Ecclesiastes 8 commentary

None of the rich, the powerful, the honourable, or the accomplished of the sons of men, are so excellent, useful, or happy, as the wise man. Who else can interpret the words of God, or teach aright from his truths and dispensations? What madness must it be for weak and dependent creatures to rebel against the Almighty! What numbers form wrong judgments, and bring misery on themselves, in this life and that to come!

God has, in wisdom, kept away from us the knowledge of future events, that we may be always ready for changes. We must all die, no flight or hiding-place can save us, nor are there any weapons of effectual resistance. Ninety thousand die every day, upwards of sixty every minute, and one every moment. How solemn the thought! Oh that men were wise, that they understood these things, that they would consider their latter end! The believer alone is prepared to meet the solemn summons. Wickedness, by which men often escape human justice, cannot secure from death.

Solomon observed, that many a time one man rules over another to his hurt, and that prosperity hardens them in their wickedness. Sinners herein deceive themselves. Vengeance comes slowly, but it comes surely. A good man's days have some substance; he lives to a good purpose: a wicked man's days are all as a shadow, empty and worthless. Let us pray that we may view eternal things as near, real, and all-important.

Faith alone can establish the heart in this mixed scene, where the righteous often suffer, and the wicked prosper. Solomon commended joy, and holy security of mind, arising from confidence in God, because a man has no better thing under the sun, though a good man has much better things above the sun, than soberly and thankfully to use the things of this life according to his rank. He would not have us try to give a reason for what God does. But, leaving the Lord to clear up all difficulties in his own time, we may cheerfully enjoy the comforts, and bear up under the trials of life; while peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost will abide in us through all outward changes, and when flesh and heart shall fail.

CHAPTER 8

Ec 8:1-17.

1. Praise of true wisdom continued (Ec 7:11, &c.). "Who" is to be accounted "equal to the wise man? ... Who (like him) knoweth the interpretation" of God's providences (for example, Ec 7:8, 13, 14), and God's word (for example, see on Ec 7:29; Pr 1:6)?

face to shine--(Ec 7:14; Ac 6:15). A sunny countenance, the reflection of a tranquil conscience and serene mind. Communion with God gives it (Ex 34:29, 30).

boldness--austerity.

changed--into a benign expression by true wisdom (religion) (Jas 3:17). Maurer translates, "The shining (brightness) of his face is doubled," arguing that the Hebrew noun for "boldness" is never used in a bad sense (Pr 4:18). Or as Margin, "strength" (Ec 7:19; Is 40:31; 2Co 3:18). But the adjective is used in a bad sense (De 28:50).

2. the king's--Jehovah, peculiarly the king of Israel in the theocracy; Ec 8:3, 4, prove it is not the earthly king who is meant.

the oath of God--the covenant which God made with Abraham and renewed with David; Solomon remembered Psa 89:35, "I have sworn," &c. (Psa 89:36), and the penalties if David's children should forsake it (Psa 89:30-32); inflicted on Solomon himself; yet God not "utterly" forsaking him (Psa 89:33, 34).

3. hasty--rather, "Be not terror-struck so as to go out of His sight." Slavishly "terror-struck" is characteristic of the sinner's feeling toward God; he vainly tries to flee out of His sight (Psa 139:7); opposed to the "shining face" of filial confidence (Ec 8:1; Joh 8:33-36; Ro 8:2; 1Jo 4:18).

stand not--persist not.

for he doeth--God inflicts what punishment He pleases on persisting sinners (Job 23:13; Psa 115:3). True of none save God.

4. God's very "word" is "power." So the gospel word (Ro 1:16; He 4:12).

who may say, &c.--(Job 9:12; 33:13; Is 45:9; Da 4:35). Scripture does not ascribe such arbitrary power to earthly kings.

5. feel--experience.

time--the neglect of the right "times" causes much of the sinful folly of the spiritually unwise (Ec 3:1-11).

judgment--the right manner [Holden]. But as God's future "judgment" is connected with the "time for every purpose" in Ec 3:17, so it is here. The punishment of persisting sinners (Ec 8:3) suggests it. The wise man realizes the fact, that as there is a fit "time" for every purpose, so for the "judgment." This thought cheers him in adversity (Ec 7:14; 8:1).

6. therefore the misery, &c.--because the foolish sinner does not think of the right "times" and the "judgment."

7. he--the sinner, by neglecting times (for example, "the accepted time, and the day of salvation, 2Co 6:2), is taken by surprise by the judgment (Ec 3:22; 6:12; 9:12). The godly wise observe the due times of things (Ec 3:1), and so, looking for the judgment, are not taken by surprise, though not knowing the precise "when" (1Th 5:2-4); they "know the time" to all saving purposes (Ro 13:11).

8. spirit--"breath of life" (Ec 3:19), as the words following require. Not "wind," as Weiss thinks (Pr 30:4). This verse naturally follows the subject of "times" and "judgment" (Ec 8:6, 7).

discharge--alluding to the liability to military service of all above twenty years old (Nu 1:3), yet many were exempted (De 20:5-8). But in that war (death) there is no exemption.

those ... given to--literally, the master of it. Wickedness can get money for the sinner, but cannot deliver him from the death, temporal and eternal, which is its penalty (Is 28:15, 18).

9. his own hurt--The tyrannical ruler "hurts" not merely his subjects, but himself; so Rehoboam (1Ki 12:1-33); but the "time" of "hurt" chiefly refers to eternal ruin, incurred by "wickedness," at "the day of death" (Ec 8:8), and the "time" of "judgment" (Ec 8:6; Pr 8:36).

10. the wicked--namely, rulers (Ec 8:9).

buried--with funeral pomp by man, though little meriting it (Jr 22:19); but this only formed the more awful contrast to their death, temporal and eternal, inflicted by God (Lu 16:22, 23).

come and gone from the place of the holy--went to and came from the place of judicature, where they sat as God's representatives (Psa 82:1-6), with pomp [Holden]. Weiss translates, "Buried and gone (utterly), even from the holy place they departed." As Joab, by Solomon's command, was sent to the grave from the "holy place" in the temple, which was not a sanctuary to murderers (Ex 21:14; 1Ki 2:28, 31). The use of the very word "bury" there makes this view likely; still "who had come and gone" may be retained. Joab came to the altar, but had to go from it; so the "wicked rulers" (Ec 8:9) (including high priests) came to, and went from, the temple, on occasions of solemn worship, but did not thereby escape their doom.

forgotten--(Pr 10:7).

11. The reason why the wicked persevere in sin: God's delay in judgment (Mt 24:48-51; 2Pe 3:8, 9). "They see not the smoke of the pit, therefore they dread not the fire" [South], (Psa 55:19). Joab's escape from the punishment of his murder of Abner, so far from "leading him to repentance," as it ought (Ro 2:4), led him to the additional murder of Amasa.

12. He says this, lest the sinner should abuse the statement (Ec 7:15), "A wicked man prolongeth his life."

before him--literally, "at His presence"; reverently serve Him, realizing His continual presence.

13. neither shall he prolong--not a contradiction to Ec 8:12. The "prolonging" of his days there is only seeming, not real. Taking into account his eternal existence, his present days, however seemingly long, are really short. God's delay (Ec 8:11) exists only in man's short-sighted view. It gives scope to the sinner to repent, or else to fill up his full measure of guilt; and so, in either case, tends to the final vindication of God's ways. It gives exercise to the faith, patience, and perseverance of saints.

shadow--(Ec 6:12; Job 8:9).

14. An objection is here started (entertained by Solomon in his apostasy), as in Ec 3:16; 7:15, to the truth of retributive justice, from the fact of the just and the wicked not now receiving always according to their respective deserts; a cavil, which would seem the more weighty to men living under the Mosaic covenant of temporal sanctions. The objector adds, as Solomon had said, that the worldling's pursuits are "vanity" (Ec 8:10), "I say (not 'said') this also is vanity. Then I commend mirth," &c. [Holden]. Ec 8:14, 15 may, however, be explained as teaching a cheerful, thankful use of God's gifts "under the sun," that is, not making them the chief good, as sensualists do, which Ec 2:2; 7:2, forbid; but in "the fear of God," as Ec 3:12; 5:18; 7:18; 9:7, opposed to the abstinence of the self-righteous ascetic (Ec 7:16), and of the miser (Ec 5:17).

15. no better thing, &c.--namely, for the "just" man, whose chief good is religion, not for the worldly.

abide--Hebrew, "adhere"; not for ever, but it is the only sure good to be enjoyed from earthly labors (equivalent to "of his labor the days of his life"). Still, the language resembles the skeptical precept (1Co 15:32), introduced only to be refuted; and "abide" is too strong language, perhaps, for a religious man to apply to "eating" and "mirth."

16. Reply to Ec 8:14, 15. When I applied myself to observe man's toils after happiness (some of them so incessant as not to allow sufficient time for "sleep"), then (Ec 8:17, the apodosis) I saw that man cannot find out (the reason of) God's inscrutable dealings with the "just" and with the "wicked" here (Ec 8:14; Ec 3:11; Job 5:9; Ro 11:33); his duty is to acquiesce in them as good, because they are God's, though he sees not all the reasons for them (Psa 73:16). It is enough to know "the righteous are in God's hand" (Ec 9:1). "Over wise" (Ec 7:16); that is, Speculations above what is written are vain.

Who knoweth the interpretation - פשר pesher, a pure Chaldee word, found nowhere else in the Bible but in the Chaldee parts of Daniel. "A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine." Every state of the heart shines through the countenance; but there is such an evidence of the contented, happy, pure, benevolent state of the soul in the face of a truly pious man, that it must be observed, and cannot be mistaken. In the Hebrew the former clause of this verse ends the preceding chapter. Who has ever been deceived in the appearance of the face that belonged to a savage heart? Those who represent, by painting or otherwise, a wise man, with a gravely sour face, striking awe and forbidding approach, have either mistaken the man, or are unacquainted with some essential principles of their art.

The boldness of his face shall be changed - Instead of ישנא yeshunne, which signifies shall be hated, many of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. have ישנה yeshunneh, shall be changed or doubled. Hence the verse might be read, "The wisdom of a man shall illuminate his face; and the strength of his countenance shall be doubled." He shall speak with full confidence and conviction on a subject which he perfectly understands, and all will feel the weight of his observations.

To keep the king's commandment - This sentence would be better translated, I keep the mouth of the king; I take good heed not to meddle with state secrets; and if I know, to hide them. Or, I am obedient to the commands of the laws; I feel myself bound by whatever the king has decreed.

In regard of the oath of God - You have sworn obedience to him; keep your oath, for the engagement was made in the presence of God. It appears that the Jewish princes and chiefs took an oath of fidelity to their kings. This appears to have been done to David, 2Sam 5:1-3; to Joash, 2Kgs 11:17; and to Solomon, 1Chr 29:24.

Be not hasty - I consider the first five verses here as directions to courtiers, and the more immediate servants of kings.

Be steadily faithful to your sovereign. Do not stand in an evil thing. If you have done wrong, do not endeavor to vindicate yourself before him; it is of no use; his power is absolute, and he will do what he pleases. He will take his own view of the subject, and he will retain it. The language of a despotic sovereign was ever this, Sic volo sic jubeo, stat pro ratione voluntas; "I will this. I command that. No hesitation! My will is law!" Therefore it is added here, Where the word of a king is, there is power - influence, authority, and the sword. And who may say unto him, whether he acts right or wrong, What doest thou? Ecc 8:4. No wonder in such governments there are so many revolutions; but they are revolutions without amendment, as it is one tyrant rising up to destroy another, who, when seated in authority, acts in the way of his predecessor; till another, like himself, do to him as he has done to the former. In our country, after a long trial, we find that a mixed monarchy is the safest, best, and most useful form of government: we have had, it is true, unprincipled ministers, who wished to turn our limited into an absolute monarchy; and they were always ready to state that an absolute monarchy was best. Granted; provided the monarch be as wise, as holy, and as powerful as God!

Both time and judgment - It is a matter of great importance to be able to discern When and How both to speak and act; but when time and manner are both determined, the matter comes next. What shall I speak? What shall I do? When, how, and what answer to time, manner, and knitter. To discern all these, and act suitably, is a lesson for a philosopher, and a study for a Christian.

To every purpose there is time - חפץ chaphets, every volition, every thing that depends on the will of man. He has generally the opportunity to do whatever he purposes; and as his purposes are frequently evil, his acts are so too: and in consequence his misery is great.

There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit - The Chaldee has, "There is no man who can rule over the spirit of the breath, so as to prevent the animal life from leaving the body of man." Others translate to this sense: "No man hath power over the wind to restrain the wind; and none has power over death to restrain him; and when a man engages as a soldier, he cannot be discharged from the war till it is ended; and by wickedness no man shall be delivered from any evil." Taking it in this way, these are maxims which contain self-evident truths. Others suppose the verse to refer to the king who tyrannizes over and oppresses his people. He shall also account to God for his actions; he shall die, and he cannot prevent it; and when he is judged, his wickedness cannot deliver him.

One man ruleth over another to his own hurt - This may be spoken of rulers generally, who, instead of feeding, fleece the flock; tyrants and oppressors, who come to an untimely end by their mismanagement of the offices of the state. All these things relate to Asiatic despots, and have ever been more applicable to them than to any other sovereigns in the world. They were despotic; they still are so.

Who had come and gone from the place of the holy - The place of the holy is the sacred office which they held, anointed either as kings or priests to God; and, not having fulfilled the holy office in a holy way, have been carried to their graves without lamentation, and lie among the dead without remembrance.

Because sentence - פתגם pithgam, a Divine decree or declaration. This is no Hebrew, but a mere Chaldee word, and occurs only in the later books of the Bible - Esther, Ezra and Daniel, and nowhere else but in this place. Because God does not immediately punish every delinquency, men think he disregards evil acts; and therefore they are emboldened to sin on. So this longsuffering of God, which leadeth to repentance, is abused so as to lead to farther crimes! When men sin against the remedy of their salvation, how can they escape perdition?

Though a sinner do evil a hundred times - If God bear so long with a transgressor, waiting in his longsuffering for him to repent and turn to him, surely he will be peculiarly kind to them that fear him, and endeavor to walk uprightly before him.

But it shall not be well with the wicked - Let not the long-spared sinner presume that, because sentence is not speedily executed on his evil works, and he is suffered to go on to his hundredth transgression, God has forgotten to punish. No, he feareth not before Good; and therefore he shall not ultimately escape.

There be just men - See on Ecc 7:16 (note).

Then I commended mirth - These are some more of the cavils of the infidel objector: "Since virtue is frequently under oppression, and vice triumphs in health, and rolls in wealth, I see plainly that we should not trouble ourselves about future things; and therefore should be governed by the maxim Ede, Bibe, Lude. Post mortem nulla voluptas."

Eat, drink, and play,

While here you may;

For soon as death

Has stopp'd your breath

Ye ne'er shall see a cheerful day.

When I applied mine heart to know wisdom - This is the reply of the wise man: "I have also considered these seeming contradictions. God governs the world; but we cannot see the reasons of his conduct, nor know why he does this, omits that, or permits a third thing. We may study night and day, and deprive ourselves of rest and sleep, but we shall never fathom the depths that are in the Divine government; but all is right and just. This is the state of probation; and in it neither can the wicked be punished, nor the righteous rewarded. But eternity is at hand; and then shall every man receive according to his works. He that spends his life in the eat, drink, and play, will find in that day that he has lost the time in which he could have prepared for eternity.

Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun - I saw it to be of such a nature -

1. That a man cannot find it out.

2. That if he labor to find it out, he shall not succeed.

3. That though he be wise - the most instructed among men, and think to find it out, he shall find he is not able. It is beyond the wisdom and power of man. How vain then are all your cavils about Providence. You do not understand it; you cannot comprehend it. Fear God!

Who is wise - There are few wise men in this world. Who knoweth - How few understand the reasons of things and can rightly expound the word and works of God. Wisdom - Makes a man venerable, chearful, mild, and amiable. The face is put for the mind, because the mind discovers itself in the countenance. Boldness - The roughness or fierceness. Changed - Into gentleness and humility.

