they present themselves to him; and if he cannot see through them he makes no attempt to hide his own ignorance, but leaves them in the hand of God, Whose Power and Justice are a sufficient answer to all difficulties in his mind.

The author was evidently a man of profound faith in God, of large and varied personal experience, of acute observation of men and things, and of deep sensibility. Probably he was first moved to write by a mind painfully full of the disappointing nature of all things viewed apart from God. Next to this we shall not err in ascribing to him a deep sympathy with fellow-men touched by the same natural feelings as himself, and suffering like him, though each in their several ways. And thirdly, there is on his part an evident desire to lead other men, and specially young men, out of the temptations which he had felt, and out of the perplexities which once entangled and staggered him. Whether his heart was chilled by old age or by the cold shadow of some former eclipse of faith can only be conjectured; but there is in Ecclesiastes an absence of that fervour of zeal for the glory of God which glows in other books, and which we are justified in regarding as a feature of Solomon's character in his early days. His immediate object would seem then to be to relieve his mind by pouring out the results of his own life, to comfort those who bore the same burden of humanity, and to lift up those who were naturally feeble or depressed by circumstances and to lead them in the way of God's commandments.

2. Critics who have studied Ecclesiastes with the greatest diligence entertain very different opinions as to its plan. Some have given it up as a maze without any designed arrangement: others think that it is constructed on a highly artificial and elaborate plan.

The writer of the book evidently regarded it as complete in itself. He states his subject and the question suggested by it at the beginning (i. 2, 3), and repeats it again at the end (xii. 8), and follows that repetition by a practical conclusion. And it is evident on a cursory perusal that here, as in the case of St Paul's Epistles, the first part

of the book is contemplative or doctrinal, and the latter part practical.

Any careful reader who may try to analyze the book will probably find such points as the following prominent in his recollection. First, there is the writer's statement of his subject, and his detailed account of his personal experience of the influence of vanity pervading human proceedings (ch. i., ii.). Then, there is the announcement of an external law to which also human affairs are subject, i.e. the Will of God, Whose plan, incomprehensible in its extent, is found by all to be more or less in conflict with man's will (ch. iii., iv.), the result of such conflict being disappointment and perplexity to man. Then there is the commencement (in ch. v.) of personal practical advice, followed by a mixture of reflections, maxims, and exhortations, in which the vanity of riches, the practical superiority of wisdom and patience, and the supreme power of God, are the prominent topics set forth in various ways(ch. vi., vii., viii.). In the ixth chapter the writer's reflections, and in the xth his maxims, are brought to an end; and in ch. xi. and xii. we have a concluding exhortation to such conduct and sentiments as are most likely to alleviate the vanity of this life, viz. to charity, industry, patience and the fear of God. I have endeavoured in the notes to trace the connection of one part with another.

In any attempt to analyze this book it ought to be borne in mind that, as Bishop Lowth observes, the Hebrews always kept to the primitive way of imparting instruction, and giving explanations, in sentences or maxims, and that accurate and complicated divisions of subjects were unknown to them. Among modern critics, Vaihinger has propounded the most elaborate plan for the division of the whole book into four discourses, the discourses into thirteen sections, the sections into thirty-seven strophes, &c. The foundation for this superstructure is the recurrence at intervals in the book of the statement of that temporal good which is described as man's "portion" (ii. 24, iii. 12, v. 18, viii. 15). This has suggested a fourfold division of the book which is substantially adopted by at least five able

critics, Ewald, Vaihinger, Keil, Davidson, and Zöckler. According to this scheme there are four discourses in the book; the first, ch. i., ii.; the second, iii.—v. ; the third, vi.—viii. 15; the fourth, viii. 16 to the end. There is great divergence even among those writers as to how far the subdivision of the discourses should be carried, and how the contents of each discourse should be described. The whole scheme seems too artificial for the age and circumstances of the author: but it is due to those critics to record an analysis which they agree in regarding as agreeable to the mind of the writer and useful to the reader.

