Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
Parallel Translations
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Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
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So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
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But I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun; and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter.
Cross-references (41)
Passages linked to Ecclesiastes 4:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ecclesiastes 3:16 Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.
- Ecclesiastes 5:8 If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one, and there are officials over them.
- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
- Job 35:9 “By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.
- Psalms 12:5 “Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”
- Psalms 42:3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
- Psalms 42:9 I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
- Isaiah 51:23 I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”
- Isaiah 59:13-15 transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter. Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
- Lamentations 1:2 She weeps bitterly in the night. Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies.
- Lamentations 1:9 Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.”
- Malachi 3:5 I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Matthew 26:56 But all this has happened that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
- 2 Timothy 4:16-17 At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear. So I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
- James 5:4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.
- Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
- Exodus 1:13-14 The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, and they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.
- Exodus 1:16 and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
- Exodus 1:22 Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
- Exodus 2:23-24 In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
- Exodus 5:16-19 No straw is given to your servants, and they tell us, ‘Make brick!’ and behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” But Pharaoh said, “You are idle! You are idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let’s go and sacrifice to Yahweh.’ Go therefore now, and work; for no straw shall be given to you; yet you shall deliver the same number of bricks!” The officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble when it was said, “You shall not diminish anything from your daily quota of bricks!”
- Deuteronomy 28:33 A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always,
- Deuteronomy 28:48 therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
- Judges 4:3 The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and he mightily oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years.
- Judges 10:7-8 Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the children of Ammon. They troubled and oppressed the children of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
- Nehemiah 5:1-5 Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews. For there were some who said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live.” There were also some who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine.” There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. It is also not in our power to help it, because other men have our fields and our vineyards.”
- Job 6:29 Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.
- Job 16:4 I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,
- Job 19:21-22 “Have pity on me. Have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me. Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
- Job 24:7-12 They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter. There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor, So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves. They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst. From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.
- Psalms 10:9-10 He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net. The helpless are crushed. They collapse. They fall under his strength.
- Psalms 69:20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.
- Psalms 80:5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.
- Psalms 142:4 Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.
- Proverbs 28:3 A needy man who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain which leaves no crops.
- Proverbs 28:15-16 As a roaring lion or a charging bear, so is a wicked ruler over helpless people. A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment. One who hates ill-gotten gain will have long days.
- Ecclesiastes 7:7 Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding.
- Malachi 2:13 This again you do: you cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand.
- Malachi 3:18 Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.
- Proverbs 19:7 All the relatives of the poor shun him: how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.
- Psalms 102:8-9 My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse. For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (23 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He maketh here another discourse with himself concerning the…
He maketh here another discourse with himself concerning the tyranny of them that oppressed the poor.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Ecc 4:1 So I returned, and considered all the…
Ecc 4:1 So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of [such as were] oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors [there was] power; but they had no comforter.
Ver. 1. So I returned, and considered.] Here is a second instance of corruption in civil state, added to that of Ecc 3:16, to fill up the nest of vanities.
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And behold the tears of such, &c.] Heb., Tear; as if they had wept their utmost, et vix unicam lachrymulam extorquere possent, and could hardly squeeze out one poor tear more for their own ease. For as "hinds by calving," so men by weeping "cast out their sorrows." {Job 39:3} {a} Now tears are of many sorts: Lachrymas angustiae exprimit crux; lachrymas poenitentiae, peccatum; lachrymas sympathiae, affectus; lachrymas letitiae, excellentia gaudii; denique lachrymas nequitiae, vel hypocrisis, vel vindictae, cupiditas. {b} Oppression draws tears of grief; sin, tears of repentance; affection, tears of compassion; good success, tears of joy; hypocrisy or spite, tears of wickedness.
And they had no comforter.] This was Job’s doleful case, and David’s, {Psa 69:21} and the Church’s in the Lamentations. {Lam 1:2} Affert solarium lugentibus suspiriorum societas, saith Basil Pity allays misery; but incompassionateness of others increaseth it. This was one of Sodom’s sins, {Eze 16:49} and of those epicures in Amos. {Amo 6:6} The king and Haman sat drinking in the gate; but the whole city of Shushan was in heaviness. {Est 3:15}
And on the side of their oppressors, &c.] The oppressed Romans sighed out to Pompey, Nostra miseria tu es magnus. You, our misery, is great. The world hath almost as many wild beasts and monsters as it hath landlords in various places. It is a woeful thing, surely, to see how great ones quaff the tears of the oppressed, and to hear them make music of shrieks.
{a} Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor. - Ovid.
{b} Alsted.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I considered again more seriously
I considered again more seriously
all the oppressions that are done under the sun, whether by supreme magistrates or judges, of which he spake Ecc 3:16, or by any other potent persons.
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They had no comforter; none afforded them either pity or succour, either out of a selfish and barbarous disposition, or for fear of exposing themselves thereby to the same injuries.