The oath - Because of that oath which thou hast taken to keep all God's laws, whereof this of obedience to superiors is one.

To go - In discontent, withdrawing thyself from the king's service or obedience. Stand not - if thou hast offended him, persist not in it. For - His power is uncontrollable.

The commandment - Solomon passes to a new subject. Shall feel - Shall be delivered from those mischiefs which befal the disobedient. Discerneth - Both when, and in what manner he must keep the commands of God.

Because - There is a fit way and season for the accomplishment of every business, which is known to God, but for the most part hidden from man. Therefore - Because there are few who have wisdom to discern this, most men expose themselves to manifold miseries.

For - Men are generally ignorant of future events, and therefore their minds are disquieted.

To retain - To keep it in the body. This is added as another evidence of man's misery. No discharge - In that fatal conflict between life and death, when a man is struggling with death, though to no purpose, for death will be always conqueror. Neither - And although wicked men, who most fear death, use all possible means, to free themselves from it, yet they shall not escape it. The most subtle wickedness cannot outwit death, nor the most daring wickedness out - brave it.

To his hurt - There are some kings, who use their power tyrannically, whereby they not only oppress their people, but hurt themselves, bringing the vengeance of God upon their own heads.

And so - In like manner. The wicked - Wicked princes or rulers. Buried - With state and pomp. Who - Had administered publick justice, which is frequently signified by the phrase of coming in and going out before the people. The holy - The throne or tribunal seems to be so called here, to aggravate their wickedness, who being advanced by God into so high and sacred a place, betrayed so great a trust. Where - They lived in great splendor, and were buried with great magnificence. This - That men should so earnestly thirst after glory, which is so soon extinct.

Therefore - God's forbearance makes them presumptuous and secure.

A shadow - His life, though it may seem long, yet in truth is but a shadow, which will quickly vanish and disappear.

Done - Either by wicked potentates, who do commonly advance unworthy men, and oppress persons of greatest virtue and merit: or, by God's providence, who sees it fit for many weighty reasons so to manage the affairs of the present world. To whom - Who meet with such usage as the worst of men deserve. It happeneth - Who, instead of those punishments which they deserve, receive those rewards which are due to virtuous men.

To be merry - This he speaks of sensual delights.

To see - To observe mens various designs and employments, and their unwearied labours about worldly things. For there is - Having now mentioned the business which is done, or which man doth, upon earth, he further adds, as an evidence of man's eagerness in pursuing his business, for even by day and by night he (the busy man) seeth not sleep with his eyes. He grudges himself necessary refreshments, and disquiets himself with endless cares and labours.

I beheld - I considered the counsels and ways of God, and the various methods of his providence, and the reasons of them. Find out - No man, though ever so wise, is able fully and perfectly to understand these things. And therefore it is best for man not to perplex himself with endless enquiries, but quietly to submit to God's will and providence, and to live in the fear of God, and the comfortable enjoyment of his blessing.

1 WHo is as the wise man ? who knoweth the interpretation of a thing ? a mans wisdom maketh his face to shine , and the boldness of his face shall be changed .

Who is to be compared with a wise Man? He is incomparably the most excellent Man in the World. Or rather, who is truly wise? The Particle, as being here not a Note of similitude, but of reality, as it is Ioh. 1. 14. and in many other places as hath been noted. There are very few or no truly wise men in this World. This seems best to agree with the Next clause, which is not, Who is as he that knoweth, but who knoweth, &c.

How few are there who understand the reasons of things and can rightly expound the word and works of God, and instruct and satisfie himself and others in all the doubtful and difficult cases of humane actions?

Maketh a Man illustrious and venerable, chearful, and mild, and amiable in his carriage to others. The face is put for the mind or inward frame, hecause the mind discovers itself in the Countenance.

The roughtness or fierceness, the pride and impudence of his disposition, as this Phrase is used, Deut. 28. 50. Prov. 7. 13. & 21. 29. Dan. 8. 23.

Into gentleness and humility.

Marginal references: Prov. 4▪8, 9. & 17. 24. See Act. 6. 15.; Heb. the strength.; Or, doubled.

2 I counsel thee to keep the kings commandment , and that in regard of the oath of God .

Which Verb is necessarily understood to make the sense full and compleat. See the like defects of speech, Ps. 120. 7. Isa. 5. 9. &c.

Observe and obey all his commands. Which is not to be understood universally, as if the King should have commanded them to deny or blaspheme God, or to worship Idols, in which case every Christian Man, who reads and believes the Bible, must needs confess that the Israelites especially were obliged to obey God rather than Man, but onely of such commands as are not contrary to the will of God.

Either 1. Because of that Oath which thou hast taken to keep all God's Laws, whereof this of Obedience to Superiours is one. Or 2. Because of that Covenant or Oath of Fealty and Allegiance whereby thou hast engaged thy self to him, of which see 1 Chron. 11. 3. & 29. 24. Ezek. 17. 16, 18. Though this may also be understood, and is by some learned Interpreters taken as a limitation of their Obedience to Kings, the words being thus rendred, as the Hebrew will very well bear, but according to the word of the Oath of God, Obey the Kings commands, with this caution that they be agreeable and not contrary to the Laws of God which thou art obliged by thy own and by thy Parents Oaths o[illegible: 1+ letters]t renewed, to observe in the first place.

3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight : stand not in an evil thing , for he doth whatsoever pleaseth him .

Heb. to go from his face, or presence, to wit, in dislike or in discontent, withdrawing thy self from thy Kings service or obedience, as malecontents use to do; for this will both provoke him, and lead thee by degrees into Sedition or Rebellion.

If thou hast offended him, persist not in it, but humbly acknowledge thine offence, and beg his pardon and favour.

His power is uncontrollable in his Dominions, and therefore thou canst neither resist nor avoid his fury.

Marginal references: Ch. 10. 4.

4 Where the word of a king is, there is power : and who may say ▪ unto him, What dost thou?

Whatsoever he commandeth he wants not power nor instruments to execute it, and therefore can easily punish th[illegible: 1+ letters]e as he pleaseth.

Heb. Who shall say? Who will presume or dare to say so? He doth not affirm that it is unlawful to say so, for Samuel said so to Saul, 1 Sam. 15. and Nathan to David, 2 Sam. 12. and several other Prophets to the Kings of Iudah and Israel, but onely that it is difficult and dangerous.

5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing : and a wise mans heart discerneth both time and judgment .

Either 1. of the King, of which he hath hitherto spoken. Or 2. of God, for the Word, or Commandments, or Law are oft used emphatically for the Word, Law, or Command of God, as hath been formerly and frequently observed, and the Commandment is put for the Commandments, as is very usual. And so Solomon passeth from his former to a new subject.

Shall be delivered from those mischiess which befal the disobedient.

Both when, and how far, and in what manner he may or must keep the commands of the King or God. For the word here rendred judgment doth oft signifie right, as Deut. 21. 17. as also a cause or controversie, as Numb. 27. 5. and the manner or rule of actions, as Iudg. 13. 12. The sense is, A wise Ma[illegible: 1+ letters] knows both what he ought to do, and what are the fittest seasons for doing it, which he seeketh and embraceth.

Marginal references: Heb. shall know.

6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment , therefore the misery of man is great upon him.

There is a fit way and season for the happy accomplishment of every business which a man designeth or undertaketh to do, which is known to God, but for the most part hidden from man, as is implied and may be gathered from the following words. See the Notes on Ch. 3. 1.

Because there are very few who have that wisdom which is necessary to discern this, as was now said, v. 5. and most men do by their ignorance and loss of opportunities deprive themselves of many advantages, and expose themselves to manifold miseries.

7 For he knoweth not that which shall be : for who can tell him when it shall be.

Men are generally ignorant of all future events, and of the success of their endeavours, and therefore their minds are greatly disquieted, and their expectations frequently disappointed, and they fall into many mistakes and miscarriages, which they could and would prevent if they did foresee the issues of things.

No wise Man, no Astrologer or other Artist can discover this.

Marginal references: Pro. 24. 22. Ch. 6. 12.; Or, [illegible: 1+ letters]ow it. shall be.

8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit ; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war , neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it .

i. e. The Soul of Man, which is oft called a Spirit, as Iob 7. 7. & 10. 12. Psal. 78. 39. & 104. 29, &c.

To keep it in the Body beyond the time which God hath allotted to it. This is added as another evidence of Man's misery.

Or, against the day, i. e. to avoid or delay that day.

As there is in other Wars, when Souldiers either are dismissed from the service, or escape by flight or otherwise.

In that fatal conflict between Life and Death, between Nature and the Disease, when a Man is struggling with Death, though to no purpose, for Death shall always be Conqueror.

And although wicked men, who most fear Death, use all possible means, whether good or bad, to free themselves from this deadly blow, yet they shall not escape it.

Marginal references: Job 14. 5.; Or, casting [illegible: 1+ letters]ff weapon[illegible: 1+ letters].

9 All this I have seen, and apply my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another .

All these things before-mentioned.

I have been a diligent observer of all actions and events.

There are some Kings, who use their power tyrannically and wickedly, whereby they do not onely oppress their People, but hurt themselves, by bringing the vengeance of God and men upon their own heads. Which is here noted partly for the terrour of Tyrants, and partly for the caution and comfort of Subjects groaning under those heavy pressures which they are not able to remove, that they may forbear unlawful or rebellious courses and quietly commit themselves and their cause to God, who judgeth righteously, and who both can and will call the greatest Monarchs to a sad account for all their impious and unrighteous courses.

10 And so I saw the wicked buried , who had come and gone from the place of the holy , and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done : this is also vanity .

In like manner, or such another vanity or disorder.

Wicked Princes or Rulers, as the next clause limits this.

Die quietly in their Beds and afterwards be buried with state and pomp, whereas in truth they deserved an untimely end, and no other than the burial of an Ass.

Who had administred publick Justice and Government, which is frequently signified by the Phrase of coming in and going out before the People, as Numb. 27. 17. Deut. 31. 2. The LXX Jewish Interpreters, whom some others follow, render the word, they were praised, applauded and adored, by the variation of one Letter in the Hebrew word, which also is very like that Letter which is in the Text.

By which he understands, either 1. the Holy City Ierusalem, or the the Holy Land, where Israel dwelt: which may be added to aggravate the wickedness of such Persons from the obligations, and counsels, and examples, which they had to do better things. Or, 2. the Seat of Majesty, and Judgment, which may well be called the place or Seat of the Holy, i. e. of God, who is called the Holy One, Habak. 3. 3. and oft elsewhere, who is in a special manner present in and president over those places, whose work and for whom, and in whose Name and stead Magistrates act, who are therefore called gods; of all which see, Exod. 22. 28. Deut. 1. 17. 1 Chro. 29. 23. Psal. 82. 1, &c. And the Throne or Tribunal seems to be so called here to aggravate their wickedness, who being Sacred Persons and advanced by God into so High and Sacred a place, betrayed so great a trust, and both practised and encouraged that wickedness which by their Office they were obliged to suppress and punish.

Whereas they designed to spread and perpetuate their Names and Memories to all succeeding Ages, Psal. 49. 11.

i. e. Come to and go from the place of the Holy; where they lived in great splendor, and were buried with great magnificence: which might have kept up their remembrance at least in that place.

That men should so earnestly thirst after and please themselves with worldly greatness and glory, which is so soon extinct, and the very memory of it quickly worn out of the minds of men.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]

11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

Or, the Decree, &c. God's determ in[illegible: 1+ letters]te counsel or sentence for the punishment of Tyrants and all evil-doers.

Because God's forbearance makes them presumptuous and secure, and confident of impunity.

Heb. is filled, is carried on with full sail, as the Seventy understand it, like a Ship with a strong and violent wind: or, is bold or presumptuous, as the same Phrase is understood, Esth. 7. 5. Act. 5. 3.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 50. 21. [illegible: 1 word]. 26. 10.

12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times , and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God , which fear before him .

Frequently and innumerably.

The time of his Life and Prosperity.

Whereby he implies, both that good men might for a time suffer grievous things from such wicked Tyrants, and that it should be very ill with the wicked which is manifest from the contrary course and condition of good and bad men, and which is expressed in the following words. Compare Psal. 2. 12.

Or, at his presence: who stand in awe of God, and forbear and fear to sin out of a sincere respect and reverence to God.

Marginal references: P[illegible: 1+ letters]. 37. 11, 18, 19. Pro. 1. 32, 33. [illegible: 1 word]. 3. 10, 11.

13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days , which are as a shadow ; because he feareth not before God .

i. e. It shall go very ill with him, great miseries are prepared for him: which is a Figure oft used in Scripture, as hath been formerly and frequently observed.

To wit, very long, or for ever, as he desireth.

His life, though it may be or seem to be long, yet in truth is but a meer shadow, which will quickly vanish and disappear, and be as if it never had been, and many times, like a shadow, when it is longest it is nearest its abolition.

This is the punishment of his wickedness and his casting off the fear and service of God, For although the lives of good men upon Earth are short, as well as the lives of the wicked, yet their days are not like a shadow, because they are prolonged far beyond this mortal state, even to all Eternity, and Death itself doth but open the way for them to an endless life.

14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, but there be just men unto whom it hapneth according to the work of the wicked: again, there be wicked men to whom it hapneth according to the work of the righteous : I said, that this also is vanity .

Either by wicked Potentates, who do commonly advance unworthy men, and oppress Persons of greatest Virtue and merit: Or, by God's Providence, who sees it fit for many weighty Reasons so to manage the affairs of the present World.

i. e. The merit of their work, the work being oft put for the recompence given or belonging to it, as Levit. 19. 13. Iob 7. 2. Psal. 109. 20. The sense is, Who meets with such hard usage as the worst of men deserve.

Who, instead of those just and dreadful punishments which they deserve by the Laws of God and men, receive those encouragements and rewards which are due to virtuous and worthy men:

This is a very unreasonable and foolish thing, if it be considered without respect unto another life, as it is here, where Solomon is discoursing of the vanity of the present life, and of the impossibility of finding satisfaction and happiness in it.

Marginal references: Ps. 73. 14. Ch. 7. 15.

15 Then I commended mirth because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry : for that shall abide with him of his labour , the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.

This he speaks, either 1. in the Person of a sensual Man. Things being so, as was related, v. 14. it is best to give a Man's self up to eating and drinking, and all manner of carnal delights. Or, 2. in his own Name and Person. Upon these considerations I concluded that it was most adviseable for a Man not to perplex and torment himself with the Thoughts of the seeming inequalities of Divine Providence and of the great disorders which are in the World, or with cares and fears about future events, or with infinite and insatiable desires of Worldly things, but quietly and chearfully and thankfully to enjoy the comforts which God gives him. See on Eccles. 2. 24. & 3. 12, 13.

This is the best advantage which he can make of this Worlds goods as to the present life.

Marginal references: Ch. 3. 2[illegible: 1+ letters]. & 5. 18. & 9. 7.

16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom , and to see the business that is done upon the Earth (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes .)

This he seems to add as the reason of that judgment which he had now passed, v. 15. because he had diligently studied wherein Man's Wisdom did consist, and had observed the restlessness of mens minds and bodies in other courses.

Either 1. To find out the work of God, as the next Verse may seem to explain it, and all the Mysteries of God's Providence in the Government of this present and lower World. Or 2. To observe mens various designs and employments, and their toilsom and unwearied businesses or labours about worldly things. Which sense seems best to agree, both with the use of this Hebrew word which is constantly used in this sense, in all the places of Scripture where it is, which are Eccles. 1. 13. & 2. 23, 26. & 3. 10. & 4. 8. & 5. 2, 13. & 8. 16. and never concerning the works of God: and with the foregoing and following words, as we shall see.

