The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 307

by which the lamp is hung in a tent or n demolition of the bowl denoted the sep1ne., · room. But of what in man are these sym- tion of soul nnd body; the breaking of tho bols? Many fanciful interpretations have pitcher and the destruction of the wheel been gi\·en. The "silver cord " is the spine, signify the overthrow of the bodily oraana the nerves genemlly, the tongue; the "golden by which vital motion is diffused and ~ain- bowl" is the head, the membrane of the taincd, and the man lives. The expressions l,rnin, tbe stomach. But these anatomical in tlw text remind one of the term, "enrthen dct11ils are not to be adopted; they have vo.ssel," applied by St. Paul (2 Cor. iv. 7) to little te recommend them, e.nd are incon- the human body; and "the fountniu of gruous with tho rest of the pa.re.blo. The life," " the water of life," so often mentioned general brea.k-up of life is here delineated, iu Holy Scripture as typical of the grace of not the progress of destruction in certain God and the blessedness of life with him orgnns or p:u-ts of the human frame. The (see Ps. xxxvi. 0; P1·ov. xiii. H; John iv. cord is what we should call the thread of 10, 14; Rev. ui. 6). life, on which hangs the body lit by the Ver. 7.-Theu shall the dust return to animating ~oul; when the connection be- the earth e.s it was; rather, and the dust tween these is severed, the latter perishes, ret·urn, etc.-tbc sentence begun above being like a fallen lamp lying crushed on the still carried on to the: end of the verse. ground. In this our view the corJ. is the Here we a.re told what becomes of the com- li,·ing power which keeps the corporeal plex man e.t death, o.nd a.re thus led to the substanee from falling to ruin; the bowl is explanatiou of the allegoric_al language used the body itself thus upheld. The mention throughout. . Without metaphor now it is of gold e.nd silver is introduced to denote stated that the material body, when life is the preciousness of man's life and nature. extinct, returns to:tho.t matter out of which it But the e.ne.logy must not be pressed in all WRsoriginally made(Gen. ii. 7; iii. 19; comp. possible details. It is like the parables, Job xxxiv. 15; Ps. civ. 29). So Siracides where, if de.fined and examined too closely, calls man " dust and ashes," nnd asserla incongruities appear. We should be inclined that all things the.t a.re of the earth turn to to make more of the le.mp e.nd the light the earth a.gain (Ecclus. x. 9; xl. 11). and the oil. which are barely inferred in Soph., • Electra,' 1158- the passage, 11.nd endeavour to explain what ' AvTI <f,1ATd.T71s these images import. Koheleth is satisfied . Mop4>71.s cr1ro~&v TE Keil cr,c,a.v dve.,q,e"-7J• with the general figure which adumbrates the dissolution of the material fa.bric by the "Instead of thy dee.r fo1·m, withdrawal of the principle of life. What Mere dust e.nd idle shadow." is the immediate ea.use of this dissolution, iujury, pe.mlysi.s, etc., is not hand.Jed ; only Com. a Lapide quotes e. reme.rko.ble parallel the rupture is noticed and its fe.te.l result. given by Plute.rch (' Apo!. o.d Apollon.,' Another image to the same effect, though 110) from Epicharmus, "Life is compoun,lcd pointing to e. different process, is added and broken up, and again goes whence it Or the pitoher be broken at the fountain, or came; earth indeed to carth 7 and tl,o spirit (and) the wheel broken at (in) the cistern. to upper regions." And the spirit she.11 The picture here is a deep well or cistern return unto God who ge.ve it; or, for tl10 with an apparatus for drawing water; this spirit-the clauso being no longer subjunc- ~ pparatus consists of e. wheel or windlass tive, but speaking i11dicati vely of fact. In with e. rope upon it, to which is attached e. the Ii.rat clause the preposition ".to" is ~l!, bucket; the wheel fails, falls into the well, in the second ?!;t, as if to mark tho dislinc- the bucket is dashed to pieces, and no water tion between the downward and the upward can be dre,wu. It is best to regard the two we.y. The writer now rises superior to the clauses as intended to convey one idea, e.s doubts expressed in eh. iii. 21 (where Ree the two at the beginning of the verse were note), "Who knoweth the spirit of me.n, found to do. Some commentators, not whether .it goeth upward," etc.? It is not so suitably, distinguish between the two, that he contra.dicta himself in the two making the former clause say that the passages, e.s some suppose, and ho.ve hence pitcher is broken on its road to or from the regarded ver. 7 as an interpolation ; but spring, e.nd the latter the.t the draw-wheel that after e.11 disouseion, after expressing gives way. The imagery points to one the course of hie perplexities, and the notion which would be weakened by being various phases of hie thought, he comes to divided into two. The motion of the bucket, the conclusion that there is o. future for the the winding up and down, by which water individual soul, e.nd that it sha.11 be·brought is drawn from the well, is e.n emblem of the into immediate connection with e. personal movements of the heart, the organs of re- God. There is here no thought of its being spiration, etc. When these cease to uct, life abeorbcd in the anima mundi, in nccordauce is extinct. The fraction of the cord and tl.Jo with the heathen view, which, if it believetl: OII. XII, 1-.14.] ECCLESIASTES; OR, THE PREACHER. 303