There was power, both in themselves, and because most men were ready to join with the strongest and safest side. So they were utterly unable to deliver themselves, and, as it follows, none else could or would do it.
They had no comforter; which is repeated as an argument both of the great inhumanity of men towards others in calamity, and of the extreme misery of oppressed persons.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Solomon had a large soul (Kg1 4:29) and it…
Solomon had a large soul (Kg1 4:29) and it appeared by this, among other things, that he had a very tender concern for the miserable part of mankind and took cognizance of the afflictions of the afflicted. He had taken the oppressors to task (Ecc 3:16, Ecc 3:17) and put them in mind of the judgment to come, to be a curb to their insolence; now here he observes the oppressed. This he did, no doubt, as a prince, to do them justice and avenge them of their adversaries, for he both feared God and regarded men; but here he does it as a preacher, and shows,
I. The troubles of their condition (Ecc 4:1); of these he speaks very feelingly and with compassion. It grieved him, 1. To see might prevailing against right, to see so much oppression done under the sun, to see servants, and labourers, and poor workmen, oppressed by their masters, who take advantage of their necessity to impose what terms they please upon them, debtors oppressed by cruel creditors and creditors too by fraudulent debtors, tenants oppressed by hard landlords and orphans by treacherous guardians, and, worst of all, subjects oppressed by arbitrary princes and unjust judges. Such oppressions are done under the sun; above the sun righteousness reigns for ever. Wise men will consider these oppressions, and contrive to do something for the relief of those that are oppressed. Blessed is he that considers the poor. 2. To see how those that were wronged laid to heart the wrongs that were done them. He beheld the tears of such as were oppressed, and perhaps could not forbear weeping with them. The world is a place of weepers; look which way we will, we have a melancholy scene presented to us, the tears of those that are oppressed with one trouble or other. They find it is to no purpose to complain, and therefore mourn in secret (as Job, Job 16:20; Job 30:28); but Blessed are those that mourn. 3. To see how unable they were to help themselves: On the side of their oppressors there was power, when they had done wrong, to stand to it and make good what they had done, so that the poor were borne down with a strong hand and had no way to obtain redress. It is sad to see power misplaced, and that which was given men to enable them to do good perverted to support them in doing wrong. 4. To see how they and their calamities were slighted by all about them. They wept and needed comfort, but there was none to do that friendly office: They had no comforter; their oppressors were powerful and threatening, and therefore they had no comforter; those that should have comforted them durst not, for fear of displeasing the oppressors and being made their companions for offering to be their comforters. It is sad to see so little humanity among men.
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II. The temptations of their condition. Being thus hardly used, they are tempted to hate and despise life, and to envy those that are dead and in their graves, and to wish they had never been born (Ecc 4:2, Ecc 4:3); and Solomon is ready to agree with them, for it serves to prove that all is vanity and vexation, since life itself is often so; and if we disregard it, in comparison with the favour and fruition of God (as St. Paul, Act 20:24, Phi 1:23), it is our praise, but, if (as here) only for the sake of the miseries that attend it, it is our infirmity, and we judge therein after the flesh, as Job and Elijah did. 1. He here thinks those happy who have ended this miserable life, have done their part and quitted the stage; "I praised the dead that are already dead, slain outright, or that had a speedy passage through the world, made a short cut over the ocean of life, dead already, before they had well begun to live; I was pleased with their lot, and, had it been in their own choice, should have praised their wisdom for but looking into the world and then retiring, as not liking it. I concluded that it is better with them than with the living that are yet alive and that is all, dragging the long and heavy chain of life, and wearing out its tedious minutes." This may be compared not with Job 3:20, Job 3:21, but with Rev 14:13, where, in times of persecution (and such Solomon is here describing), it is not the passion of man, but the Spirit of God, that says, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Note, The condition of the saints that are dead, and gone to rest with God, is upon many accounts better and more desirable than the condition of living saints that are yet continued in their work and warfare. 2. He thinks those happy who never began this miserable life; nay, they are happiest of all: He that has not been is happier than both they. Better never to have been born than be born to see the evil work that is done under the sun, to see so much wickedness committed, so much wrong done, and not only to be in no capacity to mend the matter, but to suffer ill for doing well. A good man, how calamitous a condition soever he is in in this world, cannot have cause to wish he had never been born, since he is glorifying the Lord even in the fires, and will be happy at last, for ever happy. Nor ought any to wish so while they are alive, for while there is life there is hope; a man is never undone till he is in hell.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that…