The sense of the words thus translated and pointed seems to be this, There is a certain Man, whom it is needless to Name, (which is a modest designation of himself, like that of St. Paul, 2 Cor. 12. 2. I know a Man in Christ, &c.) who studied those matters Day and Night, and therefore is very capable of passing a judgment about them. But, with submission, there seems to be no need of a Parenthesis to cut o[illegible: 1+ letters] these words from the former, with whom they have a fit connexion. For having now mentioned the business which is done, or which Man doth, upon Earth, he further adds, as an evidence of Man's eagerness in pursuing his business, for even by Day and by Night [illegible: 1+ letters]e) to wit, the busie Man, which is easily understood from the foregoing clause) seeth not sleep with his eyes, i. e. He grudgeth himself even necessary refreshments, and disquiets himself with endless cares and labours, the fruit whereof he doth but little enjoy; and therefore it is better to eat and drink, &c. as I now said, v. 15. As for the Phrase of seeing sleep it is a figurative expression used in other Authors, and is like that of seeing death, Psal. 89. 48.

17 Then I beheld all the work of God , that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

Heb. and; or moreover.

I considered the counsels and ways of God, and the various methods of his Providence towards good and bad men, and the reasons of them.

No Man, though never so wise, and inquisitive, and studious, as it follows, is able fully and perfectly to understand these things. And therefore it is best for Man not to perplex himself with endless and fruitless enquiries about these matters, but quietly to submit to God's Will and Providence, and to live in the fear of God, and the comfortable enjoyment of his blessings.

Marginal references: Job 5. 9. Ch. 3. 11. & 11. 5. Rom. 11. 33.

Ecc 8:1 “Who is like the wise? and who understandeth the interpretation of things? The wisdom of a man maketh his face bright, and the rudeness of his face is changed.” Unlike this saying: “Who is like the wise?” are the formulas חכם מי, Hos 14:9, Jer 11:11, Psa 107:43, which are compared by Hitzig and others. “Who is like the wise?” means: Who is equal to him? and this question, after the scheme מי־כמכה, Exo 15:11, presents him as one who has not his like among men. Instead of כּה the word כּחכם might be used, after לחכם, Ecc 2:16, etc. The syncope is, as at Eze 40:25, omitted, which frequently occurs, particularly in the more modern books, Eze 47:22; 2Ch 10:7; 2Ch 25:10; 2Ch 29:27; Neh 9:19; Neh 12:38. The regular giving of Dagesh to כ after מי, with Jethib, not Mahpach, is as at Ecc 8:7 after כּי; Jethib is a disjunctive. The second question is not כּיודע, but יודע וּמי, and thus does not mean: who is like the man of understanding, but: who understands, viz., as the wise man does; thus it characterizes the incomparably excellent as such. Many interpreters (Oetinger, Ewald, Hitz., Heiligst., Burg., Elst., Zöckl.) persuade themselves that דּבר פּשׁר is meant of the understanding of the proverb, 8 b. The absence of the art., says Hitzig, does not mislead us: of a proverb, viz., the following; but in this manner determinate ideas may be made from all indeterminate ones. Rightly, Gesenius: explicationem ullius rei; better, as at Ecc 7:8 : cujusvis rei. Ginsburg compares נבון דּבר, 1Sa 16:18, which, however, does not mean him who has the knowledge of things, but who is well acquainted with words. It is true that here also the chief idea פּשׁר first leads to the meaning verbum (according to which the lxx, Jer., the Targ., and Syr. translate; the Venet.: ἑρμηνείαν λόγου); but since the unfolding or explaining (pēshěr) refers to the actual contents of the thing spoken, verbi and rei coincide. The wise man knows how to explain difficult things, to unfold mysterious things; in short, he understands how to go to the foundation of things.

What now follows, Ecc 8:1, might be introduced by the confirming כי, but after the manner of synonymous parallelism it places itself in the same rank with 1 a, since, that the wise man stands so high, and no one like him looks through the centre of things, is repeated in another form: “Wisdom maketh his face bright” is thus to be understood after Psa 119:130 and Psa 19:9, wisdom draws the veil from his countenance, and makes it clear; for wisdom is related to folly as light is to darkness, Ecc 2:13. The contrast, ישׁ ... עזו (“and the rudeness of his face is changed”), shows, however, that not merely the brightening of the countenance, but in general that intellectual and ethical transfiguration of the countenance is meant, in which at once, even though it should not in itself be beautiful, we discover the educated man rising above the common rank. To translate, with Ewald: and the brightness of his countenance is doubled, is untenable; even supposing that ישׁנּא can mean, like the Arab. yuthattay, duplicatur, still עז, in the meaning of brightness, is in itself, and especially with פּניו, impossible, along with which it is, without doubt, to be understood after az panim, Deu 28:50; Dan 8:23, and hē'ēz panim, Pro 7:13, or bephanim, Pro 21:29, so that thus פנים עז has the same meaning as the post-bibl. פנים עזּוּת, stiffness, hardness, rudeness of countenance = boldness, want of bashfulness, regardlessness, e.g., Shabbath 30 b, where we find a prayer in these words: O keep me this day from פנים עזי and from עזות פ (that I may not incur the former or the latter). The Talm. Taanith 7 b, thus explaining, says: “Every man to whom עזות פ belongs, him one may hate, as the scripture says, ישּׂנא ... ועז (do not read ישׁנּא).” The lxx translates μισητηήσεται will be hated, and thus also the Syr.; both have thus read as the Talm. has done, which, however, bears witness in favour of ישׁנּא as the traditional reading. It is not at all necessary, with Hitzig, after Zirkel, to read y|shane': but boldness disfigureth his countenance; עז in itself alone, in the meaning of boldness, would, it is true, along with פניו as the obj. of the verb, be tenable; but the change is unnecessary, the passive affords a perfectly intelligible meaning: the boldness, or rudeness, of his visage is changed, viz., by wisdom (Böttch., Ginsb., Zöckl.). The verb שׁנה (שנא, Lam 4:1) means, Mal 3:6, merely “to change, to become different;” the Pih. שׁנּה, Jer 52:33, שׁנּא, 2Ki 25:29, denotes in these two passages a change in melius, and the proverb of the Greek, Sir. 13:24, - Καρδία ἀντηρώπου ἀλλοιοῖ τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ἐάν τε εἰς ἀγαθὰ ἐάν τε εἰς κακά, is preserved to us in its original form thus: לב אדם ישׁנּא פניו בּין לטוב וּבין לרע׃ so that thus שׁנּא, in the sense of being changed as to the sternness of the expression of the countenance, is as good as established. What Ovid says of science: emollit mores nec sinit esse feros, thus tolerably falls in with what is here said of wisdom: Wisdom gives bright eyes to a man, a gentle countenance, a noble expression; it refines and dignifies his external appearance and his demeanour; the hitherto rude external, and the regardless, selfish, and bold deportment, are changed into their contraries. If, now, Ecc 8:1 is not to be regarded as an independent proverb, it will bear somewhat the relation of a prologue to what follows. Luther and others regard Ecc 8:1 as of the nature of an epilogue to what goes before; parallels, such as Hos 14:9, make that appear probable; but it cannot be yielded, because the words are not חכם מי, but מי כהח. But that which follows easily subordinates itself to Ecc 8:1, in as far as fidelity to duty and thoughtfulness amid critical social relations are proofs of that wisdom which sets a man free from impetuous rudeness, and fits him intelligently and with a clear mind to accommodate himself to the time.

Ecc 8:2

The faithfulness of subjects, Koheleth says, is a religious duty: “I say: Observe well the kings’ command, and that because of the oath of God.” The author cannot have written Ecc 8:2 as it here stands; אני hovers in the air. Hitzig reads, with Jerome, שׁמר, and hears in Ecc 8:2-4 a servile person speaking who veils himself in the cloak of religion; in Ecc 8:5-8 follows the censura of this corrupt theory. but we have already remarked that Ecc 8:2 accords with Rom 13:5, and is thus not a corrupt theory; besides, this distribution of the expressions of the Book of Koheleth between different speakers is throughout an expedient resting on a delusion. Luther translates: I keep the word of the king, and thus reads אשׁרּ; as also does the Jer. Sanhedrin 21 b, and Koheleth rabba, under this passage: I observe the command of the king, of the queen. In any case, it is not God who is meant here by “the king;” the words: “and that because of the oath of God,” render this impossible, although Hengst. regards it as possible; for (1) “the oath of God” he understands, against all usage, of the oath which is taken to God; and (2) he maintains that in the O.T. scarcely any passage is to be found where obedience to a heathen master is set forth as a religious duty. But the prophets show themselves as morally great men, without a stain, just in this, that they decidedly condemn and unhesitatingly chastise any breach of faith committed against the Assyrian or Chaldean oppressor, e.g., Isa 28:15; Isa 30:1; Eze 17:15; cf. Jer 27:12. However, although we understand mělěk not of the heavenly, but of an earthly king, yet אשׁמר does not recommend itself, for Koheleth records his experience, and derives therefrom warnings and admonitions; but he never in this manner presents himself as an example of virtue. The paraenetic imper. שׁמר is thus not to be touched. Can we then use ani elliptically, as equivalent to “I say as follows”? Passages such as Jer 20:10 (Elst.), where לאמר is omitted, are not at all the same. Also Eze 34:11, where הנני is strengthened by ani, and the expression is not elliptical, is not in point here. And Isa 5:9 also does not apply to the case of the supposed ellipsis here. In an ingenious bold manner the Midrash helps itself in Lev 18 and Num 14, for with reference to the self-introduction of royal words like פרעה אני it explains: “Observe the I from the mouth of the king.” This explanation is worthy of mention, but it has little need of refutation; it is also contrary to the accentuation, which gives Pashta to ani, as to ראה, Ecc 7:27, and לבד, Ecc 7:29, and thus places it by itself. Now, since this elliptical I, after which we would place a colon, is insufferably harsh, and since also it does not recommend itself to omit it, as is done by the lxx, the Targ., and Syr., - for the words must then have a different order, המלך פי שׁמר, - it is most advisable to supply אמרתּי, and to write אם אני or אני אם, after Ecc 2:1; Ecc 3:17-18. We find ourselves here, besides, within an I section, consisting of sentences interwoven in a Mashal form. The admonition is solemnly introduced, since Koheleth, himself a king, and a wise man in addition, gives it the support of the authority of his person, in which it is to be observed that the religious motive introduced by ו explic. (vid., Ewald, §340 b) is not merely an appendix, but the very point of the admonition. Kleinert, incorrectly: “Direct thyself according to the mouth of the king, and that, too, as according to an oath of God.” Were this the meaning, then we might certainly wish that it were a servile Alexandrian court-Jew who said it. But why should that be the meaning? The meaning “wegen” because of, which is usually attributed to the word-connection עלדברת here and at Ecc 3:18; Ecc 7:14, Kleinert maintains to be an arbitrary invention. But it alone fits these three passages, and why an arbitrary invention? If על־דּבר, Psa 45:5; Psa 79:9, etc., means “von wegen” on account of, then also על־דברת will signify “propter rationem, naturam,” as well as (Psa 110:4) ad rationem. שׁב אל is, as elsewhere שׁב יה, e.g., Exo 22:10, a promise given under an appeal to God, a declaration or promise strengthened by an oath. Here it is the oath of obedience which is meant, which the covenant between a king and his people includes, though it is not expressly entered into by individuals. The king is designated neither as belonging to the nation, nor as a foreigner; that which is said is valid also in the case of the latter. Daniel, Nehemiah, Mordecai, etc., acted in conformity with the words of Koheleth, and the oath of vassalage which the kings of Israel and Judah swore to the kings of Assyria and of Babylon is regarded by the prophets of both kingdoms as binding on king and people.

Ecc 8:3

The warning, corresponding to the exhortation, now follows: One must not thoughtlessly avoid the duty of service and homage due to the king: “Hasten not to go away from him: join not in an evil matter; for he executeth all that he desireth.” Regarding the connection, of two verbs with one idea, lying before us in תּלך ... אל־, as e.g., at Zec 8:15; Hos 1:6, vid., Gesen. §142. 3 b. Instead of this sentence, we might use אל־תבהל ללכת מפניו, as e.g., Aboth v. 8: “The wise man does not interrupt another, and hastens not to answer,” i.e., is not too hasty in answering. As with עם, to be with the king, Ecc 4:15 = to hold with him, so here מפניו הלך means to take oneself away from him, or, as it is expressed in Ecc 10:4, to leave one’s station; cf. Hos 11:2 : “They (the prophets of Jahve) called to them, forthwith they betook themselves away from them.” It is possible that in the choice of the expression, the phrase נבהל מפני, “to be put into a state of alarm before any one,” Job 23:15, was not without influence. The indef. רע דּבר, Deu 17:1; Deu 23:10, cf. Deu 13:12; Deu 19:20, 2Ki 4:41, etc., is to be referred (with Rosenm., Knobel, Bullock, and others) to undertakings which aim at resisting the will of the king, and reach their climax in conspiracy against the king’s throne and life (Pro 24:21). אל־תּעמד בּ might mean: persist not in it; but the warning does not presuppose that the entrance thereon had already taken place, but seeks to prevent it, thus: enter not, go not, engage not, like 'amad bederek, Psa 1:1; 'amad babrith, 2Ki 23:3; cf. Psa 106:23; Jer 23:18. Also the Arab. 'amada li = intendit, proposuit sibi rem, is compared; it is used in the general sense of “to make toward something, to stretch to something.” Otherwise Ewald, Elst., Ginsb., and Zöckl.: stand not at an evil word (of the king), provoking him to anger thereby still more, - against Ecc 8:5, where רע דבר, as generally (cf. Psa 141:4), means an evil thing, and against the close connection of בּ עמד, which is to be presupposed. Hitzig even: stand not at an evil command, i.e., hesitate not to do even that which is evil, which the king commands, with the remark that here a servilismus is introduced as speaking, who, in saying of the king, “All that pleaseth him he doeth,” uses words which are used only of God the Almighty, Joh 1:14; Psa 33:9, etc. Hengst., Hahn, Dale, and others therefore dream of the heavenly King in the text. But proverbs of the earthly king, such as Pro 20:2, say the very same thing; and if the Mishna Sanhedrin ii. 2, to which Tyler refers, says of the king, “The king cannot himself be a judge, nor can any one judge him; he does not give evidence, and no evidence can be given against him,” a sovereignty is thus attributed to the king, which is formulated in 3b and established in the verse following.

Ecc 8:4 “Inasmuch as the word of a king is powerful; and who can say to him: What doest thou?” The same thing is said of God, Job 9:12; Isa 45:9; Dan 4:32, Wisd. 12:12, but also of the king, especially of the unlimited monarch of a despotic state. Baasher verifies as בּשׁ at Ecc 2:16; cf. Gen 39:9, Gen 39:23; Greek, ἐν ᾧ and ἐφ ̓ ᾧ. Burger arbitrarily: quae dixit (דּבּר for דּבר), rex, in ea potestatem habet. The adjectival impers. use of the noun shilton = potestatem habens, is peculiar; in the Talm. and Midrash, shilton, like the Assyr. siltannu,Vid., Fried. Delitzsch’s Assyr. Stud. p. 129f. means the ruler (vid., under Ecc 5:8). That which now follows is not, as Hitzig supposes, an opposing voice which makes itself heard, but as Ecc 8:2 is compared with Rom 13:5, so is Ecc 8:5 with Rom 13:3.

Ecc 8:5 “Whoso remaineth true to the commandment will experience nothing evil; and the heart of the wise man will know a time and judicial decision.” That by מצוה is here to be understood not the commandment of God, at least not immediately, as at Pro 19:16 (Ewald), but that of the king, and generally an injunction and appointment of the superior authority, is seen from the context, which treats not of God, but of the ruler over a state. Knobel and others explain: He who observeth the commandment engageth not with an evil thing, and the wise mind knoweth time and right. But ידע is never thus used (the author uses for this, בּ עמד), and the same meaning is to be supposed for the repeated ידע: it means to arrive at the knowledge of; in the first instance: to suffer, Eze 25:14; cf. Isa 9:8; Hos 9:7; in the second, to experience, Jos 24:31; Psa 16:11. It may also, indeed, be translated after Ecc 9:12 : a wise heart knoweth time and judgment, viz., that they will not fail; but why should we not render ידע both times fut., since nothing stands in the way? We do not translate: a wise heart, a wise mind (Knobel), although this is possible, 1Ki 3:12 (cf. Psa 90:12), but: the heart of a wise man, which is made more natural by Ecc 10:2, Pro 16:23. The heart of a wise man, which is not hurried forward by dynastic oppression to a selfish forgetfulness of duty, but in quietness and hope (Lam 3:26) awaits the interposition of God, will come to the knowledge that there is an eth, a time, when oppression has an end, and a mishpat, when it suffers punishment. Well adapted to the sense in which eth is here used is the remark of Elia Levita in his Tishbi, that זמן corresponds to the German Zeit and the Romanic tempo, but עת to the German Ziel and the Romanic termino. The lxx translates καιρὸν κρίσεως; and, inf act, עת ום is a hendiadys, which, however, consists in the division of one conception into two. The heart of the wise man remaining true to duty will come to learn that there is a terminus and judicial decision, for everything has an end when it falls under the fate for which it is ripe, especially the sinner.

