppointed cannot Bing o. note. Some think that the roo.d, and fears shnll be in the way; or, all ears 11re meant, 11s St. Jerome writes, Et soi·ts of fears (plural or intensity) am in the obsui·descent omnes jilim carminis, which may path; as in bis infirm condition he c,tn have some such notion. Others arrive at o. walk nowhere without danger of meeting similo.r signification from manipulation of with some accident, so analogously, as ho the verb, thus eliciting the sense-The contempla.tes his end and the road be has sounds of singing-women or song-birds are to trnvol, "fearfulness ond trembling come dulled and lowered, a.re only heard us o. faint, upon him, and horror overwhelms him" unmeaning murmur. 'fhis exposition rather (Ps. Iv. 5). Plumptro sees in these ole.uses contradiots what had preceded, viz. that a further adumbration of the inconveniences the old man is awoke by the ohirrnp of a of old age, how that tho decrepit man mnkcs sparrow; for his ears must be very sensitive mountnins of mole-hills, is full of imaginary to be thus easily affected; unless, indeed, terro1·s, nl wa.ys foreoasting sad events, and so the '' voice of the bird" is merelv a note of on; but this does not c,ury on the picturo time, equivalent to early cock-crowing. We to the end which theret has now in view, must not omit Wriglit's explo.nntion, thougli and seems tame an commonplace. 'l'be it does not commend itself to our mind. He supporters of the storm-theory explain tho 300 ECCLESJASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. [otr. xrr. 1-14.