3. If the book was composed, as seems probable, towards the end of Solomon's reign, its direct tendency is obvious. In an age when "silver was as stones in Jerusalem' no lesson was more necessary, and none would tell with deeper effect, than those powerful and touching declarations of the vanity of wealth and grandeur which are perhaps the most conspicuous feature in this book. The children of the First Covenant, always naturally disposed to form an exaggerated estimate of the blessing of earthly riches, might submit, even when that exaggeration was at its highest, to be corrected by the authority of their wealthiest king'. Farther, if the book appealed then, as it has ever since appealed, to an inner circle of more thoughtful readers, they especially who in those days discerned the signs of the approaching dismemberment of the kingdom and the diminution of the glory of Jerusalem would find their comfort in its lessons of patient endurance and resignation to the sovereign Will of God. Whenever the Church has been threat

1 Compare the instruction which our Lord connects with the grandeur of Solomon, Matt. vi. 24-34.

ened with approaching calamity this book has always shewn its consolatory effect upon devout believers. Thus it was that Jerome tells us that he read it with Blæsilla specially to move her to contempt of the world: and in the same age Augustine refers to it as setting forth the vanity of this life, only that we may desire that life wherein, instead of vanity beneath the sun, there is truth under Him Who made the sun. It was the same tendency which, in another evil time, induced the author of 'De Imitatione Christi' to borrow from Ecclesiastes the key-note of his golden book. It has had the effect of soothing the ignominy of a captive king', and has pointed the moral of the fall of one' who wielded more than kingly power. It served, before Christ came, to lighten for Jews the darkness of those "crooked" ways of God which have exercised the Christian penetration of such master-minds as Pascal and Butler. It mitigates the desolation of religious doubt. Evento persons who would scarcely place themselves in the class of devout believers, to such as "the melancholy sceptical, inquiring spirits of our own age," Ecclesiastes brings a special message of consolation and direction: for it shews that a cry of perplexity finds a place even in the sacred books; and it indicates a nearer approach to the living God in reverent worship (v. 1), in active service (xi. 6), in humble acknowledgment of His power (iii. 10-17), in reliance on His final justice (v. 8, xii. 13, 14), as the means by which that cry has been, and may again be, hushed.

3

1 "Vanity of vanities," was the solitary exclamation of Gelimer when led in triumph through Constantinople. Gibbon, ch. XLI. * See Chrysostom's first Homily on Eutropius. 'Works,' III. 381.

See Dean Stanley's 'Lectures on the Jewish Church,' Pt. II. Lect. 28.

CHAPTER I.

1 The preacher sheweth that all human courses are vain: 4 because the creatures are restless in their courses, 9 they bring forth nothing

THE words of the Preacher, the

salem.

son of David, king in Jeru

because he hath found it so in the studies of wisdom.

CHAP. I. 1-3. These introductory verses serve to describe the writer, and to state the subject of his book: see Introduction.

1. Preacher] Literally, Convener. No one English word represents adequately the Hebrew Koheleth. Though capable, according to Hebrew usage, of being applied to men in office, it is strictly a feminine participle, and describes a person in the act of calling together an assembly of people as if with the intention of addressing them. The word thus understood refers us to the action of Wisdom personified, described in Proverbs i. 20, viii. 8, &c. In that book, as in Ecclesiastes, Solomon seems to support two characters, speaking sometimes in the third person as Wisdom instructing the assembled people, at other times in the first person. So our Lord speaks of Himself (compare Luke xi. 49 with Matt. xxiii. 34) as Wisdom, and as desiring (Luke xiii. 34) to gather the people together for instruction. It is unfortunate for the English reader that the word "Preacher" does not bring this personification before our minds,

but a different idea.