Ecc 8:6 “For there is a time and decision for everything, for the wickedness of man becomes too great.” From Ecc 8:6 there follow four clauses with כּי; by such monotonous repetition of one and the same word, the author also elsewhere renders the exposition difficult, affording too free a space for understanding the כי as confirming, or as hypothetical, and for co-ordinating or subordinating to each other the clauses with כי. Presupposing the correctness of our exposition of Ecc 8:5, the clause Ecc 8:6 with כי may be rendered parenthetically, and that with כי in Ecc 8:6 hypothetically: “an end and decision the heart of the wise man will come to experience (because for everything there is an end and decision), supposing that the wickedness of man has become great upon him, i.e., his burden of guilt has reached its full measure.” We suppose thereby (1) that בּה, which appears from the accent on the ult. to be an adj., can also be the 3rd pret., since before ע the tone has gone back to áh (cf. Gen 26:10; Isa 11:1), to protect it from being put aside; but generally the accenting of such forms of עע hovers between the penult. and the ult., e.g., Psa 69:5; Psa 55:22; Pro 14:19. Then (2) that עליו goes back to האדם without distinction of persons, which has a support in Ecc 6:1, and that thus a great רעה is meant lying upon man, which finally finds its punishment. But this view of the relation of the clauses fails, in that it affords no connection for Ecc 8:7. It appears to be best to co-ordinate all the four כי as members of one chain of proof, which reaches its point in Ecc 8:8, viz., in the following manner: the heart of a wise man will see the time and the judgment of the ruler, laying to his heart the temptation to rebellion; for (1) as the author has already said, Ecc 3:17 : “God will judge the righteous as well as the wicked, for there is with Him a time for every purpose and for every act;” (2) the wickedness of man (by which, as Ecc 3:9 shows, despots are aimed at) which he has committed, becomes great upon him, so that suddenly at once the judgment of God will break in upon him; (3) he knows not what will be done; (4) no one can tell him how (quomodo) it, the future, will be, so that he might in any way anticipate it - the judgment will overwhelm him unexpectedly and irretrievably: wickedness does not save its possessor.

Ecc 8:7-8

Ecc 8:7 and Ecc 8:8 thus continue the For and For: “For he knoweth not that which shall be; for who can tell him who it will be? There is no man who has power over the wind, to restrain the wind; and no one has authority over the day of death; and there is no discharge in the war; and wickedness does not save its possessor.” The actor has the sin upon himself, and bears it; if it reaches the terminus of full measure, it suddenly overwhelms him in punishment, and the too great burden oppresses its bearer (Hitzig, under Isa 24:20). This עת ומשׁ comes unforeseen, for he (the man who heaps up sins) knoweth not id quod fiet; it arrives unforeseen, for quomodo fiet, who can show it to him? Thus, e.g., the tyrant knows not that he will die by assassination, and no one can say to him how that will happen, so that he might make arrangements for his protection. Rightly the lxx κατηὼς ἔσται; on the contrary, the Targ., Hitzig, and Ginsburg: when it will be;The Venet. ἐν ᾧ, as if the text had בּאשׁר. but כּאשׁר signifies quum, Ecc 5:1; Ecc 5:3; Ecc 8:16, but not quando, which must be expressed by מתי (Mishnic אימתי, אימת).

Now follows the concluding thought of the four כי, whereby Ecc 8:5 is established. There are four impossibilities enumerated; the fourth is the point of the enumeration constructed in the form of a numerical proverb. (1) No man has power over the wind, to check the wind. Ewald, Hengst., Zöckl., and others understand רוּח, with the Targ., Jerome, and Luther, of the Spirit (חיים( tir רוח); but man can limit this physically when he puts a violent termination to life, and must restrain it morally by ruling it, Pro 16:32; Pro 25:28. On the contrary, the wind hrwch is, after Ecc 11:5, incalculable, and to rule over it is the exclusive prerogative of Divine Omnipotence, Pro 30:4. The transition to the second impossibility is mediated by this, that in רוח, according to the usus loq., the ideas of the breath of animal life, and of wind as the breath as it were of the life of the whole of nature, are interwoven. (2) No one has power over the day of death: death, viz., natural death, comes to a man without his being able to see it before, to determine it, or to change it. With שׁלּיט there here interchanges שׁלטון, which is rendered by the lxx and Venet. as abstr., also by the Syr. But as at Dan 3:2, so also above at Ecc 8:4, it is concr., and will be so also in the passage before us, as generally in the Talm. and Midrash, in contradistinction to the abstr., which is שׁלטן, after the forms אבדן, דּרבן, etc., e.g., Bereshith rabba, c. 85 extr.: “Every king and ruler שלטון who had not a שולטן, a command (government, sway) in the land, said that that did not satisfy him, the king of Babylon had to place an under-Caesar in Jericho,” etc.Regarding the distinction between שׁלטון and שׁלטן, vid., Baer’s Abodath Jisrael, p. 385.

Thus: no man possesses rule or is a ruler ... .

A transition is made from the inevitable law of death to the inexorable severity of the law of war; (3) there is no discharge, no dispensation, whether for a time merely (missio), or a full discharge (dimissio), in war, which in its fearful rigour (vid., on the contrary, Deu 20:5-8) was the Persian law. Even so, every possibility of escape is cut off by the law of the divine requital; (4) wickedness will not save (מלּט, causative, as always) its lord (cf. the proverb: “Unfaithfulness strikes its own master”) or possessor; i.e., the wicked person, when the עת ום comes, is hopelessly lost. Grätz would adopt the reading עשׁר instead of רשע; but the fate of the רשׁע בּעל, or of the רשׁע, is certainly that to which the concatenation of thought from Ecc 8:6 leads, as also the disjunctive accent at the end of the three first clauses of Ecc 8:8 denotes. But that in the words בּעל רשׁע (not בּעלי) a despotic king is thought of (בּעליו, as at Ecc 5:10, Ecc 5:12; Ecc 7:12; Pro 3:27; cf. under Pro 1:19), is placed beyond a doubt by the epilogistic verse:

Ecc 8:9 “All that I have seen, and that, too, directing my heart to all the labour that is done under the sun: to the time when a man rules over a man to his hurt.” The relation of the clauses is mistaken by Jerome, Luther, Hengst., Vaih., Ginsburg, and others, who begin a new clause with עת: “there is a time,” etc.; and Zöckl., who ventures to interpret עת וגו as epexegetical of כּל־מע וגו (“every work that is done under the sun”). The clause ונתון is an adverbial subordinate clause (vid., under Ecc 4:2): et advertendo quidem animum. עת is accus. of time, as at Jer 51:33; cf. Psa 4:8, the relation of 'eth asher, like מק שׁ, Ecc 1:7; Ecc 11:3. All that, viz., the wisdom of patient fidelity to duty, the perniciousness of revolutionary selfishness, and the suddenness with which the judgment comes, he has seen (for he observed the actions done under the sun), with his own eyes, at the time when man ruled over man לו לרע, not: to his own the ruler’s injury (Symm., Jerome), but: to the injury (lxx, Theod., τοῦ κακῶσαι αὐτόν, and thus also the Targ. and Syr.) of this second man; for after 'eth asher, a description and not a judgment was to be expected. The man who rules over man to the hurt of the latter rules as a tyrant; and this whole section, beginning with Ecc 8:1, treats of the right wisdom of life at a time of tyrannical government.

Ecc 8:10 “And then I have seen the wicked buried, and they came to rest; but away from the holy place they had to depart, and were forgotten in the city, such as acted justly: also this is vain.” The double particle בּכן signifies, in such a manner, or under such circumstances; with “I have seen” following, it may introduce an observation coming under that which precedes (בכן = Mishnic בּכך), or, with the force of the Lat. inde, introduce a further observation of that ruler; this temporal signification “then” (= אז), according to which we have translated, it has in the Targ. (vid., Levy’s W.B.).Cf. וכן, 2Ch 32:31; Ewald, §354 a; Baer’s Abodath Jisrael, pp. 384, 386.

Apparently the observation has two different classes of men in view, and refers to their fate, contradicting, according to appearance, the rectitude of God. Opposite to the רשׁ (“the wicked”) stand they who are described as וגו אשׁר: they who have practised what is rightly directed, what stands in a right relation (vid., regarding כּן, as noun, under Pro 11:19), have brought the morally right into practice, i.e., have acted with fidelity and honour (כּן עשׂה, as at 2Ki 7:9). Koheleth has seen the wicked buried; ראה is followed by the particip. as predic. obj., as is שׁמע, Ecc 7:21; but קבוּרים is not followed by וּבאים (which, besides not being distinct enough as part. perfecti, would be, as at Neh 13:22, part. praes.), but, according to the favourite transition of the particip. into the finite, Gesen. §134. 2, by ובאוּ, not וּבאוּ; for the disjunctive Rebîa has the fuller form with waa; cf. Isa 45:20 with Job 17:10, and above, at Ecc 2:23. “To enter in” is here, after Isa 47:2, = to enter into peace, come to rest.Cf. Zunz, Zur Gesch. u. Literatur, pp. 356-359.

That what follows ומם does not relate to the wicked, has been mistaken by the lxx, Aquila, Symm., Theod., and Jerome, who translate by ἐπῃνήθησαν, laudabantur, and thus read ישתבחו (the Hithpa., Psa 106:47, in the pass. sense), a word which is used in the Talm. and Midrash along with שתכחו.The Midrash Tanchuma, Par. יתרו, init., uses both expressions; the Talm. Gittin 56 b, applies the passage to Titus, who took away the furniture of the temple to magnify himself therewith in his city.

The latter, testified to by the Targ. and Syr., is without doubt the correct reading: the structure of the antithetical parallel members is chiastic; the naming of the persons in 1 a a precedes that which is declared, and in 1 a b it follows it; cf. Psa 70:5, Psa 75:9. The fut. forms here gain, by the retrospective perfects going before, a past signification. מק קד, “the place of the holy,” is equivalent to מקום קדושׁ, as also at Lev 7:6. Ewald understands by it the place of burial: “the upright were driven away (cast out) from the holy place of graves.” Thus e.g., also Zöckl., who renders: but wandered far from the place of the holy ... those who did righteously, i.e., they had to be buried in graves neither holy nor honourable. But this form of expression is not found among the many designations of a burial-place used by the Jews (vid., below, Ecc 12:5, and Hamburger’s Real-Encykl. für Bibel u. Talm., article “Grab”). God's-acre is called the “good place,”Vid., Tendlau’s Sprichw., No. 431. but not the “holy place.” The “holy place,” if not Jerusalem itself, which is called by Isaiah II (Isa 48:2), Neh., and Dan., 'ir haqqodesh (as now el-ḳuds), is the holy ground of the temple of God, the τόπος ἃγιος (Mat 24:15), as Aquila and Symm. translate. If, now, we find min connected with the verb halak, it is to be presupposed that the min designates the point of departure, as also השׁלך מן, Isa 14:19. Thus not: to wander far from the holy place; nor as Hitz., who points יהלכוּ: they pass away (perish) far from the holy place. The subject is the being driven away from the holy place, but not as if יהלּ were causative, in the sense of יוליכוּ fo esne, and meant ejiciunt, with an indef. subj. (Ewald, Heiligst., Elst.), - it is also, Ecc 4:15; Ecc 11:9, only the intens. of Kal, - but יהלּ denotes, after Psa 38:7; Job 30:28, cf. Job 24:10, the meditative, dull, slow walk of those who are compelled against their will to depart from the place which they love (Psa 26:8; Psa 84:2.). They must go forth (whither, is not said, but probably into a foreign country; cf. Amo 7:17), and only too soon are they forgotten in the city, viz., the holy city; a younger generation knows nothing more of them, and not even a gravestone brings them back to the memory of their people. Also this is a vanity, like the many others already registered - this, viz., that the wicked while living, and also in their death, possess the sacred native soil; while, on the contrary the upright are constrained to depart from it, and are soon forgotten. Divine rectitude is herein missed. Certainly it exists, and is also recognised, but it does not show itself always when we should expect it, nor so soon as appears to us to be salutary.

Ecc 8:11 “Because judgment against the work of the wicked man is not speedily executed, for this reason the heart of the children of men is full within them, to this, that they do evil.” The clause with asher is connected first with the foregoing äæ־îâ havel: thus vain, after the nature of a perverted world (inversus ordo) events go on, because ... (asher, as at Ecc 4:3; Ecc 6:12; cf. Deu 3:24); but the following clause with 'al-ken makes this clause with asher reflex. an antecedent of itself (asher = 'al-asher) - originally it is not meant as an antecedent.פּתגםWith ג raph. in H. P. and the older edd., as also Est 1:20; Dan 3:16. Thus also the punctuator Jekuthiél in his En hakore to Est 1:20. (here to be written after נעשׂה, with פ raph., and, besides, also with ג raph.), in the post-exilian books, is the Persian paigam, Armen. patgam, which is derived from the ancient Pers. paiti-gama: “Something that has happened, tidings, news.” The Heb. has adopted the word in the general sense of “sentence;” in the passage before us it signifies the saying or sentence of the judge, as the Pers. word, like the Arab. nabazn, is used principally of the sayings of a prophet (who is called peighâm-bar). Zirkel regards it as the Greek φθέγμα; but thus, also, the words אזמל, אפּריון strangely agree in sound with σμίλη φορεῖον, without being borrowed from the Greek. The long a of the word is, as Elst. shows, Eccl 1:20, invariable; also here פּתגם is the constr. To point פּתגם, with Heiligst. and Burg., is thus unwarrantable. It is more remarkable that the word is construed fem. instead of mas. For since אין is construedGinsburg points in favour of נעשׂה as fin. to Exo 3:2, but there אכּל is particip.; to Jer 38:5, but there יוּכל (if it is not to be read יכול) represents an attributive clause; and to Job 35:15, but there the word is rightly pointed אין, not אין; and this, like the vulg. Arab. laysa, is used as an emphatic לא. neither in the bibl. nor in the Mishnic style with the finite of the verb, נעשׂה is not the 3rd pret., but the particip. It is not, however, necessary, with Hitz., to read נישׂה. The foreign word, like the (Arab.) firdans, παράδεισος, admits of use in the double gend. (Ewald, §174 g); but it is also possible that the fem. נעשׂה is per. attract. occasioned by הרעה, as Kimchi, Michlol 10 a, supposes (cf. besides, under Ecc 10:15). מעשׂה is const. governed by phithgam, and hara'ah is thus obj. gen. The lxx, Syr., and Jerome read מעשׂי, which would be possible only if phithgam min - after the analogy of the Heb.-Aram. phrase, niphra' ('ithpera') min, to take one’s due of any one, i.e., to take vengeance on him, to punish him - could mean the full execution of punishment on any one; but it means here, as Jerome rightly translates, sententia; impossible, however, with me'ose hara'ah, sententia contra malos. Hengst. supposes that not only the traditional text, but also the accentuation, is correct, for he construes: because a sentence (of the heavenly Judge) is not executed, the work of wickedness is haste, i.e., speedy. Thus also Dachselt in the Biblia accentuata. Mercerus, on the contrary, remarks that the accents are not in the first instance marks of interpunction, but of cantillation. In fact, genit. word-connections do not exclude the keeping them asunder by distinctives such as Pashta and Tiphcha, Isa 10:2, and also Zakeph, as e.g., Est 1:4. The lxx well renders: “Therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully persuaded in them to do evil;” for which Jerome, freely, after Symm.: absque timore ullo filii hominum perpetrant mala. The heart of one becomes full to do anything, is = it acquires full courage thereto (Luzzatto, §590: gli blastò l'animo); cf. Est 7:5 : “Where is he who has his heart filled to do?” (thus rightly, Keil), i.e., whom it has encourage to so bold an undertaking. בּהם in itself unnecessarily heightens the expression of the inwardness of the destructive work (vid., Psychol. p. 151f.). The sentence of punishment does not take effect mehera, hastily (adv. accus. for bimherah, Ecc 4:12), therefore men are secure, and they give themselves with full, i.e., with fearless and shameless, boldness to the practice of evil. The author confirms this further, but not without expressing his own conviction that there is a righteous requital which contradicts this appearance.

