The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 306

moet fat.al to old people, namely, the seven house appointed for all living," with which at the end of January and the beginning of Canon Churton (in loc.) compa.tes Job x. zl; February. Bo we now ho.ve the figure of the xxx. 23. So Ps. xlix. 11 (according to old man with hie snow-white hair, panting mauy versions), '' Their graves are their and gasping, creeping painfully to hie grave. houses for ever." The u1<1111cil al.611,0, of One more trait ie added. And desire shall Luke xvi. 9 are a periphrasis for life in tail. The word rendered "desire" (;q\•:;i~) heaven. Diodorus Siculns notes that the is found nowhere else in the Old Teete.mcnt, Egyptians used the terms &tll,o, olt<o, and and ite meaning ie disputed. The Authorized 7/ aU1111os of1<11<Tis of Hades (i, 51 ; i. 93). Version ha.e adopted the rendering of eome The expression, "domns etema," appears of the Jewish commentators (o.nd that of at Rome on tombs, as Plumptre observes, Venet., .;, 6p£Eis), bnt, according to Delitzech, both in Christian and non-Christian inscrip- the feminine form of the noun precludes the tions ; and the Assyrians name the world or notion of an abstract quality, and the etymo- state beyond the gra.ve"the house of eternity" logy on which it rests is doubtful. Nor (' Records of the Past,' i. 143). From the would it be likely that, having employed expression in the text nothing can be deduced symbolism hitherto throughout his descrip- concerning Koheleth's eschatological views. tion, the writer would suddenly drop met11phor He is speaking here merely phenomena.Uy. aud speak in unfigura.tive language. We a.re, Men live their little span upon the earth, and therefore, driven to rely for ite meaning on then go to what in comparison of this is an the old versions, which would convey the eternity. Much of the difficnlty about traditionary idea, The Septuagint gives, alc6vios, etc., would be obviated if critics 7/ 1<&1r,rapis, and so the Vulgate, cappariB, by would remember that the meaning of such which is designated the ea.per tree or berry, words is conditioned by the context, that probably the same a.s the hyssop, which is e.g." e,·erle.eting" applied to a mountain and found throughout the Ea.et, and was exten- to God cannot be understood in the same sively used as a provocative of appetite, a sense. And the mourners go abont the stimulant and restorative. Accordingly, the streets, This can hardly mean that the writer is thought here to be intimating tho.t usual fnneral rites have begun ; for the even stimulants, such ae the c11por, affect the death is not conoeived as having already old man uo longer, cannot give ..est to or to.ken place; this is reserred for ver. 7. Nor make him enjoy hie fooil. Here, again, the can it, therefore, refer to the relations and figurative is dropped, aml II literal, unvar- friends who are sorrowing for the departed. nished fact is stated, which mo.l's the perfec- The persons spoken of must be the mourners tion of the picture. But the verb here used who are hired to play and sing at funerals (parar) is capable of another signification, and (see2 Sam. iii. 31; Jer_ ix.17; xxxiv. 5; ie often found in the unmetaphorical sense of Matt. ix. 23). TheRe were getting ready to " urea.king " or " bursting; " so the clause ply their trade, expecting hourly the old will run, "and the co.per berry bursts." man's death. So the Romans had their Septuagint, 1<al li,au1<£liau9ff 7/ 1<cf-,r1rap1s: prmficm, and persons "qui conducti plorant Vu Igate, dissipabitur capparis, The fruit of in funere" (Horace, • Ars Poet.,' 431). this plant, wbeu overripe, bursts open and Ver. 6.-0r ever; i.e. before, ere (ad asher foils off-o. fit image of the dissolntion of the lo). The words recall us to vers. 1 and 2, aged frame, now ripe for the tomb, and show- bidding the youth make the best nse of hie i11g evident tokens of deco.y. By this inter- time ere old age cuts him off. In the pre- pretation the symbolism is maintained, which sent paragraph the final dissolution is perhaps is further illustrated by the fact that described under two figures. The silver the fruit hangs down and droops from the cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken end of long stalks, ae the man bows hie head This is evidently one figure, which would and stoops his back to meet the coming be made plainer by reading "and". instead death. :Because (1,i) man goeth to his long of "or,'' the idea being that the lamp is home, This and the following clause are shattered by the snapping of the cord that parenthetical, ver. 6 resuming the allegory. suspended it from the roof. But thore are It is as though Koheleth said-Snch ie the some difficulties in the closer explanation of wo.y, suoh are the symptoms, when deco.y the allegory. The "bowl" (gullah) is the and death are approtiching; o.11 these things reservoir of oil in a Inmp (see Zeoh. iv. 3, 4), happen, all these signs meet the eye, at euch which supplies nourishment to the flo.me; a. period. "His long home;" Eis ol,cov alwvos when this is broken or damaged so as to be cil,-rou (Septuagint), "to the house of his useless, the light, of course, is extinguished, eternity," "his everlasting habitation," i.e. The Septuagint calls it ... ~ lu,8,µ.,ov Toil the grave, or He.dee. There is a similar ex- xpuulou: the Vulgatc, vitta aurea, " th& pression in Tobit iii. 6, Eis -ro11 al.ti11,011 .,-o,rov, golden fillet," or "flower ornament " on a which in the Hebrew editions of that book column, which quite sinks the notion of a ii given as, " Gather me to my fathers, to the light being quenched. The "cord" is thut 302 ECCLESlASTES{ • OR, THE PREACHEU, [on, xn. 1-14,