So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun,.... The wise man, according to Aben Ezra, returned from the thought, which he had expressed in the latter part of the preceding chapter, that it was good for a man to rejoice in his works, and called it in; since he could not rejoice, when he considered the oppression and violence that were in the world; but it does not appear that he did call it in, for he afterwards repeats it: or rather he returns to his former subject, the abuse of power and authority, mentioned Ecc 3:16; and from whence he had digressed a little by the above observation; and takes a review of all kinds of oppressions which are done, and of all sorts of "oppressed" (x) ones, as some render it, which become so, under the sun; subjects by their prince; the stranger, widow, and fatherless, by unjust judges; the poor by the rich; servants and labourers by their masters; and the like. Moreover, he saw by the Holy Ghost, as Jarchi paraphrases it, all oppressions by a spirit of prophecy; he foresaw all the oppressions that would be done under the sun; as all the injuries done to the people of Israel in their several captivities; so to the church of Christ in Gospel times; all the persecutions of Rome Pagan, and also of Rome Papal; all that has or will be done by antichrist, the man of the earth, who before long will oppress no more, Psa 10:18; the Targum restrains these oppressions to those which are done to the righteous in this world: and it is well observed by the wise man, that they are such as are under the sun, for there are none above it, nor any beyond the grave, Job 3:17;
and behold the tears of such as were oppressed; which their eyes poured out, and which ran down their cheeks, and were all they could do, having no power to help themselves: it is in the singular number, "and behold the tear" (y); as if it was one continued stream of tears, which, like a torrent, flowed from them; or as if they had so exhausted the source of nature by weeping, that the fountain of tears was dried up, and scarce another could drop; or it was as much as could be, that another should drop from them: and this the wise man could not well behold, without weeping himself; it being the property of a good man to weep with them that weep, especially with good men oppressed;
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and they had no comforter; to speak a comfortable word to them; not so much as to do that which would be some alleviation of their sorrow, much less to help them, no human comforter; and this is a very deplorable condition, Lam 1:2; indeed, when this is the case, good men under their oppressions have a divine Comforter; God comforts them under all their tribulations; one of the names of the Messiah is "the Consolation of Israel", Luk 2:25; and the Spirit of God is "another Comforter", Joh 14:16; and such are well off, when all other comforters are miserable ones, or other men have none;
and on the side of their oppressors there was power; to crush them and keep them under, or to hinder others from helping or comforting them: or there was no "power to deliver them out of the hand of their oppressors" (z); so some render and supply the words; with which sense agrees the Targum,
"and there is none to redeem them out of the hand of their oppressors, by strength of hand and by power.''
It may be rendered, "out of the hand of their oppressors comes power", or violence; such as the oppressed are not able to withstand; so the Arabic version;
but they had no comforter: which is repeated, not so much for confirmation, as to excite attention and pity, and to express the affliction of the oppressed, and the cruelty of others; and this following on the other clause, leads to observe, that the power of the oppressor is what hinders and deters others from comforting. Jarchi interprets this whole verse of the damned in hell, punished for their evil works, weeping for their souls oppressed by the destroying angels; and so, he says, it is, explained in an ancient book of theirs, called Siphri.
(x) "oppressos", Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Drusius, Schmidt, Rambachius, so Broughton; "fraudatos", Cocceius. (y) "lachryma", Montanus, Tigurine version, Cocceius, Rambachius. (z) "et quia deest facultas se vindicandi e manu opprimentium ipsos", Tigurine version; "aut evadendi e manu opprimentium se virtus", Junius & Tremellius; "nec vires ad evadendum a manu opprimentium ipsos", Piscator.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The misery of the oppressed and the oppressor, ver.…
The misery of the oppressed and the oppressor, ver. 1-3. Of being envied, which occasions sloth in others, ver. 4-6. The folly of hoarding up wealth, ver. 7, 8. The benefit of society, ver. 9-12. The mutability even of the royal dignity, thro' the foolishness of the prince, and the fickleness of the people, ver. 13-16.
I returned - I considered again. Oppressions - Whether by princes, magistrates, or other potent persons. No comforter - None afforded them pity or succor. But they, &c. - No comfort therein.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The vanity of life is increased by oppression, 1-3;
CHAPTER IV
The vanity of life is increased by oppression, 1-3;
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by envy, 4;
by idleness, 5.
The misery of a solitary life, and the advantages of society,
6-12.
A poor and wise child; better than an old and foolish king, 13.
The uncertainty of popular favour, 14-16.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV
Verse 1. Considered all the oppressions] עשקים ashukim signifies any kind of injury which a man can receive in his person, his property, or his good fame.
On the side of their oppressors there was power] And, therefore, neither protection nor comfort for the oppressed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Ecc 4:1. So I returned, and considered — I…
Ecc 4:1. So I returned, and considered — I considered again more seriously; all the oppressions — under the sun — Whether by princes, magistrates, or other potent persons; and the tears of such as were oppressed — Their grievous sufferings, sighs, and groans. And they had no comforter — None afforded them either pity or succour. For such was the greatness and power of their oppressors, that, as they could not defend themselves against them, so none else durst express their compassion toward them, much less plead for them, for fear of being made to suffer in the same way themselves.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain So I returned, and considered - Rather, And I…
So I returned, and considered - Rather, And I returned and saw. He turns to look upon other phenomena, and to test his previous conclusion by them.