Ecc 8:12-13 “Because a sinner doeth evil an hundred times, and he becometh old therein, although I know that it will go well with them that fear god, that fear before Him: but it will not go well with the wicked, and he shall not live long, like a shadow; because he feareth not before God.” Ewald (whom Heiligst., Elst., and Zöckl. follow), as among the ancients, e.g., Mendelssohn, translates Ecc 8:12 : “Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and live long, yet I know,” etc. That an antecedent may begin with asher is admissible, Lev 4:22; Deu 18:22; but in the case lying before us, still less acceptable than at Ecc 8:11. For, in the first place, this asher of the antecedent cannot mean “although,” but only “considering that;” and in places such as Ecc 6:3, where this “considering that” may be exchanged with “although,” there follows not the part., but the fut. natural to the concessive clause; then, in the second place, by this antecedent rendering of asher a closer connection of Ecc 8:12 and Ecc 8:12 is indeed gained, but the mediation of Ecc 8:12 and Ecc 8:11 is lost; in the third place, גם כי, in the meaning “however” (gam, ὃμως, with affirmative ki), is not found; not asher, but just this ki gam,That גּם is pointed גּם, has its reason in the disjunctive Jethîb with כי, which is not interchanged with the conjunctive Mahpach. Thus, Ecc 8:1, כּ מי, and Ecc 8:7, כּ כּי. signifies, in the passage before us, as at Ecc 4:14, εἰ καί, although, - only a somewhat otherwise applied gam ki, Ewald, §362 b, as כי על־כן is a somewhat otherwise applied על־כן כי. Rightly, Hitzig: “In Ecc 8:12, Ecc 8:11 is again resumed, and it is explained how tardy justice has such a consequence.” The sinner is thereby encouraged in sinning, because he does evil, and always again evil, and yet enjoys himself in all the pleasures of long life. Regarding חטא for חטא, vid., above, p. 641, 1. מאת is = פעמים מאה, an hundred times, as אחת, Job 40:5, is = אחת פעם; Hengst. and others, inexactly: an hundredfold, which would have required the word מאתים; and falsely, Ginsburg, with the Targ.: an hundred years, which would have required מאה, scil. שׁנה, Gen 17:17. This centies (Jerome) is, like מאה, scil. בנים, Ecc 6:3, a round number for a great many, as at Pro 17:10, and frequently in the Talm. and Midrash, e.g., Wajikra rabba, c. 27: “an hundred deeply-breathed sighs (מאה פעיות) the mother gave forth.”Vid., Jac. Reifmann in the Zeitsch., המגיד, 1874, p. 342.

The meaning of לו וּמעריך לו is in general clear: he becomes therein old. Jerome, improbable: et per patientiam sustentatur, as Mendelssohn: he experiences forbearance, for they supply 'pow (Isa 48:9), and make God the subject. לּו is in any case the so-called dat. ethic.; and the only question is, whether the doing of evil has to be taken from רע עשׂה,We expect these two words (cf. Gen 31:12) with the retrogression of the tone; but as this ceases, as a rule, with Mercha before Tifcha and Pashta, Gen 47:3; Exo 18:5; Deu 4:42; Deu 19:4; Isa 10:14 (cf. the penult. accent of יאכל, Lev 22:10, Lev 22:10, Lev 22:19, and בּנה, Gen 4:17, with the ult. accent Lev 22:14; Hab 2:12), so with Mercha sometimes also before other disjunctives, as here before Tebîr. as obj. to ומא: he practises it to him long, or whether, which is more probable, ימים is to be supplied after Ecc 8:13, so that האריך signifies to live long, as at Pro 28:2, to last long; the dat. ethic. gives the idea of the feeling of contentment connected with long life: he thereupon sins wantonly, and becomes old in it in good health.

That is the actual state of the case, which the author cannot conceal from himself; although, on the other hand, as by way of limitation he adds ki ... ani, he well knows that there is a moral government of the world, and that this must finally prevail. We may not translate: that it should go well, but rather: that it must go well; but there is no reason not to interpret the fut. as a pure indic.: that it shall go well, viz., finally, - it is a postulate of his consciousness which the author here expresses; that which exists in appearance contradicts this consciousness, which, however, in spite of this, asserts itself. That to ליר האל the clause אשׁר מלּ, explaining idem per idem, is added, has certainly its reason in this, that at the time of the author the name “fearers of God” [Gottesfürchitige] had come into use. “The fearers of God, who fear before (מלּפני, as at Ecc 3:14) Him,” are such as are in reality what they are called.

In Ecc 8:13, Hitzig, followed by Elster, Burg., and Zöckl., places the division at ימים: like the shadow is he who fears not before God. Nothing can in point of syntax be said against this (cf. 1Ch 29:15), although אשׁר כּצּל, “like the shadow is he who,” is in point of style awkward. But that the author did not use so rude a style is manifest from Ecc 6:12, according to which כצל is rightly referred to ימים ... ולא־. Is then the shadow, asks Hitzig, because it does not “prolong its days,” therefore ימים קצר? How subtle and literal is this use of ימים! Certainly the shadow survives not a day; but for that very reason it is short-lived, it may even indeed be called קצר ימים, because it has not existence for a single day. In general, qetsel, ὡς σκιά, is applicable to the life of all men, Psa 144:4, Wisd. 2:5, etc. It is true of the wicked, if we keep in view the righteous divine requital, especially that he is short-lived like the shadow, “because he has no fear before God,” and that in consequence of this want of fear his life is shortened by his sin inflicting its own punishment, and by the act of God. Asher, Ecc 8:13, as at Ecc 8:11, Ecc 8:12, is the relative conj. Also in Ecc 8:14, אשׁר (שׁ) as a pronoun, and אשׁר (שׁ) as a conj., are mixed together. After the author has declared the reality of a moral government of the world as an inalienable fact of human consciousness, and particularly of his own consciousness, he places over against this fact of consciousness the actual state of things partly at least contradicting it.

Ecc 8:14 “There is a vanity which is done on the earth; that there be just men, to whom it happeneth according to the conduct of the wicked; and that there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the conduct of the righteous - I said, that also this is vain.” The limiting clause with ki gam, Ecc 8:12, Ecc 8:13, is subordinated to the observation specified in Ecc 8:10-12, and the confirmation of it is continued here in Ecc 8:14. Regarding הגּיע, to happen, vid., above, p. 639, under נגע. Jerome translates כּם הר by quasi opera egerint impiorum, and כם הץ by quasi justorum facta habeant; instar operis ... would be better, such as is conformable to the mode of acting of the one and of the other; for כ is in the Semitic style of speech a nomen, which annexes to itself the word that follows it in the genitive, and runs through all the relations of case. This contradictory distribution of destiny deceives, misleads, and causes to err; it belongs to the illusory shadowy side of this present life, it is a hevel. The concluding clause of this verse: “I said, that also this is vain,” begins to draw the facit from the observation, and is continued in the verse following.

Ecc 8:15 “And I commended joy, that there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and enjoy himself; and that this accompanies him in his labour throughout all the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.” We already read the ultimatum, 15 a, in a similar form at Ecc 2:24; Ecc 3:12, Ecc 3:22; cf. Ecc 5:17. With הוּא יל either begins a new clause, and the fut. is then jussive: “let this accompany him,” or it is subordinate to the foregoing infinitives, and the fut. is then subjunctive: et ut id eum comitetur. The lxx and other Greeks translate less appropriately indicat.: καὶ αὐτὸ συμπροσέσται αὐτῷ. Thus also Ewald, Hengst., Zöckl., and others: and this clings to him, which, however, would rather be expressed by לו יתרון והוא or וה חלקו. The verb לוה (R. לו, to twist, to bend) does not mean to cling to = to remain, but to adhere to, to follow, to accompany; cf. under Gen 18:16. The possibility of the meaning, “to accompany,” for the Kal, is supported by the derivatives לויה and לוּוּי (particularly לוית המתים, convoy of the dead); the verb, however, in this signification extra-bibl. is found only in Pih. and Hiph.Vid., Baer in Abodath Jisrael, p. 39.

Ecc 8:16-17 “When I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to view the business which is done on the earth (for neither day nor night doth he see sleep with his eyes): then have I seen all the work of God, that a man is unable to find out the work which is done under the sun: therefore that a man wearieth himself to seek out, and yet findeth not; and although a wise man taketh in hand to know, - he is unable to find.” A long period without a premeditated plan has here formed itself under the hand of the author. As it lies before us, it is halved by the vav in veraithi (“then I have seen”); the principal clause, introduced by “when I gave,” can nowhere otherwise begin than here; but it is not indicated by the syntactical structure. Yet in Chr. and Neh. apodoses of כאשׁר begin with the second consec. modus, e.g., 1Ch 17:1; Neh 4:1, and frequently; but the author here uses this modus only rarely, and not (vid., Ecc 4:1, Ecc 4:7) as a sign of an apodosis.

We consider, first, the protasis, with the parenthesis in which it terminates. The phrase נתן את־הלב ל, to direct the heart, to give attention and effort toward something, we have now frequently met with from Ecc 1:13 down. The aim is here twofold: (1) “to know wisdom” (cf. Ecc 1:17), i.e., to gain the knowledge of that which is wisdom, and which is to be regarded as wisdom, viz., solid knowledge regarding the essence, causes, and objects of things; (2) by such knowledge about that which wisdom is in itself “to see earthly labour,” and - this arises from the combination of the two resolutions - to comprehend this labour in accordance with the claims of true wisdom from the point of view of its last ground and aim. Regarding 'inyan, vid., under Ecc 3:10. “On the earth” and “under the sun” are parallel designations of this world.

With גּם כּי begins a parenthetical clause. Ki may also, it is true, be rendered as at Ecc 8:17: the labour on the earth, that he, etc. (Zöckl.); but this restlessness, almost renouncing sleep, is thereby pressed too much into the foreground as the special obj. of the reuth (therefore Ginsburg introduces “how that”); thus better to render this clause with ki gam, as establishing the fact that there is 'inyan, self-tormenting, restless labour on the earth. Thus also איננּוּ is easier explained, which scarcely goes back to laadam, Ecc 8:15 (Hitz.), but shows that the author, by )inyan, has specially men in view. וּבלּ ... גּם is = גם בי גם בל: as well by day as by night, with the negat. following (cf. Num 23:25; Isa 48:8): neither by day nor by night; not only by day, but also in the night, not. “To see sleep” is a phrase occurring only here; cf. Terence, Heautontim. iii. 1. 82, Somnum hercle ego hac nocte oculis non vidi meis, for which we use the expression: “In this whole night my eyes have seen no sleep.” The not wishing to sleep, and not being able to sleep, is such an hyperbole, carrying its limitation in itself, as is found in Cicero (ad Famil. vii. 30): Fuit mirifica vigilantia, qui toto suo consulatu somnum non vidit.

With ור, “Then I have seen,” begins the apodosis: vidi totum Dei opus non posse hominem assequi. As at Ecc 2:24, the author places the obj. in the foreground, and lets the pred. with ki follow (for other examples of this so-called antiposis, vid., under Gen 1:4). He sees in the labour here below one side of God’s work carrying itself forward amid this restless confusion, and sets forth this work of God, as at Ecc 3:11 (but where the connection of the thoughts is different), as an object of knowledge remaining beyond the reach of man. He cannot come to it, or, as מצא properly means, he reaches not to it, therefore “that a man wearies himself to seek, and yet finds not,” i.e., that the search on the part of a man with all his endeavours comes not to its aim. אשׁר בכל Ewald’s emendation, instead of the words of the text before us: for all this, that quantumcunque (Ewald, §362 c), which seems to have been approved of by the lxx, Syr., and Jerome, is rightly rejected by Hitzig; beshel asher is Heb., exactly equivalent to Aram. בּדיל דּ, e.g., Gen 6:3; and is rightly glossed by Rashi, Kimchi, Michlol 47 b, by בּשׁביל שׁ and בּעבוּר שׁ. The accent dividing the verse stands on yimetsa, for to this word extends the first half of the apodosis, with vegam begins the second. Gam im is = εἰ καί, as gam ki is = ἐὰν καί. יאמר is to be understood after אם אח, Ecc 7:23 : also if (although) the wise man resolves to know, he cannot reach that which is to be known. The characteristic mark of the wise man is thus not so much the possession as the striving after it. He strives after knowledge, but the highest problems remain unsolved by him, and his ideal of knowledge unrealized.

The Excellence of Wisdom; The Duty of Subjects.

1 Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed. 2 I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God. 3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. 4 Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou? 5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.

Here is, I. An encomium of wisdom (v. 1), that is, of true piety, guided in all its exercises by prudence and discretion. The wise man is the good man, that knows God and glorifies him, knows himself and does well for himself; his wisdom is a great happiness to him, for, 1. It advances him above his neighbours, and makes him more excellent than they: Who is as the wise man? Note, Heavenly wisdom will make a man an incomparable man. No man without grace, though he be learned, or noble, or rich, is to be compared with a man that has true grace and is therefore accepted of God. 2. It makes him useful among his neighbours and very serviceable to them: Who but the wise man knows the interpretation of a thing, that is, understands the times and the events of them, and their critical junctures, so as to direct what Israel ought to do, 1 Chron. xii. 32. 3. It beautifies a man in the eyes of his friends: It makes his face to shine, as Moses's did when he came down from the mount; it puts honour upon a man and a lustre on his whole conversation, makes him to be regarded and taken notice of, and gains him respect (as Job xxix. 7, &c.); it makes him lovely and amiable, and the darling and blessing of his country. The strength of his face, the sourness and severity of his countenance (so some understand the last clause), shall be changed by it into that which is sweet and obliging. Even those whose natural temper is rough and morose by wisdom are strangely altered; they become mild and gentle, and learn to look pleasant. 4. It emboldens a man against his adversaries, their attempts and their scorn: The boldness of his face shall be doubled by wisdom; it will add very much to his courage in maintaining his integrity when he not only has an honest cause to plead, but by his wisdom knows how to manage it and where to find the interpretation of a thing. He shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with his enemy in the gate.