2. Vanity] It is most important to understand this word (Hebel, or as it is spelt, when used as a proper name, in Gen. iv. 2, Abel), which occurs no less than thirty-seven times in Ecclesiastes, and has been called the key of the book. Primarily it means "breath," "light wind," as it should be translated in Isai. lvii. 13, &c. It denotes that which (1) passes away more or less quickly and completely, (2) leaves either no result or no adequate result behind, and therefore (3) fails to satisfy the mind of

vanity.

man, which naturally craves for something permanent and progressive: it is also applied to (4) idols, as contrasted with the Living, Eternal, and Almighty God, and thus in the Hebrew mind it is connected with sin. In this

book it is applied to all works on earth, to pleasure, grandeur, wisdom, the life of man, childhood, youth, and length of days, the oblivion of the grave, wandering and unsatisfied desires, unenjoyed possessions, and anomalies in the moral government of the world.

Solomon speaks of the world-wide existbut as a fact, which forced itself on him as he ence of vanity, not with bitterness or scorn, advanced in knowledge of men and things, and which he regards with sorrow and perplexity. From such feelings he finds refuge by contrasting this with another fact, which whole universe is made and is governed by a he holds with equal firmness, viz. that the God of justice, goodness, and power. How vanity came to exist in such a world is knowledge, unless the answer may be indicated seemingly beyond the sphere of Solomon's in vii. 29. But the place of vanity in the order of Divine Providence is explained to us by St Paul, Romans viii., where its origin is traced to the subjugation and corruption of creation by Sin as a consequence of the fall of man; and its extinction is declared to be reserved till after the Resurrection in the glory and liberty of the children of God.

Vanity of vanities] A well-known Hebrew idiom signifying vanity in the highest degree. Compare the phrase, "Holy of holies."

all] It is evident from verses 4—11 that

chap. A

Solomon includes in this word both the courses of nature and the works of man; just as St Paul (Rom. viii. 22) describes the whole creation as travailing together and subject to vanity.

3. What profit, &c.] The question here stated in this verse is substantially the same as is referred to in ii. 3, 22, iii. 9, v. 16, vi. 11, &c.; it is the great practical inquiry of the book, and receives its final answer in xii. 13, 14. When this question was asked (Rupert of Deutz observes) the Lord had not yet said, "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

profit] This word occurs with remarkable frequency in Ecclesiastes, and always in the sense of profit, or preeminence. It is therefore opposed to vanity. Its derivation is from a word signifying to hang over, overflow, abound, remain over and above.

bath a man] Rather, hath man. 4-11. Vanity is shewn in mankind, the elements and all that moves on earth, each in its own circle, in which the same course is repeated again and again without any permanent result or real progress; and events and men are alike forgotten.

4. abideth] The apparent permanence of the earth increases by contrast the transitory condition of its inhabitants.

for ever] The word olam here translated "ever" does not absolutely signify "eternity." That would doubtless be its meaning if e.g. it were applied to God, as in Deut. xxxii. 40: but it is often used to denote a certainly short period, as in Exod. xxi. 6. Here it might be paraphrased "as long as this world, this present order of things, lasts." Compare notes on iii. 11 and xii. 5.

5. hasteth] Lit. at his place panting (= eager; compare "rejoicing," Ps. xix. 5)

riseth he there.

6. The rhythm and meaning of this verse are slightly impaired by the translation of the same Hebrew word by four different English words. It might be more literally translated, Going towards the south and veering towards the north, veering, veering goes the wind; and to its veerings the wind returns.

7. the place] i.e. the spring or river-head. Solomon does not tell us in what way he supposes the water of the rivers to return to the spring. Judging from such passages as Prov. viii. 28, and Ps. civ. 10, 13, it would seem that the ancient Hebrews regarded the clouds as the immediate feeders of the springs.

It would be too much to infer from Gen. ii. 6

that they were distinctly acquainted with the process and result of evaporation. The notion that the rivers return by subterraneous channels from the ocean to the river-head is found in the Targum here, but not in the sacred text.