Oppressed - See the introduction to Ecclesiastes.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Any. God suffereth the innocent to be oppressed for…
Any. God suffereth the innocent to be oppressed for a time, that they may merit a greater reward, Psalm lxxii.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain B. The Impediments to Earthly Happiness, proceeding partly from…
B. The Impediments to Earthly Happiness, proceeding partly from personal misfortune of various kinds, and partly from the evils of social and civil life
Ecc_4:1-16.
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1. The personal misfortune of many men
(Ecc_4:1-6)
1So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun; and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. 2Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. 3Yea, better is he than both they, which had not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. 4Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. 5The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own 6flesh. Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
2. The evils of social life
(Ecc_4:7-12)
7, Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun. 8There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour, neither is his eye satisfied with riches: neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail. 9Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour 10For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but wo to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. 11Again, if two lie together. then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? 12And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
3. The evils of civil life
(Ecc_4:13-16)
13Better is a poor and a wise child, than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. 14For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor. 15I considered all the living which walk under the 16sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead. There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
[Ecc_4:1. וְשַׁבְתּי אֲנִי וָאֶרְאֶח: I turned and saw, or I returned and saw, I looked again—שַׁכְתִּי used adverb ally, to denote repetition.—T. L.]
Ecc_4:2. וְשַׁבֵּחַ אֲנִי the participle piel with מ omitted, מְשַּׁבֵּחַ. The examples Zöckler brings in support being the infinitive, do not bear him out. Comp. מַהֵר for מְמַ Zep_1:14, in like manner the Pual participle without מ, asלֻקָח 2Ki_2:10, for יוּלָּד ,מְלֻקָּח for מְיֻלָּד Jdg_13:8, and יוּקָשִׁים Ecc_9:12, for מְיוּקָּשִׁים.
[Ecc_4:5. כִּשְׁרוֹן. See remarks, p. 53.—T. L.]
[Ecc_4:8. וּלְמִי. “and for whom.” The apparent conjunction ו, here, seems rather to have the force of an interjection, as in וֹאְֵיךְ Ecc_2:16 (see remarks on it, p. 58). Alas! how is it; so here, Ah me! for whom. Our conjunction has sometimes a similar emphatic instead of a mere copulative force. Or, it may be doubted whether, in such cases, instead of being copulative at all, it is any thing more than the exclamation זַَ in Arabic, which is, in like manner, joined to other words, as waika, vae tbin, or wa laka, eheu tibi, and sometimes to exclamatory phrases, as wa-sawa ta hu, in one word, proh dolr; O what a calamity! The abrupt exclamation is much more impressive and significant than the filling up of our English Version, “ neither does he say.” This is, moreover, false, since the writer does mean to represent the solitary rich man as thus saying. It is pressed out of him by a sudden sense of his folly. Dr. Van Dyke, in his late Arabic translation, makes it thus abruptly follow, which is the more easily done, since his Arabic word so nearly resembles the Hebrew, whilst the conjunction instead of ז gives it more of subjective connection. In such cases as this the Hebrew particle was doubtless pronounced wu, instead of the mere vowel sound u. In like manner, wa is ua, or oua, like the French oui. Compare Greek οὐά, Mar_15:29 (also found in classical Greek), and the more frequent οὐαι also the Hebrew וֹי ,אוֹי woi, or ou-oi. Even as a conjuction it has an emotional power: “and O, for whom, etc.”—T. L.]
[Ecc_4:14. הָסוּרים evidently a contraction for הָאֲוּרים. It is written according to the sound,—the אֲ with its light shewa, becoming a quiescent and disappearing, as in אֲשֶׁר when it becomes שׁ. This writing words according to the sound may mark an earlier period, when some changes had taken place, but attention had not been much drawn to the radical orthography as in later times. It is, however, very unsafe to draw any inference from it as to dates, either way. In Jer_37:15, we have בֵּית הָאֵסוּר, the singular of the word written in full, and used as synonymous with בֵּית הַכֶּלֶא, house of restraint.—T. L.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The plan of this section is extremely simple and clear. Each of the three divisions or strophes, as given above, is again divided into two smaller parts or half strophes, with which, each time, new turns of thought commence. The complete scheme is as follows: First strophe: The personal misfortune of men: Ecc_4:1-6; first half strophe: Ecc_4:1-3; second half strophe: Ecc_4:4-6. Second strophe: The evils of social life: Ecc_4:7-12; first half strophe: Ecc_4:7-8; second half strophe: Ecc_4:9-12. Third strophe: The evils of civil life: Ecc_4:13-16; first half strophe: Ecc_4:13-14; second half strophe: Ecc_4:15-16.—Comp. Vaihinger, Comment., p. 32 f., and also the Doctrinal and Ethical portion of this section.