II. A particular instance of wisdom pressed upon us, and that is subjection to authority, and a dutiful and peaceable perseverance in our allegiance to the government which Providence has set over us. Observe,

1. How the duty of subjects is here described. (1.) We must be observant of the laws. In all those things wherein the civil power is to interpose, whether legislative or judicial, we ought to submit to its order and constitutions: I counsel thee; it may as well be supplied, I charge thee, not only as a prince but as a preacher: he might do both; "I recommend it to thee as a piece of wisdom; I say, whatever those say that are given to change, keep the king's commandment; wherever the sovereign power is lodged, be subject to it. Observe the mouth of a king" (so the phrase is); "say as he says; do as he bids thee; let his word be a law, or rather let the law be his word." Some understand the following clause as a limitation of this obedience: "Keep the king's commandment, yet so as to have a regard to the oath of God, that is, so as to keep a good conscience and not to violate thy obligations to God, which are prior and superior to thy obligations to the king. Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, but so as to reserve pure and entire to God the things that are his." (2.) We must not be forward to find fault with the public administration, or quarrel with every thing that is not just according to our mind, nor quit our post of service under the government, and throw it up, upon every discontent (v. 3): "Be not hasty to go out of his sight, when he is displeased at thee (ch. x. 4), or when thou art displeased at him; fly not off in a passion, nor entertain such jealousies of him as will tempt thee to renounce the court or forsake the kingdom." Solomon's subjects, as soon as his head was laid low, went directly contrary to this rule, when upon the rough answer which Rehoboam gave them, they were hasty to go out of his sight, would not take time for second thoughts nor admit proposals of accommodation, but cried, To your tents, O Israel! "There may perhaps be a just cause to go out of his sight; but be not hasty to do it; act with great deliberation." (3.) We must not persist in a fault when it is shown us: "Stand not in an evil thing; in any offence thou hast given to thy prince humble thyself, and do not justify thyself, for that will make the offence much more offensive. In any ill design thou hast, upon some discontent, conceived against thy prince, do not proceed in it; but if thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or hast thought evil, lay thy hand upon thy mouth," Prov. xxx. 32. Note, Though we may by surprise be drawn into an evil thing, yet we must not stand in it, but recede from it as soon as it appears to us to be evil. (4.) We must prudently accommodate ourselves to our opportunities, both for our own relief, if we think ourselves wronged, and for the redress of public grievances: A wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment (v. 5); it is the wisdom of subjects, in applying themselves to their princes, to enquire and consider both at what season and in what manner they may do it best and most effectually, to pacify his anger, obtain his favour, or obtain the revocation of any grievous measure prescribed. Esther, in dealing with Ahasuerus, took a deal of pains to discern both time and judgment, and she sped accordingly. This may be taken as a general rule of wisdom, that every thing should be well timed; and our enterprises are then likely to succeed, when we embrace the exact opportunity for them.

2. What arguments are here used to engage us to be subject to the higher powers; they are much the same with those which St. Paul uses, Rom. xiii. 1, &c. (1.) We must needs be subject, for conscience-sake, and that is the most powerful principle of subjection. We must be subject because of the oath of God, the oath of allegiance which we have taken to be faithful to the government, the covenant between the king and the people, 2 Chron. xxiii. 16. David made a covenant, or contract, with the elders of Israel, though he was king by divine designation, 1 Chron. xi. 3. "Keep the king's commandments, for he has sworn to rule thee in the fear of God, and thou hast sworn, in that fear, to be faithful to him." It is called the oath of God because he is a witness to it and will avenge the violation of it. (2.) For wrath's sake, because of the sword which the prince bears and the power he is entrusted with, which make him formidable: He does whatsoever pleases him; he has a great authority and a great ability to support that authority (v. 4): Where the word of a king is, giving orders to seize a man, there is power; there are many that will execute his orders, which makes the wrath of a king, or supreme government, like the roaring of a lion and like messengers of death. Who may say unto him, What doest thou? He that contradicts him does it at his peril. Kings will not bear to have their orders disputed, but expect they should be obeyed. In short, it is dangerous contending with sovereignty, and what many have repented. A subject is an unequal match for a prince. He may command me who has legions at command. (3.) For the sake of our own comfort: Whoso keeps the commandment, and lives a quiet and peaceable life, shall feel no evil thing, to which that of the apostle answers (Rom. xiii. 3), Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power of the king? Do that which is good, as becomes a dutiful and loyal subject, and thou shalt ordinarily have praise of the same. He that does no ill shall feel no ill and needs fear none.

The Certainty of Death.

6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. 7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be? 8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

Solomon had said (v. 5) that a wise man's heart discerns time and judgment, that is, a man's wisdom will go a great way, by the blessing of God, in moral prognostications; but here he shows that few have that wisdom, and that even the wisest may yet be surprised by a calamity which they had not any foresight of, and therefore it is our wisdom to expect and prepare for sudden changes. Observe, 1. All the events concerning us, with the exact time of them, are determined and appointed in the counsel and foreknowledge of God, and all in wisdom: To every purpose there is a time prefixed, and it is the best time, for it is time and judgment, time appointed both in wisdom and righteousness; the appointment is not chargeable with folly or iniquity. 2. We are very much in the dark concerning future events and the time and season of them: Man knows not that which shall be himself; and who can tell him when or how it shall be? v. 7. It cannot either be foreseen by him or foretold him; the stars cannot foretel a man what shall be, nor any of the arts of divination. God has, in wisdom, concealed from us the knowledge of future events, that we may be always ready for changes. 3. It is our great unhappiness and misery that, because we cannot foresee an evil, we know not how to avoid it, or guard against it, and, because we are not aware of the proper successful season of actions, therefore we lose our opportunities and miss our way: Because to every purpose there is but one way, one method, one proper opportunity, therefore the misery of man is great upon him; because it is so hard to hit that, and it is a thousand to one but he misses it. Most of the miseries men labour under would have been prevented if they could have been foreseen and the happy time discovered to avoid them. Men are miserable because they are not sufficiently sagacious and attentive. 4. Whatever other evils may be avoided, we are all under a fatal necessity of dying, v. 8. (1.) When the soul is required it must be resigned, and it is to no purpose to dispute it, either by arms or arguments, by ourselves, or by any friend: There is no man that has power over his own spirit, to retain it, when it is summoned to return to God who gave it. It cannot fly any where out of the jurisdiction of death, nor find any place where its writs do not run. It cannot abscond so as to escape death's eye, though it is hidden from the eyes of all living. A man has no power to adjourn the day of his death, nor can he by prayers or bribes obtain a reprieve; no bail will be taken, no essoine [excuse], protection, or imparlance [conference], allowed. We have not power over the spirit of a friend, to retain that; the prince, with all his authority, cannot prolong the life of the most valuable of his subjects, nor the physician with his medicines and methods, nor the soldier with his force, not the orator with his eloquence, nor the best saint with his intercessions. The stroke of death can by no means be put by when our days are determined and the hour appointed us has come. (2.) Death is an enemy that we must all enter the lists with, sooner or later: There is no discharge in that war, no dismission from it, either of the men of business or of the faint-hearted, as there was among the Jews, Deut. xx. 5, 8. While we live we are struggling with death, and we shall never put off the harness till we put off the body, never obtain a discharge till death has obtained the mastery; the youngest is not released as a fresh-water soldier, nor the oldest as miles emeritus—a soldier whose merits have entitled him to a discharge. Death is a battle that must be fought, There is no sending to that war (so some read it), no substituting another to muster for us, no champion admitted to fight for us; we must ourselves engage, and are concerned to provide accordingly, as for a battle. (3.) Men's wickedness, by which they often evade or outface the justice of the prince, cannot secure them from the arrest of death, nor can the most obstinate sinner harden his heart against those terrors. Though he strengthen himself ever so much in his wickedness (Ps. lii. 7), death will be too strong for him. The most subtle wickedness cannot outwit death, nor the most impudent wickedness outbrave death. Nay, the wickedness which men give themselves to will be so far from delivering them from death that it will deliver them up to death.

The Evil of Oppressive Rulers.

9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt. 10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity. 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 12 Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: 13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

Solomon, in the beginning of the chapter, had warned us against having any thing to do with seditious subjects; here, in these verses, he encourages us, in reference to the mischief of tyrannical and oppressive rulers, such as he had complained of before, ch. iii. 16; iv. 1.

1. He had observed many such rulers, v. 9. In the serious views and reviews he had taken of the children of men and their state he had observed that many a time one man rules over another to his hurt; that is, (1.) To the hurt of the ruled (many understand it so); whereas they ought to be God's ministers unto their subjects for their good (Rom. xiii. 14), to administer justice, and to preserve the public peace and order, they use their power for their hurt, to invade their property, encroach upon their liberty, and patronise the acts of injustice. It is sad with a people when those that should protect their religion and rights aim at the destruction of both. (2.) To the hurt of the rulers (so we render it), to their own hurt, to the feeling of their pride and covetousness, the gratifying of their passion and revenge, and so to the filling up of the measure of their sins and the hastening and aggravating of their ruin. Agens agendo repatitur—What hurt men do to others will return, in the end, to their own hurt.

2. He had observed them to prosper and flourish in the abuse of their power (v. 10): I saw those wicked rulers come and go from the place of the holy, go in state to and return in pomp from the place of judicature (which is called the place of the Holy One because the judgment is the Lord's, Deut. i. 17, and he judges among the gods, Ps. lxxxii. 1, and is with them in the judgment, 2 Chron. xix. 6), and they continued all their days in office, were never reckoned with for their mal-administration, but died in honour and were buried magnificently; their commissions were durante vitâ—during life, and not quamdiu se bene gesserint—during good behaviour. And they were forgotten in the city where they had so done; their wicked practices were not remembered against them to their reproach and infamy when they were gone. Or, rather, it denotes the vanity of their dignity and power, for that is his remark upon it in the close of the verse: This is also vanity. They are proud of their wealth, and power, and honour, because they sit in the place of the holy; but all this cannot secure, (1.) Their bodies from being buried in the dust; I saw them laid in the grave; and their pomp, though it attended them thither, could not descend after them, Ps. xlix. 17. (2.) Nor their names from being buried in oblivion; for they were forgotten, as if they had never been.

3. He had observed that their prosperity hardened them in their wickedness, v. 11. It is true of all sinners in general, and particularly of wicked rulers, that, because sentence against their evil works is not executed speedily, they think it will never be executed, and therefore they set the law at defiance and their hearts are full in them to do evil; they venture to do so much the more mischief, fetch a greater compass in their wicked designs, and are secure and fearless in it, and commit iniquity with a high hand. Observe, (1.) Sentence is passed against evil works and evil workers by the righteous Judge of heaven and earth, even against the evil works of princes and great men, as well as of inferior persons. (2.) The execution of this sentence is often delayed a great while, and the sinner goes on, not only unpunished, but prosperous and successful. (3.) Impunity hardens sinners in impiety, and the patience of God is shamefully abused by many who, instead of being led by it to repentance, are confirmed by it in their impenitence. (4.) Sinners herein deceive themselves, for, though the sentence be not executed speedily, it will be executed the more severely at last. Vengeance comes slowly, but it comes surely, and wrath is in the mean time treasured up against the day of wrath.

4. He foresaw such an end of all these things as would be sufficient to keep us from quarrelling with the divine Providence upon account of them. He supposes a wicked ruler to do an unjust thing a hundred times, and that yet his punishment is deferred, and God's patience towards him is prolonged, much beyond what was expected, and the days of his power are lengthened out, so that he continues to oppress; yet he intimates that we should not be discouraged. (1.) God's people are certainly a happy people, though they be oppressed: "It shall be well with those that fear God, I say with all those, and those only, who fear before him." Note, [1.] It is the character of God's people that they fear God, have an awe of him upon their hearts and make conscience of their duty to him, and this because they see his eye always upon them and they know it is their concern to approve themselves to him. When they lie at the mercy of proud oppressors they fear God more then they fear them. They do not quarrel with the providence of God, but submit to it. [2.] It is the happiness of all that fear God, that in the worst of times it shall be well with them; their happiness in God's favour cannot be prejudiced, nor their communion with God interrupted, by their troubles; they are in a good case, for they are kept in a good frame under their troubles, and in the end they shall have a blessed deliverance from and an abundant recompence for their troubles. And therefore "surely I know, I know it by the promise of God, and the experience of all the saints, that, however it goes with others, it shall go well with them." All is well that ends well. (2.) Wicked people are certainly a miserable people; though they prosper, and prevail, for a time, the curse is as sure to them as the blessing is to the righteous: It shall not be well with the wicked, as others think it is, who judge by outward appearance, and as they themselves expect it will be; nay, woe to the wicked; it shall be ill with them (Isa. iii. 10, 11); they shall be reckoned with for all the ill they have done; nothing that befals them shall be really well for them. Nihil potest ad malos pervenire quod prosit, imo nihil quod non noceat—No event can occur to the wicked which will do them good, rather no event which will not do them harm. Seneca. Note, [1.] The wicked man's days are as a shadow, not only uncertain and declining, as all men's days are, but altogether unprofitable. A good man's days have some substance in them; he lives to a good purpose. A wicked man's days are all as a shadow, empty and worthless. [2.] These days shall not be prolonged to what he promised himself; he shall not live out half his days, Ps. lv. 23. Though they may be prolonged (v. 12) beyond what others expected, yet his day shall come to fall. He shall fall short of everlasting life, and then his long life on earth will be worth little. [3.] God's great quarrel with wicked people is for their not fearing before him; that is at the bottom of their wickedness, and cuts them off from all happiness.

The Mysteries of Providence.

14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity. 15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun. 16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:) 17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

Wise and good men have, of old, been perplexed with this difficulty, how the prosperity of the wicked and the troubles of the righteous can be reconciled with the holiness and goodness of the God that governs the world. Concerning this Solomon here gives us his advice.

I. He would not have us to be surprised at it, as though some strange thing happened, for he himself saw it in his days, v. 14. 1. He saw just men to whom it happened according to the work of the wicked, who, notwithstanding their righteousness, suffered very hard things, and continued long to do so, as if they were to be punished for some great wickedness. 2. He saw wicked men to whom it happened according to the work of the righteous, who prospered as remarkably as if they had been rewarded for some good deed, and that from themselves, from God, from men. We see the just troubled and perplexed in their own minds, the wicked easy, fearless, and secure,—the just crossed and afflicted by the divine Providence, the wicked prosperous, successful, and smiled upon,—the just, censured, reproached, and run down, by the higher powers, the wicked applauded and preferred.

II. He would have us to take occasion hence, not to charge God with iniquity, but to charge the world with vanity. No fault is to be found with God; but, as to the world, This is vanity upon the earth, and again, This is also vanity, that is, it is a certain evidence that the things of this world are not the best things nor were ever designed to make a portion and happiness for us, for, if they had, God would not have allotted so much of this world's wealth to his worst enemies and so much of its troubles to his best friends; there must therefore be another life after this the joys and griefs of which must be real and substantial, and able to make men truly happy or truly miserable, for this world does neither.

III. He would have us not to fret and perplex ourselves about it, or make ourselves uneasy, but cheerfully to enjoy what God has given us in the world, to be content with it and make the best of it, though it be much better with others, and such as we think very unworthy (v. 15): Then I commended joy, a holy security and serenity of mind, arising from a confidence in God, and his power, providence, and promise, because a man has no better thing under the sun (though a good man has much better things above the sun) than to eat and drink, that is, soberly and thankfully to make use of the things of this life according as his rank is, and to be cheerful, whatever happens, for that shall abide with him of his labour. That is all the fruit he has for himself of the pains that he takes in the business of the world; let him therefore take it, and much good may it do him; and let him not deny himself that, out of a peevish discontent because the world does not go as he would have it. That shall abide with him during the days of his life which God gives him under the sun. Our present life is a life under the sun, but we look for the life of the world to come, which will commence and continue when the sun shall be turned into darkness and shine no more. This present life must be reckoned by days; this life is given us, and the days of it are allotted to us, by the counsel of God, and therefore while it does last we must accommodate ourselves to the will of God and study to answer the ends of life.

IV. He would not have us undertake to give a reason for that which God does, for his way is in the sea and his path in the great waters, past finding out, and therefore we must be contentedly and piously ignorant of the meaning of God's proceedings in the government of the world, v. 16, 17. Here he shows, 1. That both he himself and many others had very closely studied the point, and searched far into the reasons of the prosperity of the wicked and the afflictions of the righteous. He, for his part, had applied his heart to know this wisdom, and to see the business that is done, by the divine Providence, upon the earth, to find out if there were any certain scheme, any constant rule or method, by which the affairs of this lower world were administered, any course of government as sure and steady as the course of nature, so that by what is done now we might as certainly foretel what will be done next as by the moon's changing now we can foretel when it will be at the full; this he would fain have found out. Others had likewise set themselves to make this enquiry with so close an application that they could not find time for sleep, either day or night, nor find in their hearts to sleep, so full of anxiety were they about these things. Some think Solomon speaks of himself, that he was so eager in prosecuting this great enquiry that he could not sleep for thinking of it. 2. That it was all labour in vain, v. 17. When we look upon all the works of God and his providence, and compare one part with another, we cannot find that there is any such certain method by which the work that is done under the sun is directed; we cannot discover any key by which to decipher the character, nor by consulting precedents can we know the practice of this court, nor what the judgment will be. [1.] Though a man be ever so industrious, thou he labour to seek it out. [2.] Though he be ever so ingenious, though he be a wise man in other things, and can fathom the counsels of kings themselves and trace them by their footsteps. Nay, [3.] Though he be very confident of success, though he think to know it, yet he shall not; he cannot find it out. God's ways are above ours, nor is he tied to his own former ways, but his judgments are a great deep.

