The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 305

p88sage 88 denoting the fee.l'I! of the people these insects annoy the querulous aenior. at what is coming from on high-the gather- But who does not see the incongruity of ex• ing tempest, these fears extending to those pressing the disinclination for labour and on the highway,-whioh is feeble. And the exertion by the figure of finding a gre.ss- almond tree &hall :flouriah; or, i8 in blo88om. hopper too heavy to carry? Who would The old me.n is thus figured from the ob- think of ce.rrying e. gre.sshopper? Plumptre, eerved e.speot of this tree. It blossoms in who discovers Greek allusions in the most winter upon e. lee.fleas stem, e.nd its flowers, unlikely ple.ces, sees here an intimation of at fil'l!t of e. pe.le pink colour, turn to e. snowy the writer's I\Cque.inte.nce with the Athenians' whiteness e.e they fe.lt from the branches. custom of wee.ring e. golden gre.sshopper on The tree thus becomes e. fit type of the arid, their heads e.s a. token the.t they were torpid-looking old man with bis white he.ir. autochtlwnu, "sprung from the soil." Few So Wright quotes Virgil, 'lEneid,' v. 416- will be disposed to conour with this opinion. Ginsburg e.nd others consider the.t Koheleth "Temporibus geminis ca.nebe.t sparse. is rege.rding the looust e.s an article of food, senectus;" which it was e.nd still is in the Ee.st (Lev. though there the idea is rather of mingled xi. 21, 22; Me.tt. iii. 4). In some places it black e.nd grey he.ir than of a head of snowy is esteemed ·a. great delice.cy, and is cooked whiteness. Canon Tristram (' Nat. Hist. and prepared in a. variety of we.ys. So here of the Bible,' p. 332), referring to the usual the writer is supposed to mee.n the.t de.inties version of this clause, adds, "Bnt the better she.11 tempt in vain; even the much-esteemed interpretation seems to be, the.t M the almond locust she.11 be loe.thed. But we cannot blossom ushers in the spring, so do the signs ime.gine this article of food, which indeed refeJTed to in the context indicate the hasten- we.a neither general nor e.t all see.sons pro- ing( shaked, 'e.lmond,' mee.ninge.Iso •hasten') curable, being singled out e.s e.n appetizing of old age e.nd death." Plumptre adopts the esculent. The solution of the enigma. must notion that the name of the tree is derived be sought elsewhere. The Septuagint gives, from a stem meaning "to we.tch,'' and the.t Kai waxv116fi;, a.1<pls: the Vulgate, imping-. thns it me.y be ea.lied the early-waking tree uabitur locusta, " the looust grows fe.t." (see Jer. i 11), the enigmatic phre.se describ- Founded on this rendering is the opinion ing the wakefulness the.t often e.ttends old which oonsiders the.t under this figure is age. Bnt this seems a refinement by no depicted the corpulence or dropsical swelling means justified by the .use of the word. that sometimes e.ccompe.nies advanced life. Others :find in the verb the si.gnifice.tion "to But this morbid and e.bnorme.l condition disdain, loe.the,'' e.nd explain that the old could not be introduced into e. typice.l descrip- man has lost his te.ste for e.lmond nuts, which tion of the usual e.ccompe.niments of e.ge, seems to be e.n unnecesse.ry observation after even if the verb could be rightly tro.nsle.ted the previous allusions to his toothless con- e.s the Greek e.nd La.tin versions give it, dition, the cracking and eating of snch which i9 more than doubtful. Delitzsoh, things requiring the grinders to be in perfect after some Jewish interpretel'I!, considers the.t order. The versions are unanimous in under the term "looust" is meant the coza, translating the clause as the Authori.zed the loins or hips, or caput femoris, which is Ve1sion. Thus the Septuagint, l.1161)"!7 -ro thus named" bece.use it inoludes in itself the dµ.{ryoa.J..011 : Vulge.te, fiorebit amygdalus. (So meche.nism which the two-membered foot for Venet. e.nd the Syrie.c.) Wright takes this springing, ple.ced at e.n a.cute e.ngle, presents cle.use and the next to indicate the opening in the locust." The poet is thought to allude of spring, when nature reawakens from it.s to the loss of elasticity in the hips e.nd the winter sleep, and the dying me.n ca.n no inability to bear e.ny weight. We ce.nnot longer respond to the call or enjoy the he.ppy e.gree to the propriety of this e.rtificie.l ex- see.son. The expositors who adhere to the plane.tion, which seems to have been invented notion of the storm would transle.te, " the to account for the expressions in the text, e.lrnond shall be rejected," e.lluding to fear rather the.n to be founded on fact. But taking e.way e.ppetite; but the rendering is though we reject this elucidation of the faulty. And the gre.sshopper &hall be a figure, we think Delitzsch e.nd sowe others burden. Ghagah, rendered " grasshopper" e.re right in ta.king the verb in the sense of here and Lev. xi. 22; Numb. xiii. 33, etc., "to move heavily," "to cre.wl a.long.'' "'!'he is rightly tre.nslated "locust" in 2 Chron. locust cre.wls," i.e. the old man drags his vii. 13. It is one of the sme.ller species of limbs hee.vily e.nd painfully a.long, like the the insect, e.s is implied by its use in Isa. locust just hatohed in early spring, e.nd as tl. 22, where from the height of hee.ven the yet not furnished with wings, which makes inhabitaute of earth e.re regarded e.s chagabim. its way clumsily e.nd slowly. The analogy The clause is usually exple.ined to mee.n the.t deiives another fee.ture from the fe.ot, well the very lightest burden is troublesome to attested, the.t the appeare.nce of the locust old (lge, or the.t the hopping e.nd chirping of we.a synchronoUB with the de.ya CODBidered OH, XII, 1-14.] ECOLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 301