2. First strophe: Ecc_4:1-6. It is not the really unfortunate men that alone suffer sorrows, oppressions, and violence of the most various nature (Ecc_4:1-3); the fortunate also find the joy of their life embittered by envy and want of true repose of soul (Ecc_4:4-6).—So I returned—namely, from the previous course of my reflections (which, according to chap. 3, had dwelt upon the foundation and nature of the earthly happiness of men). Hengstenberg justly claims for this passage, as well as for Ecc_4:7 and Ecc_9:11 (and also for Zec_5:1), the acceptance of וְשַׁבְתּי אֲנִי וָאֶרְאֶה in the sense of: “And I turned back and saw,” which is the same as: “And again I saw” (Ewald), and indicates the transition, to a new object of reflection, not the repetition of a reflection already made, as Hahn contends. Luther, Elster, Vaihinger, etc., are not correct in saying: “And I turned,” etc.; for שׁוּב expresses a sense different from פָּנָה or סָבַב (Ecc_2:12; Ecc_2:20, etc.).—And considered all the oppressions.—As in Amo_3:9, עֲשֻׁקִים must here also be taken in an abstract sense: “oppressions,” “violence;” for נַעֲשִׂים does not harmonize with the concrete sense, “oppressed,” whilst in the following clause the concrete sense “oppressed” appears from the context.—And behold the tears of such as were oppressed.—In the original, tear of the oppressed (דִּמְעָה a collective). The description presents a vivid reality, and does not magnify the actual conditions in a fantastic or sentimental manner, or from a bitter and peevish misanthropy, but simply reports facts; and facts such as the author had frequently experienced in consequence of the civilly dependent and depressed condition of his people.—And on the side of their oppressors there was power.—כֹּחַ here is equal to חָזְקָה (1Sa_2:16; Eze_34:4) violence. The repetition of the expression, “but they had no comforter,” realizes, with striking emphasis, the hopeless and desperate condition of those who suffer. Comp. the similar repetitions of the same tragic turn in Isa_9:11; Isa_9:16; Isa_9:20; Isa_10:4; Mar_9:44; Mar_9:46; Mar_9:48.
Ecc_4:2. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead.—שַׁבֵּחַ is not a participle with D omitted, but an infinitive absolute, which here contains the finite verb, as in Ecc_9:11, and in 1Ch_5:20 (comp. Berth, on this passage, and also Ewald, § 851 c).—More than the living which are yet alive.—עַדֶנָּה contracted from עַד הֵן ,עַד־הֵנָּה adhuc, yet. For the sentence comp. Ecc_7:1 f.; also Herodotus 1:31: ἄμεινον ἀνθρώπῳ τεθνάναι μάλλον ἢ ζώειν, as also Ecc_4:6 of Menander: Ζωῆς πονηρᾶς θάνατος αἰρετώτερος.
Ecc_4:3. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not been.—For this intensifying of the previous thought, comp. Ecc_6:3-5; Ecc_7:1; Job_3:13 ff.; Jer_20:18, and Theognis, Gnom., v. 425 ss.:
Πάντων μὲν μὴ φῦναι ἐπιχθονίοισιν ἄριστον,
Μηδ’ ἐσιδεῖν αὐγὰς ὀξέος ἡελίου,
Φύντα δ’, ὅπως ὤκιστα πύλας ’Αϊδαο περῆσαι,
Καὶ κεῖσθαι πολλὴν γῆν ἐπαμησάμενον.
Other parallels will be found in the classic authors, as Sophocles (Œd. Col., 1143 s.), Euritides. (Cresphontes fragm.13) Chalcidamus, Posidipp., Philemon, Val. Maxim. Ecc_2:6; Solinus (polyhist, e. 10), etc. Examine also Knobel on this passage, and Hengstenberg, p. 160 f. The difference between such complaints in heathen authors, and the same in the mouth of our own, is found in the fact that the latter, like Job and Jeremiah, does not stop at the gloomy reflections expressed in the lamentation, but, by proceeding to expressions of a more cheerful nature,1 announces that the truth found in them is incomplete, and only partial.
Ecc_4:4. Again—I considered all travail and every right work.—כִּשְׁרוֹן, as in Ecc_2:21, not of the successful result of work, but of its excellence in kind and manner; the Septuagint is correct: ἀνδρεία, and mainly so the Vulgate: industriee. But it is clear that the author is thinking mainly of such excellent and industrious people whose exertions are crowned with success, so that they can become objects of envy or jealousy. He is therefore now no longer regarding simply the unhappy and the suffering, as in Ecc_4:1-3, but also the relatively happy.—That for this a man is envied of his neighbor.—קִנְאַת אִישׁ מֵרֵעֵהוּ] i.e., jealous endeavor to anticipate another in available effort and corresponding success; consequently envious disposition and action, invidia (comp. Ecc_9:6, where קִנְאָה has the same meaning, and also Isa_11:13, etc.).—This is also vanity.—Because in the uncertainty of all earthly circumstances, it is of no true profit to surpass one’s neighbor in diligence and skill.