CHAP. VIII. Verſ. 1. Who is as the Wiſe man?]

Velut inter ſtellas Luna minores QUa. dic. Hee is a matchleſs man, a peerleſs Paragon, out-ſhining others, as much as the Moon doth the leſſer Stars. Plato could ſay, that no Gold or Precious ſtone doth gliſter ſo gloriouſly, [non-Latin text not transcribed], as the prudent ſpirit of a good man.Gen. 41.38 Thou art a Prince of God amongſt us, ſaid the Hittites to Abraham. Can wee finde ſuch a man as this Joſeph, in whom the Spirit of God is, ſaid Pharaoh to his Counſellors? Haſt thou conſidered my ſervant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, &c? Job 1.8. My ſervant Moſes is not ſo, who is faithful in all my houſe, and ſhall bee of my Cabinet-Counſel, Numb. 12.7. To him God ſaid, Tu verò hic ſta mecum, But do thou ſtand here by mee, Exod. 34.5. Sapiens Dei comes eſt, ſaith Philo. Look how Kings have their Favourites whom they call Comites, their Couſins and Companions, ſo hath God. Nay, the righteous are Princes in all Lands, Pſal. 45.16. Kings in righteouſneſs, (compare Mat. 13.17. with Luk. 10.24.) the excellent Ones of the Earth, Pſal. 16.3. the Worthies of the world,Hom. 55. in Matth. Heb. 11.5. fitter to bee ſet as Stars in Heaven, and to bee continually before the Throne of God. Chryſoſtome calls ſome holy men of his time, [non-Latin text not transcribed], Earthly Angels: and ſpeaking of Babylas the Martyr, hee ſaith of him, Magnus at que admirabilis vir, hee was an excellent and an admirable man,Orat. contra Gentiles. &c. And Tertullian writing to ſome of the Martyrs, ſayes, Non tantus ſum ut vos alloquar, I am not good enough to ſpeak unto you. Oh that my life and a thouſand ſuch wretches more might go for yours! Oh why doth God ſuffer mee and other ſuch Caterpillars to live (ſaith John Careleſs Martyr, in a letter to that Angel of God Mr. Bradford, as Dr. Taylor called him) that can do nothing but conſume the alms of the Church, and take away you ſo worthy a workman and labourer in the Lords Vineyard,Acts and Mon. 1744. &c?

And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing?] Wiſe a man may bee, and yet not ſo apt and able to wiſe others. Thoſe wiſe ones that can wiſe others, ſo as to turn them to righteouſneſs, ſhall ſhine as the brightneſs of the firmament, yea as the Stars, Dan. 12.3. they do ſo whilſt upon earth; Wiſdome makes their very faces to ſhine,Acts 6 15. as St. Stephens did, and as Holy Jobs, whiles hee was in a proſperous condition, Chap. 29.8, 9, 10. Jobab hee was then the ſame (ſome think) that is mentioned, Gen. 36.33.) as when in diſtreſs his name was contracted into Job. And then (though himſelf were otherwiſe wiſe) hee might want an Interpreter, One of a thouſand (for ſuch are rare, every man cannot ſell us this precious oyl Matth. 25.9.) to ſhew unto him his uprightneſs that is the righteouſneſs of his own experience, how himſelf hath been helped and comforted in like caſe, or, to clear up to an afflicted Job his ſpiritual eſtate, and to ſhew him his Evangelical Righteouſneſs. Oh how beautiful are the feet of ſuch an Interpreter! I have ſeen thy face, (ſaith the poor ſoul to ſuch) as though I had ſeen the face of God, Gen. 33.10.

A mans wiſdome maketh his face to ſhine] Godlineſs is venerable and reverend. Holy and Reverend is his name, Pſal. 112. Gods Image is amiable and admirable: Natural conſcience cannot but ſtoop and do obeyſance to it: What a deal of reſpect did Nebuchadnezzar and Darius put upon Daniel? Alexander the Great upon Jaddus the High-Prieſt? Theodoſius upon Ambroſe? Conſtantine upon Paphnutius, kiſſing that eye of his that was bored out for the cauſe of Chriſt, &c? Godly men have a daunting preſence, as Athanaſius had, and Baſil: to whom when Valens the Arrian Emperour came, whiles hee was in holy exerciſes, it ſtruck ſuch a terrour into him,Greg. Orat. de lande Baſilii. that hee reeled and had fallen, had hee not been upheld by thoſe that were with him. Henry the ſecond of France being preſent at the Martyrdome of a certain Taylor, burnt by him for Religion, was ſo terrified by the boldneſs of his countenance,Epit. hiſt. Gall. 82. and the conſtancy of his ſufferings, that hee ſwore at his going away, that hee would never any more bee preſent at ſuch a ſight.

And the boldneſs of his face ſhall bee changed] Or, doubled: his conſcience bearing him out, and making him undaunted, as it did David, Pſal. 3. and the Dutch Martyr Colonus, who calling to the Judge that had ſentenced him to death, deſired him to lay his hand upon his heart, and then asked him whoſe heart did moſt beat, his or the Judges? By this boldneſs Jonathan and his Armour-bearer ſet upon the Garriſon of the Philiſtims; David upon Goliah their Champion. The Black-Prince was ſo called, not of his colour, Speed. 688. but of his valour and dreaded acts in battel.

Verſ. 2. To keep the Kings commandement] Heb. Mouth, i. e. The expreſs word of command: go not here by gueſs, or good intention, leſt you ſpeed as that Scotch Captain did, who, not expecting Orders from his Superiours, took an advantage offered him of taking a Fort of the Enemies:Speed. for which good ſervice hee was knighted in the morning, but hanged in the after-noon of the ſame day for acting without order.

And that in regard of the Oath of God] Thine Oath of Allegiance to thy Prince: This Papiſts make nothing of. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Paſcenius ſcoffs King James for the invention of it. They can ſwear with their mouths, and keep their hearts unſworn, as ſhee in the Comedy. Mercatorum eſt ſtare juramentis, ſay they at Rome. They can aſſoil men of their allegiance at pleaſure, and ſlip their ſolemn Oaths, as eaſily as Monkies do their Collars. And I would this were the ſin of Papiſts onely; and that there were not thoſe found even amongſt us, that keep no oaths further than makes for their own turn: like as the Jews keep none, unleſs they ſwear upon their own Torah, Weems. brought out of their Synagogues.

Verſ. 3. Bee not haſty to go out of his ſight] Turn not thy back diſcontentedly; fling not away in a chaſe; for this will be conſtrued for a contempt: As it was in the Earl of Eſſex, Anno 1598. Diſſention falling out between the Queen and him about a fit man for Governour of Ireland, hee forgetting himſelf, and neglecting his duty, uncivilly turned his back, with a ſcornful countenance. Shee waxing impatient, gave him a cuff on the ear, bidding him bee gone with a vengeance. Hee laid his hand upon his ſword, the Lord Admiral interpoſing himſelf, hee ſwore a great oath,Camd. Eliſch. fol. 494. that hee neither could, nor would ſwallow ſo great an indignity, nor would have born it at King Henry the Eighths hands, and in great diſcontentment haſted from the Court. But within a while after, hee became ſubmiſs, and was received again into favour by the Queen, who alwaies thought it more juſt to offend a man, than to hate him.Blunts voyage pag. 97. The very Turks are ſaid to receive humiliation with all ſweetneſs; but to bee remorſeleſs to thoſe that bear up.

Verſ. 4. Where the word of a King is, there is power] Ibi dominatio. Hee hath long hands, and can reach thee at a great diſtance; as Mithridates did when with one letter he ſlew fourſcore thouſand Citizens of Rome, Val. Max. lib. 9 that were ſcattered up and down his Kingdome for Trading-ſake. So Selimus the Great Turk, Turk. hist. fol. 885 in revenge of the loſs received at the battel of Lepanto, was once in a minde to have put to death all the Chriſtians in his Dominions, in number infinite. Charls the Ninth of France, is reported to have been the death of thirty thouſand of his Proteſtant Subjects in one years ſpace, Anno 1572. See Dan. 5.19.

And who may ſay unto him, What doſt thou] viz. Without danger. What ſafety can there bee in taking a Bear by the tooth, or a Lion by the beard? I dare not diſpute (ſaid the Philoſopher to the Emperour Adrian) with him that hath thirty Legions at his command, Neque in cum ſcribere, qui poteſt proſcribere, Praeſcus praeſentem Pontiſicem redarguit, & Polycraticon conſcripſit. Jac. Rev. 145. nor write againſt him that can as eaſily undo mee, as bid it to be done. How be it Elias, Micaiah, John Baptiſt, and other holy Prophets and Miniſters have dealt plainly with great Princes, and God hath ſecured them. John Biſhop of Salisbury reproved the Pope to his face: and yet the Canoniſts ſay, that although the Pope ſhould draw millions of ſouls to Hell with him, none may dare to ſay unto him, What doſt thou? But Philip the Fair made bold with his Holineſs, when hee began his letter to him with Sciat Fatuitas Tua, &c. So did the Barons of England in King John's daies,Marcidi Ribaldi. Walſing. Epit. hiſt. Gallic. p. 30. Godw. Catal. when declaring againſt the Pope and his Conclave (by whom they were excommunicated) they cried out thus in their Remonſtrance, Fy on ſuch raſcal ribals, &c. Adelmelect Biſhop of Sherborn, Anno 705. reproved Pope Sergius ſharply to his face, for his Adultery. So did Biſhop Lambert reprehend King Pepin for the ſame fault, Anno 798. And Archbiſhop Odo, King Edwin; burning his Concubines in the fore-head with an hot Iron, and baniſhing them into Ireland. Father Latimer dealt no leſs faithfully with King Henry the Eighth in his Sermons at Court. And being asked by the King how hee durſt bee ſo bold to preach after that manner? hee anſwered, that duty to God, and to his Prince had enforced him to it: and now that hee had diſcharged his conſcience, his life was in his Majeſties hands, &c. Truth muſt bee ſpoken however it be taken. If Gods Meſſengers muſt be mannerly in the form, yet in the matter of their meſſage to Great ones they muſt bee reſolute. It is probable that Joſeph uſed ſome kinde of Preface to Pharaoh's Baker in reading him that hard deſtiny,Dan. 4.19 Gen. 40.19. Such likely as was that of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, My Lord, the Dream bee to them that hate thee, &c. or as Philo brings him in with an Utinam tale ſomnium non vidiſſes, &c. But for the matter, hee gives him a ſound, though ſharp interpretation.

Verſ. 5. Whoſo keepeth the commandement] ſcil. The Kings commandement. Hee that is morigerous, and goes as far as hee can with a good conſcience in his obedience to the commands of his Superiours, Shall feel no evil, i. e. hee ſhall lack no good encouragement, Rom. 13.3, 4. Or if men ſlight him, God will ſee to him, Epheſ. 6.7, 8. as hee did to the poor Iſraelites in Egypt, and to David under Saul. Mordecai loſt nothing at length by his love and loyalty to God and the King. Sir Ralph Percy (ſlain upon Hegely-Moor in Northumberland by the Lord Montacute, General for Edward the Fourth) hee would no waies depart the field, though defeated; but in dying, ſaid, I have ſaved the bird in my breaſt, Speed. 869. meaning his oath to King Henry the Sixth, for whom hee fought.

And a wiſe mans heart diſcerneth both time and judgement] ſcil. When and how to obey Kings commands, the time, the means and manner thereof, diſpatching them without offence to God or man. And this a wiſe mans heart diſcerneth, ſaith the Preacher: it being the opinion of the Hebrews, that in the heart eſpecially the ſoul did keep her Court, and exerciſe her noble operations of the underſtanding, invention, judgement, &c. Ariſtotle ſaith, Sine calore cordis anima in corpore nihil efficit, Without the heat of the heart, the ſoul does nothing in the body. The Scripture alſo makes the heart the Monarch of this Iſle of Man.

Verſ. 6. Becauſe to every purpoſe there is time] Therefore the wiſe man ſeeketh after that nick of time, that punctilio of judgement, that hee may do every thing well, and order his affairs with diſcretion. A well-choſen ſeaſon is the greateſt advantage of any action, which, as it is ſeldome found in haſte, ſo it is too often loſt in delay.

Therefore the miſery of man is great upon him] Becauſe hee diſcerns not, apprehends not his fitteſt opportunity: hence hee creates himſelf a great deal of miſery. When Saul had taken upon him to ſacrifice, God intimates to him by Samuel, that if hee had diſcerned his time, hee might have ſaved his Kingdome. So might many a man his life, his livelihood, nay his ſoul. The men of Iſſachar in Davids daies are famous for this, that they had underſtanding of the times, to know what Iſrael ought to do, 1 Chron. 12.32. their poſterity are ſet below Stork and Swallow, for want of this skill, Jer. 8.7. and deeply doomed, Luke 19.44.

Verſ. 7. For hee knoweth not that which ſhall bee] Mans miſery is the greater, becauſe hee cannot fore-ſee to prevent it; but hee is ſuddenly ſurprized and hit, many times on the blinde ſide, as wee ſay.

Neſcia mens hominum fati ſortiſque futurae.

Men are in the dark in regard of future events. God onely knows them, and is thereby oft in Iſaiah diſtinguiſhed from the dung-hill-deities of the Heathens. In his mercy to his people hee gave them Prophets to tell How long: and when theſe failed, the Church heavily bewails it, Pſal. 74.9. Howbeit a prudent man fore-ſeeth an evil, and hideth himſelf,Amb. de Offic. l. 1. cap. 38. Prov. 22.3. See the Note there. By the ſtrength of his mind, ſaith Ambroſe, hee preſageth what will follow, and can define what in ſuch or ſuch a caſe hee ought to do. Sometimes hee turns over two or three things in his mind together, of which conjecturing, that either all may come to paſs jointly, or this or that ſeverally, or whether they fall out jointly or ſeverally, hee can by his underſtanding ſo order his actions, as that they ſhall bee profitable to him.

Verſ. 8. There is no man that hath power, &c.] Death, man is ſure to meet with, whatſoever hee miſs of; but when, hee knows not neither. Of Doomsday there are ſigns affirmative and negative, not ſo of death. Every one hath his own Balſam within him, ſay ſome Chymicks:Greg. Moral. his own bane it is ſure hee hath. Ipſa ſuis augmentis vita ad detrimenta impellitur, Every day wee yeeld ſomewhat to death. Stat ſua cuique dies. Our laſt day ſtands, the reſt run.Virg. Ancid. Nulli cedo. Death is this onely King, againſt whom there is no riſing up, Prov. 30. The mortal Sithe is Maſter of the Royal Scepter, and it mows down the Lillies of the Crown, as well as the graſs of the field, ſaith a Reverend Writer:Mr. Ley, his Monitor of Mortality. And again, Death ſuddenly ſnatcheth away Phyſicians oft, as it were in ſcorn and contempt of medicines, when they are applying their preſervatives or reſtoratives to others: as it is ſtoried of Caius Julius a Surgeon, who dreſſing a ſoreeye, as hee drew the Inſtrument over it, was ſtruck with an Inſtrument of death in the act and place where hee did it. Beſides diſeaſes, many, by miſchances, are taken as a bird with a bolt, whiles hee gazeth at the bow.

There is no diſcharge in war] Heb. No ſending, either of Forces to withſtand death, or of meſſages to make peace with him. The world and wee muſt part; and whether wee bee unſtitcht by parcels, or torn aſunder at once, the difference is not great. Happy is hee that after due preparation, is paſſed thorow the gates of death ere hee bee aware, ſaith one. Whether my death bee a burnt-offering (of Martyrdome) or a Peace-off[illegible: 1 letter]ring (of a natural death) I deſire it may bee a Free-will-offering, a ſweet ſacrifice to the Lord, ſaith another.