8. All things...utter it] This clause, as here translated, gives a good sense as a general statement of that restless activity of man and the powers of nature of which four specific instances have been given (4-7). Another translation, which however does not materially affect the sense, and savours of tautology, is preferred by some scholars. The word translated things (Vulgate, A.V., Vaihinger, Rosenm., Herzfeld, Grätz) may be rendered "words" (Sept., Ewald, Hitzig); and "are full of labour" may be rendered either actively (Knobel, Zöckler) "make weary "the hearers, or passively (Gesenius, Elster, Ginsburg) "are exhausted, feeble," or "insufficient" to tell the whole. Thus translated the clause would refer not directly to the immensity of the labour, but to the impossibility of adequately describing it.

9. hath been...is done] i.e. hath happened in the course of nature... is done by man.

former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

12 ¶ I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.

14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

15 That which is crooked cannot

11. things] Rather, men. So the Targum, Knobel and others.

12. Hitherto we have heard Wisdom, in highly poetic language, declaring generally the vanity of all things. Now, Solomon begins in less rhythmical language to relate his personal experience, which is continued to the end of the second chapter. Beginning with the time of his accession to the throne, when the gifts of wisdom and riches were specially promised to him (1 K. iii. 12, 13), he relates the anxious efforts which he made, with his unprecedented resources, to advance wisdom, pleasure, grandeur, and every personal gratification, and how the result of his experience was "no profit," and a conviction that all, even God's gifts of earthly good to good men, in this life are subject to vanity. His trial of his first gift, wisdom, is recounted in vv. 12—18. was] This tense does not imply that Solomon had ceased to be king when the word was written. "The preterite is very frequently used in describing a past which reaches forward into the present." Hengstenberg, so Grätz, and see Hitzig on iii. 15. See Introduction, p. 623. The same tense is used in a parallel text, vii. 15, "All this have I seen in the days of my vanity."

13. wisdom] Wisdom, Solomon's first gift, seems to include both the powers of observation and judgment, and the knowledge acquired thereby (1 K. iii. 28, iv. 29, x. 8, &c.). It increases by exercise. In these verses we have the account of its application to men and their actions, as is implied in the word "done."

travail] The word travail is always used in this book in the sense of toil. Here it is applied to all human occupations, as in iii. 10. To restrict it to the exercise and acquisition of wisdom is not necessary. God] See Note at end of Chapter.

14. vexation of spirit] Otherwise translated, feeding on wind. See Note at the end of the Chapter.

15. His investigation enabled him to see more clearly both the disorder and incompleteness of human actions (and, as it appears to man, of the course of events, vii. 13, which God allows to happen in this world) and also man's impotence to rectify them.

16. I am come...wisdom than] Rather, I ed")wisdom more than. have accumulated (lit. "enlarged and add

is probably to the line of Canaanitish kings they that have been, &c.] The reference who lived in Jerusalem before David took it, of whom the names of Melchizedek (Gen. xiv. 18), Adonizedek (Josh. x. 1), and Araunah (2 S. xxiv. 23), are known to us; or, it may be, to Solomon's contemporaries of his own country (1 K. iv. 31) and of other countries who visited him (1 K. iv. 34, and x. 24). The preposition "in" Jerusalem should be translated over. See Introduction, p. 623.

17. to know madness and folly] The question will be asked, Why should he have sought to know them? It has been answered that things are understood by their contraries; and thus a knowledge of folly would help him to discern wisdom, and to exercise that chief function of practical wisdom-to avoid folly.

18. Bp. Butler, 'Serm.' xv., explains this verse to this effect. We become more sensible of our ignorance and impotence, and therefore sorrowful, in proportion as we discover more of the constitution of nature and the scheme of Providence in the government of the world; every discovery serving to convince us that more remains concealed of which we had no suspicion before.

This verse is the subject of an acute and exhaustive sermon by Dr South, Vol. V. p. 1.