Ecc_4:5. The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.—Probably a proverb of like tendency with those of Pro_6:10; Pro_24:33, i. e., directed against idleness; it is therefore not the expression of the author, but a quotation of au envious person who endeavors to defend his zealous effort to surpass his neighbor in excellence, but which is immediately refuted in Ecc_4:6. Hitzig is correct in this view (comp. also the Int., § 1, Obs. 2), whilst Luther, Geier, Oetinger, Bauer, Vaihinger, etc., see rather the jealous man designated as a fool, who folds his hands in vexation and despair, and consumes his own flesh in wild passion, and Ewald, Hengstenberg, Elster, etc., think that the author is contrasting idleness with envy as its opposite extreme, in order to warn against the former; this were manifestly to presuppose a very abrupt and obscure mode of presentation. Concerning the phrase “foldeth his hands” as a Biblical expression for idleness, comp. Pro_6:10. “Eateth his own flesh” is to exhaust one’s strength, to use one’s fortune, to ruin one’s self, as occurs on the part of the idle; comp. Isa_49:26; Psa_27:2; Mic_3:3; Num_12:12.—
Ecc_4:6. Better is a handful with quietness, than both hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.—This is plainly 2 the answer which a defender of a contented, quiet spirit, void of envy, would give to that feverish jealousy which in Ecc_4:5 he had rebuked as foolish indolence, the disposition not to rival one’s neighbor in skill and diligence.—מְלֹא כַף, lit., “to be filled, to be full of hand.” It means “a little,” as taken in contrast with מִלֹא חָפְנַיִם “both hands full,” i. e., superfluity of any thing, great abundance. “Quiet” (נַחַת) and so also עָמָל “travail,” do naturally present, not only the respective dispositions and demeanors, but, at the same time, the casual circumstances connected with them, and forming their background; at one time a modest portion of worldly goods, at another a great fortune, collected with much exertion, but bringing only care and sorrow.
3. Second strophe. Ecc_4:7-12. By avarice, the nearest relative and affiliated vice of the envy just described, man brings himself into sad isolation and abandonment of friends, which is the greatest misfortune in social life, as it not only embitters all enjoyment of the amenities of this life, but robs us of all protection against men of hostile intent. For Ecc_4:7 compare what is said above of Ecc_4:1.
Ecc_4:8. There is one alone, and there is not a second—i. e., one standing entirely alone, without friends and companions, also without near blood relations (according to the following clause), consequently so much the more isolated and obliged to make friends by the free use of his riches, but which he does not do.—Neither is his eye satisfied with riches, i. e., he does not cease to cravo new treasures; comp. Ecc_2:10. The עֵינָיו must be retained, and need not be exchanged for עֵינו. Comp. 1Sa_4:15; 1Ki_14:6; 1Ki_14:12; Psa_37:31.—For whom do I labor and bereave my soul of good?—Lit., “let my soul fail of the good,” a pregnant construction like that in Psa_10:18; Psa_18:19. This question is put into the mouth of the covetous, but as one finally arriving at reflection, and perceiving the folly of his thus collecting treasures; comp. Ecc_2:18-21; Luk_12:16-21. But it does not follow from this sudden revulsion from foolish to sensible views, without further explanation, that Koheleth means himself (as above Ecc_2:18 ff.) in the person here described (as Hitzig contends).
Ecc_4:9. Two are better than one..—That is, it is better, in general, to be associated than isolated, comp. Gen_2:18, and the saying of the Talmud: “A man -without companions is like the left without the right hand” (Pirke Aboth; f. 30, 2).—Because they have a good reward for their labor.—Lit., who have a good reward for their labor. What this good reward consists of, the three subsequent verses show by three examples, which point out, in a similar manner, the pleasure as well as the profit and protection afforded by socially living and cordially co-operating with one’s fellows.
Ecc_4:10. For if they fall, i. e., the one or the other. We cannot think of both falling at the same time, because they then would both need aid.—But woe to him that is alone when he falleth.—אי לו “woe to him” comp.אִי רָךְ Ecc_10:16, and also the kindred הִי Eze_2:10.