Neither ſhall wickedneſs deliver] No; It is righteouſneſs onely that delivereth from death. The wicked may make a covenant with death, but God will diſanul it. Shall they eſcape by iniquity? ſaith the Pſalmiſt. What? have they no better medium's? No; in thine anger caſt down the people, O God. Iſa. 28.15. Pſal. 50.7. Every man ſhould dye the ſame day that hee is born: the wages of death ſhould bee paid him preſently: but Chriſt beggs their lives for a ſeaſon. Hee is the Saviour of all men, 1 Tim. 4.10. not of eternal preſervation, but of temporal reſervation, that his Elect might lay hold on eternal life, and reprobates may have this for a bodkin at their hearts one day, I was in a fair poſſibility of being delivered.

Verſ. 9. One man ruleth over another to his own hurt] Not only to the hurt of his ſubjects, but to his own utter ruine, though after a long run haply, verſ. 12, 13. Ad generum Cereris, &c. What untimely ends came the Kings of Iſrael to, and the Roman Caeſars all (almoſt) till Conſtantine? Veſpaſianus unus accepto imperio melior factus eſt, Veſpaſian was the only one amongſt them, that became better by the Office. Whiles they were private perſons, there ſeemed to be ſome goodneſſe in them. But no ſooner advanced to the Empire, than they ran riot in wickedneſſe: liſtening to flatterers, and hating reproofs, they ran head-long to Hell, and drew a great number with them, by the inſtigation of the Devil, that old Man-ſlayer, whoſe work it was to act and agitate them, for a common miſchief.

Verſ. 10. And ſo I ſaw the wicked buried] With Pomp and great ſolemnity, funeral Orations, Statues, and Epitaphs, &c. as if he had been another Joſiah, or Theodoſius: ſo doe men over-whelm this mouſe with praiſes proper to the Elephant, as the Proverb hath it.

Who had come and gone from the place of the Holy] That is, from the place of Magiſtracy, Seat of Judicature, where the Holy God himſelf ſits as chief Preſident, and Lord Paramount. Deut. 1.17, 2 Chron. 19.6. Pſal. 82.1.

And they were forgotten in the City where they had ſo done] A great benefit to a wicked man to have his memory dye with him; which if it be preſerved, ſtinks in keeping,Pemble. and remains as a curſe and perpetual diſgrace, as one very well ſenſeth it.

Verſ. 11. Becauſe ſentence againſt an evil work, &c.] Ennarrata ſententia, a publiſhed and declared ſentence. So that it is only a reprieve of mercy, that a wicked man hath: his preſervation is but a reſervation to further evil, abuſed mercy turning into fury.Hieron. in Ierem. Aeripedes dictae ſunt Furia. Aries quo altius erigitur, hoc figit fortius. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. De utroque Dionyſio. Val. l. 1. cap. 2. Bucholc. Morae diſpendium fauoris duplo penſatur, ſaith Hierom, Gods forbearance is no quittance: he will finde a time to pay wicked men for the new and the old. The Lord is not ſlow, as ſome men count ſlowneſſe, 2 Pet. 3.9. Or if he be ſlow, yet he is ſure. Hee hath leaden heels, but iron hands, the farther he fetcheth his blow, or draweth his arrow, the deeper hee will wound when hee hitteth. Gods Mill may grind ſoft and ſlow, but it grindes ſure and ſmall, ſaid one Heathen. Tarditatem ſupplicii gravitate compenſat, he recompenſeth the delay of puniſhment with an eternity of extreamity, ſaith another. He hath vials of vengeance, Rev. 16.1. which are large veſſels, but narrow mouthed: they pour out ſlowly, but drench deeply, and diſtill effectually. Caveto igitur, ſaith one, ne malum dilatum fiat suplicatum. Get quickly out of Gods debt, leſt yee be forced to pay the charges of a ſute, to your pain, to your coſt. Patientia Dei quo diuturnior, eo minacior. God will not alwayes ſerve men for a ſinning-ſtock, Poena venit gravior quo mage ſera venit. Adonijah's feaſt ended in horrour: Ever, after the meal is ended, comes the reckoning.

Therefore the heart of the ſons of men is fully ſet] Heb. is full: So full of wickedneſſe, that there is no room for the fear of Gods wrath, till wrath come upon them to the utmoſt. Intus exiſtens prohibet alienum. God offers and affords them heart-knocking time, Rev. 3.20. but they ram up their hearts, dry their tears (as Saul) and are ſcalded in their own greaſe, ſtewed in their own broath. The ſleeping of vengeance cauſeth the over-flowing of ſin: and the over-flow of ſin cauſeth the awakning of vengeance.

Verſ. 12. Though a ſinner doth evil an hundred times] Commit the ſame ſin an hundred times over, which is no ſmall aggravation of his ſin, as numbers added to numbers are firſt ten times more, then an hundred, then a thouſand, &c. And truly a Sinner left to himſelf would ſin in infinitum (which may be one reaſon of the infinite torments of Hell) hee can ſet no bounds to himſelf, till he become a brat of fathomleſs perdition. The Devil commits that ſin unto death every day, and oft in the day. His Imps alſo reſemble him herein. Hence their ſins are mortal, ſaith St. John, rather immortal,1 Joh. 5. as ſaith St. Paul, Rom. 2.5.

And his dayes bee prolonged] By the long ſufferance of God: which is ſo great, that Jonah was diſpleaſed at it, chap. 4. Averroes turned Atheiſt upon it. But Micah admires it, chap. 7.18. and Moſes makes excellent uſe of it, when he prays, Exod. 34. O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, goe along with us, for it is a ſtiff-necked people. As who ſhould ſay, None but a God is able to endure this perverſe people; my patience and meekneſs is farre too ſhort: and yet Moſes, by Gods own teſtimony, was the meekeſt man upon earth. That the vileſt of men may live a long while is evident: but for no good will that God bears them; but that heaping up ſin, they may heap up wrath, and by abuſe of Divine patience, be fitted for the hotteſt fire in Hell, Rom. 9.22. as ſtubble laid out a drying, Nah. 1.10. or as Grapes let hang in the Sun-ſhine, till ripe for the Wine-preſs of wrath, Rev. 15.16. Surely as one day of mans life is to be preferred before the longeſt life of a Stagge, or a Raven: ſo one day ſpent religiouſly is farre better than an hundred years ſpent wickedly. Non refert quanta ſit vitae diuturnitas, ſed qualis ſit adminiſtratio, ſaith Vives. The buſineſſe is not, how long, but how well any man liveth. Hierom reads this verſe thus, Quia peccator facit malum centies, & elongat ei Deus, ex hoc cognoſco ego, &c. Becauſe a ſinner doth evil an hundred times, and God doth lengthen his dayes unto him, from hence I know that it ſhall bee well with them that fear God, &c. And he ſets this ſenſe upon it: Inaſmuch as God ſo long ſpares wretched ſinners, waiting their return, he will ſurely bee good to pious perſons. Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion read it thus: Peccans enim malus mortuus eſt, long a aetate conceſſa ei, an evil man ſinning is dead, a long age being granted to him: dead hee is in ſin, though his dayes be prolonged.

Yet ſurely I know that it ſhall be well] q. d. This ſhall not ſtagger mee, or ſhake mine aſſurance of the Divine Providence: for I know well that yet God is good to Iſrael, to the pure in heart, Pſal. 73.1. And although they dye young (as [non-Latin text not transcribed], thoſe whom God loves hee ſoon takes to himſelf) yet it may bee ſaid of them, as Ambroſe ſaith of Abraham, Mortuus eſt in bona ſenectute, eo quod in bonitate propoſiti permanſit, Hee dyed in a good old age, becauſe he dyed in a good ſound mind: Or, as Hierom ſaith of a godly young man of his time,Hier. Epiſt. that in brevi vitae ſpacio tempora virtutum multa replevit, hee lived long in a little time: for ſome men live more in a month than others doe in many years. They that dye ſoon (but in Gods fear and favour) though as Grapes they be gathered afore they bee ripe, and as Lambs ſlain before they be grown, yet (beſides the happineſſe of Heaven) they have this benefit, they are freed from the violence of the Wine-preſs that others fall into, and eſcape many ſtorms that others live to taſte of. A good man (ſaith a late Divine) prolongs his dayes though hee dye young, becauſe hee is ripe before taken from the tree:D. Preſton. hee even falls into the hand of God that gathers him.

Verſ. 13. But it ſhall not be well with the wicked] Not alwayes well, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Nemo culpam gerit in pectore qui non idem Neme fin in tergo. Iſa. 3.12. for ſin will be ſure to finde him out, Numb. 32.23. and hee that hath guilt in his boſome, hath vengeance at his back. Where iniquity breaks faſt, calamity will be ſure to dine, and to ſup where it dines and to lodge where it ſups. When iniquity is once ripe in the field, God will not let it ſhed to grow again: but cuts it up by a juſt and ſeaſonable vengeance. 2 Not at all well; ſith proſperity ſlayeth theſe fools; and, as Sun-ſhine ripens their ſin, and ſo fits them for ruine. Hence Bernard calls it, Miſericordiam omni indignatione crudeliorem. Poyſon in Wine works more furiouſly. The fatter the Oxe, the ſooner to the ſlaughter.

Neither ſhall he prolong his dayes] Pſal. 55.23. Jer. 17.11. hee dyes tempore non ſuo, Eccleſ. 7.17. though hee lives long: hee dyes before hee deſires, and when it were better for him to doe any thing than to dye; ſith hee hath walked in a vain ſhew diſq[illegible: 1 letter]ieting himſelf in vain, Pſal. 39.6. tumbling his tub to no purpoſe, lengthening out his dayes as a ſhadow: the longer the ſhade, the nearer the Sun is to ſetting. His Sun alſo ſets in the burning Lake, and it haſteneth to the deſcent: An end is come, is come, is come; ſee Ezek. 7.6, 7.

Becauſe he feareth not before God] But in Hypocriſie, before men, whoſe faces he feareth, and would bee much aſhamed, that they ſhould ſee what hee doth in ſecret, Epheſ. 5.12. But what ſaith the honeſt Heathen? Si ſcirem homines ignoraturos & Deos ignoſcituros, tamen propter peccati turpitudinem, peccare non vellem. Aug. de civ. Dei. l. 6. c. 10 A good reſolution ſurely, if as well put in execution. Sed libertas affuit ſcribenti, non viventi, ſaith Austine of this Author, Hee was a better ſpeaker than liver. That of David was ſpoken from his heart, I foreſee the Lord alwayes before my face, I ſet him at my right hand, &c. Pſal. 16.8. with Act. 2.25. Bee thou in the fear of the Lord all day long, Prov. 23.17.

Verſ. 14. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth] Symmachus reads it thus: Eſt difficile cognitu quod fit ſuper terram, There is that done upon the Earth that is hard to be underſtood. It hath gravelled great Divines (as David, Jeremy, Pſal. 73. Jer. 12. Habbak. 2. Lam. 3.33. Habbakkuk,) to ſee good men ſuffer, bad men proſper. But it is but upon the earth, that this befalls: here God muſt meet with his people, or no where, and it is Non niſi coactus, (as that Emperour ſaid of himſelf) that he doth any thing to their grief: Ille dolet quoties cogitur eſſe ferox.

Crudelem medicum intemperans aeger facit. Mimus.An unruly Patient makes a cruel Phyſician. And as for the wicked, it is but upon earth, that they live in pleaſure, and lye melting in ſenſual and ſinful delights, nouriſhing their hearts as in a day of ſlaughter, Jam. 5.5. Once they ſhall hear with horror, Son, remember that thou in thy life time receivedſt thy good things, and likewiſe Lazarus evil things: But now hee is comforted, and thou art tormented, Luke 16.25. The meditation of Eternity would much mitigate this vanity.Dr. Hall's Remedy of Prophaneneſſe, p. 114. What is that to the infinite? ſaid the old Lord Brook to a friend of his, diſcourſing of an incident matter very conſiderable, but was taken off with this quick interrogation of that wiſe and Noble perſon.

Verſ. 15. Then I commended mirth] A lawful lightſomeneſſe, and chearfulneſs of heart, which maketh comforts to be much more comfortable, and troubles to be farre leſſe troubleſome.Bucholc. Beſides, acceptior eſt Deo grata laetitia quam diuturna quaſi querula triſtitia. Cheerfulneſſe is better pleaſing to God, than ſowreneſſe and ſullenneſſe: this provokes him to anger, Deut. 28.47. as that which puts a man under the reign of continual unthankfulneſſe (Is any man merry? let him ſing, Jam. 5.13.) makes him exceeding liable to temptations and perplexities, diſableth him to make benefit of Ordinances, indiſpoſeth and unfitteth him for duties of active or paſſive obedience, takes off the wheels of the ſoul, and it makes as awkward, as a limb out of joynt, that can do nothing without deformity and pain.

Than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry] Although it bee the bread of ſorrow that thou eateſt, and the cup of affliction that thou drinkeſt, eat it, and drink it merrily. The Epicures held that a man might bee cheerful amidſt the moſt exquiſite torments. 1 In conſideration of his honeſty and fidelity, that hee ſuffered for. 2 In conſideration of thoſe pleaſures and delights that formerly he had enjoyed, and now cheered up himſelf with the remembrance of. How much better may Chriſtians doe it in conſideration of thoſe unutterable joyes and delights that they expect and hope for? Mendicato pane hic vivamus, &c. ſaith Luther. Wee may well bee content, nay merry though wee ſhould beg our bread here, to think that we ſhall one day feaſt with Abraham, Iſaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Verſ. 16. When I applied mine heart to know wiſdome] i. e. The wiſdome and other excellencies of God ſhining plainly and plentifully in ruling the affairs, and ordering the diſorders of the world to his own glory.

For alſo there is that neither day nor night ſeeth, &c.] i. e. Perdius & pernox, by day and by night, I buſied my ſelf in this ſearch, ſo that a little ſleep ſerved my turn all the while. Nullus mihi per otium exiit dies, partem etiam noctium ſtudiis vendico, ſaith Seneca, I ſtudied day and night, and followed it with all poſſible eagerneſſe. Thuanus tells of a Country-man of his, whom he called Franciſcus Vieta Fontenejus, a very learned man, that hee was ſo ſet upon his ſtudy, that for three daies together ſometimes hee would ſit cloſe at it, ſine cibo & ſomno, niſi quem cubito innixus, nec ſe loco movens, capiebat, without meat or ſleep, more than what for meer neceſſity of nature, hee took leaning upon his Elbow. Solomon ſeems by this text to have been as ſharp ſet for the finding out the way of Divine Adminiſtration, and the true reaſon of Divine diſpenſations. But hee got little, further than to ſee that it far exceeded all humane capacity and apprehenſion. Majores majora noverunt, & Deus det vobis plus ſapere quam dico, ſaith a Father, when hee ſaid what hee could to ſome one of Gods works of wonder, i. e. They who are more learned know: and God grant you may underſtand more than I ſay.

Verſ. 17. That a man cannot finde out the work] No not the wiſeſt that is; the very beſt Empirick in this kinde cannot. Let him labour never ſo much to finde it, hee ſhall but bee toſſed in a Labyrinth, or as a wayfaring man in a deſert.Granger. If a man cannot define any thing becauſe the forms of things are unknown, if hee know not the creatures themſelves, ab imo ad ſummum, from the loweſt to the higheſt, neither ſhall hee know the reaſons and manner of them. As a man may look on a Trade, and never ſee the myſtery of it, hee may look on artificial things, pictures, watches, &c. and yet not ſee the Art whereby they are made: As a man may look on the letter, and never underſtand the ſenſe: So it is here, and wee muſt content our ſelves with a learned ignorance. Si nos non intelligimus quid quare fiat, Aug. in Pſal. 148. debeamus hoc providentiae quod non fiat ſine cauſa. If wee underſtand not why any thing is done, let us owe this duty to Providence, to bee aſſured that it is not done without cauſe.