The Pulpit Commentary — Ecclesiastes — Section 313

is the old man, that if even a bird chirps he aw11kes, and, being put off his rest, is obliged to rise. (8) 'fhe daughters of music are brought low. Not so much the old man's powers of singing are diminished, his once strong and manly treble having become so feeble and low as to be scarcely audible (Isa. xxxviii. 14), as the old man, like Barzillai (2 Sam. xix. 35), has now no longer an ear for the voice of singing-men and singing-women, so that to him as a consequence "the daughters of song" must lower their voices, i.e. must retire so as no longer to disturb him, now so feeble as to be "terrified by the twitte1ing of a little bird." (9) That which is high causes fear (ver. 5). 'l'o the old man "even a little hillock appears like a high mountain; and if he has to go a journey be meets something that terrifies him" ('l'argum, 'Midrasb '). Decrepit old men "do not venture out; for to them a damp road appears like a very morass, a gravelly path as full of neck-breaking hillocks, an undulating path as fear- fully steep and precipitous, that which is not shaded as oppressively hot and exhaust- ing" (Delitzscb). (10) The almond tree blossoms. An emblem of the winter of age, with its silvery white hair. (11) The grasshopper is a burden, or the grasshopper drags itself along. Either so small a thing as the chirping of a grasshopper annoys the old man (Zockler)-the obvious sense of the former clause; or the middle of the body, which in an old man resembles a grasshopper, drags itself along with difficulty (Delitzsch). (12) The caper-berry fails. The appetite, which this particular condi- ment is supposed to stimulate, ceases; the stomach can no more by means of it be roused from its dormant and phlegmatic condition. So low and feeble is he that "no quinine or phosphorus can help him now" (Plumptre). II. THE DISSOLUTION OF THE SOUL AND BODY. 1. The loosening of the silver cord, and the 'breaking of the golden bowl. (1) 'l'he figure. A golden bowl or lamp suspended from the roof of a house or tent by a silver cord, through the sudden snapping of which it, the golden bowl or lamp, is precipitated to the ground, thus extinguishing its light. (2) The interpretation. If the silver cord be "the soul directing and bearing the body as living," the lamp or the golden bowl will be " the body animated by the soul and dependent on it" (Delitzscb) ; or, if the golden bowl be "life as manifested through the body," the11 the silver cord will be "that on which the continuance of life depends" (Plumptre); or, again, if the silver cord be the spinal marrow, then the golden bowl will be the brain to which the spinal marrow stands related as silver to gold (Fausset). 2. The 'breaking of the pitcher at the fov,r,,tain, and of the wheel at the cistern. (1) The image. That of a pitcher, which is used for letting down by a rope or chain into a well or fountain, becoming shivered at the fountain's side through the sudden breaking down of the wheel during the process of drawing water. (2) The significance. The action of the lungs and the heart, the one of which, like a pitcher or bucket, draws in the air-current which sustains life, and the other of which pumps up the blood into the lungs; or the wheel and the pitcher may be the breathing apparatus, and the pitcher at the fountain the heart which raises the blood (Delitzsch). III. THE DESTINATION OF THE SEVERED PARTS, 1. Of the body. "'l'he dust returns to the earth as it was" (ver. 7). As the body came forth from the soil, so to the soil it reverts (Gen. iii. 19). 2. Of the soul. "The spirit returns unto God who gave it." Whatever may have been the Preacher's opinion at an earlier period (eh. iii. 21), he was now decided as to three things: (1) that man had, or was, a spirit, ns distin- guished from a body; (2) that this spirit, as to origin, proceeded from God (Gen. ii. 7; Job xxxii. 8); and (3) that on separating from the body it did not cease to be, but ascended to him from whom it came-not to be reabsorbed into the Divine essence, as if it had originally emanated therefrom, but to preserve in God's presence an'indepen- dent existence, as the Targum translates, "'l'he spirit will return to stand in judgment before God who gave it to thee." IV. THE LAST TRmUTE OF AFFECTION, "The mourners go about the streets" (ver. 5). 1. Sorrowing for the departed. Probably the Preacher describes either the professional mourners who go about the streets, in anticipation of the dying man's departure, ready to offer their services the moment be expires (Delitzsch), or tho actual procession of such mourners following the dead man's funeral to its place of sepulture (Plumptre). Still, it is permissible to think of the deceased's relatives, who, like Abraham mourning for Sarah (Gen. xxiii. 2), and Martha and Mary for Lazarns 310 BCCLESIASTES; OR, 'l'IIb: PREACHER. [on. xn. 1--14.