Ecc_4:11. If two lie together, then they have heat.—The conjugal lying together of man and wife is certainly not intended, but rather that of two travelling: companions who are obliged to pass the night in the open air. The necessity of this in Palestine,3 on account of the prevalence of cold nights there, can easily cause great embarrassment, especially as poorer travellers have no other covering with them than their over-garment; comp. Exo_22:26; Son_5:3
Ecc_4:12. And if one prevail against him.—תקף means to overcome (comp. the adjective תַּקִּיף powerful, Ecc_6:10), not to attack (Knobel, Elster), or fall upon (Ewald). יִתְקְפוֹ is an indefinite singular with an object presupposed in the suffix: “if one overwhelmed him, the one;” comp. 2Sa_14:6; Pro_13:24; and Ecc_2:21, which passages satisfactorily show that Ewald’s proposition to read יִתְקְפוּ is unnecessary.—(Comp. Ewald, Lehrbuch, § 309 c).—Two shall withstand him.—Of course not the one mentioned in the first part, but rather his opponent, who forms the unnamed subject in יִתְקְפוֹ. Comp. similar cases in Ecc_5:18; Ecc_6:12; Ecc_8:10; as well as the phrase עָמַד נֶגֶד “to oppose somebody,” to resist one; 2Ki_10:4; Dan_8:7. Ewald and Elster are not so correct in saying: “thus stand two before him,” namely, the attacked one himself and his companion—which clearly affords too weak a thought.—And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.—That is, if three of them, instead of two, hold together, then so much the better. The symbol is taken from the fact that a cord of three strands holds more firmly than one consisting of a simple strand, or of two only. Comp. the well-known fable of a bundle of arrows, and the German proverb: “Strong alone, but stronger with others.” There is no allusion to the sacredness of the number three, and still less to the Trinity, which a few older commentators thought to find herein. Moreover, the title of several books of devotion is derived from this passage, e. g., the celebrated book of the Priest of Rostock, Nikolaus Russ, about the year Ecc 1500: de triplici funi:ulo, in which faith, hope and love are described is the three cords of which there must be made the rope that is to rescue man from the abyss of ruin. And so of later works, as (Lilienthal) “A Threefold Cord,” a book of proverbs for every day in the year (for every day a saying containing a promise and a prayer.)—New. Ed., Hamburg, Sigmund. A threefold cord, woven out of the three books of St. Augustine: Manuale, Soliloquia, et Meditationes, 1863. 4.Third strophe.
Ecc_4:3-16. That fortune often shows itself deceptive and unreliable enough in civil life, and in the highest spheres of human society, is illustrated by the double example of an old incapable king whom a younger person pushes aside, and that of his successor, an aspirant from a lower class, who, in spite of his transitory popularity, nevertheless falls into forgetfulness, like so many others. Like the fact alluded to in Ecc_9:13-16, this example seems to be taken from the immediate contemporary experiences of the author, but can only, with great difficulty, be more nearly defined on its historical basis. Only the first clause of 4:18 suits the history of Joseph, and, at most, Ecc_4:13 contains an allusion to David as the successor of Saul; Ecc_4:15 may allude to Rehoboam as successor of Solomon, and Ecc_4:14 perhaps to Jeroboam. But other features again destroy these partial resemblances every time, and demonstrate the impossibility of discovering any one of these persons in the “poor but wise youth.” Thus, too, the remaining hypotheses that have been presented concerning the enigmatical fact (e.g., the references to Amaziah and Joash, and to Nimrod and Abraham), can only be sustained by the most arbitrary applications. This is especially true of Hitzig’s supposition that the old and foolish king is the Onias mentioned by Josephus (Antiquities Ecc_12:4) as High Priest and προστάτης τοῦ λαοῦ, and that the youth supplanting him was his sister’s son, Joseph, who, if he did not succeed in robbing him of the priestly office (which his son Simon inherited) [see Sir_50:1 ff.], at least wrested from him the προστασία i.e., the lucrative office of a farmer of the Syrian revenues that he had then exercised twenty-two years, not indeed to the satisfaction of the people, but in a very selfish and tyrannical manner. This hypothesis does all honor to the learned acumen of its originator, but has so many weak points as to forbid its acceptance. For in the first place the ruler of a realm is portrayed in Ecc_4:15-16, and not a rich Judaic-Syrian revenue collector; secondly Onias was high-priest and not king, and lost only a part of his functions and power by that Joseph; thirdly, the assumption that the author exaggerates petty circumstances and occurrences in a manner not historical, is destitute of the necessary proof; fourthly, the supposition forming the base of the entire hypothesis of an authorship of Koheleth towards the end of the third century B.C. is quite as arbitrary and bare of proof; comp. Int., § 4, Obs, 3. We must, therefore, refrain from specially defining the event to which these verses allude; in which case the two following suppositions remain possible: either the author feigns an example, or, in other words, has presented the contents of Ecc_4:13-16 as a possible ease (thus think Elster, Hengstenberg, Vaihinger, el al.), or he refers to an event in the history of the nation or State, at his period, not sufficiently known to us (the- opinion of Umbreit, Ewald, Bleek, etc.). In the latter case, we could hardly think of a change of succession in the series of Persian monarchs; for the history of the rise of the eunuch Bagoas about the year 339 B.C. harmonizes too little with the present description to be identified with it, but we would sooner think of such a change in some one of the States subject to Persia, as Phenicia or Egypt.—Better is a poor and wise child, etc.—Clearly a general sentence for the introduction of the following illustration: “better” not here said of moral excellence, but “happier,” “better off,” just as טוֹב in Ecc_4:3; Ecc_4:9.“Wise” here is equivalent, to “adroit, cunning,” comp. Job_5:13; 2Sa_13:3.—Who will no more be admonished.—יָדַע לְ with the infinitive, as Ecc_5:1; Ecc_6:8; Ecc_10:16; Exo_17:16.
Ecc_4:14. For out of prison he cometh to reign.—בֵּית הָסוּרִים contracted from בֵּית הָאֲסוּרִים (comp. similar contractions in 2Ch_22:5; Eze_20:30), also synonymous with בֵּית אֲסִירִים, Jdg_16:21; Jdg_16:25 (comp. Gen_39:20). Or else this reading הָסוּרים must owe its origin to the opinion that Joseph’s elevation from the prison to the throne (Genesis 41 :) is here alluded to, in which case we should read בֵּית הַסּוּרים, and explain this either by “house of the outcast” “of the degraded” (Ewald, comparing Isa_49:21), or “by house of the fugitives” (Hitzig, comparing Jdg_4:18; 2Sa_3:36). But these varied meanings would produce very little difference in the sense,—Whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor.—כִּי גַם, after the כִּי of the preceding clause, introduces not so much a verification of it, as an intensification, by which is expressed that the prisoner (or fugitive) has not merely transiently fallen into adversity, but that he was born in poor and lowly circumstances; and this בְּמַלְכוּתוֹ “in his kingdom,” i. e., in the same land that ho should afterwards rule as king (Hitzig, Elster, Vaihinger and Ewald, who are mainly correct). Rosenmueller, Knobel and Hahn translate: “although he was born poor in his kingdom;” Hengstenberg: “for although born in his kingdom, he becomes poor nevertheless”—both of them less suitable meanings, of which the latter should be rejected as too artificial and contrary to the accentuation.
Ecc_4:15. I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child, etc.—A somewhat in-Sated description of the dominion and adherents which that youth (or child) had acquired. For the same child is doubtless meant as that named in Ecc_4:13-14, as the repetition of the expression יֶלֶד shows, as well as the words אֲשֶׁר יַעֲמֹד תַּחְתָּיו at the end, which indicate clearly enough the prospective introduction of the child into the place of the old and foolish king. The imperfect יַעֲמִד marks the future in the past—comp. 2Ki_3:27; Psa_78:6; and עָמַד in the same sense, as e. g., (Dan_11:2-3). Hahn, in connection with some older writers, considers the יֶלֶד הַשֵּׁנִי different from the יֶלֶד in Ecc_4:13, and identifies it with the Messiah child or the Christ child of Isa_9:5; Isa_11:1 ff.; Mic_5:1; but the contents of the following verse, which characterizes the splendor of the child most clearly as transitory and vain, are very decidedly against this position as something that would never be in accordance with the rule of the Messiah.—And moreover, from the expression: “All the living which walk under the sun,” it is by no means necessary to deduce that the author had in his eye one of the great Asiatic empires, as Hengstenberg supposes with reference to Dan_4:7 ff.; but the language here, as in the following verse, is largely hyperbolical, and is intended -merely to give an idea of the numberless masses adhering to the usurper; comp. similar hyperboles in the Son_6:8; Jos_11:4; Jdg_6:5; Jdg_7:12; Exo_10:4 ff.—There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them.—הָיָה לִפְנֵי denotes here, as in 1Sa_13:16;2Ch_1:10, the headship or leadership (comp. also Mic_2:13). [Zöckler says this to support his translation, an deren Spitze er stand, “all at whose head he stood,” notwithstanding all the connections of the passage show that priority in time is meant here by לִפְנֵיהֶם, and not priority of position. The references he makes to 1Sa_18:16, etc., do not, at all, sustain him, since; in every one of them, there are other words (such as “going in and out before them”), which wholly change the case.—T. L.]. Ewald, following the Sept., Vulg., and Luther, translate: “all that have been before them,” and indicate an antagonism between these earlier ones and those immediately after called אַחֲרוֹנִים but he thereby violates the connection, which clearly shows that the generations later, not those earlier than the king in question, were compared with him. It is said of them לֹא יִשְׂמְחוּ־בוֹ not בָּם—They also that come after shall not rejoice in him.—That is, they have no pleasant experiences of him whom they once greeted with joyful hopes, either that he deceived the just hopes of his people by later misrule, or that the fickle breeze of popularity became untrue to him without his fault. In either case, Koheleth could and must find a confirmation of his favorite expression concerning the vanity of earthly things. This clause is therefore again composed of the strain with which he closes his reflections.
[Alleged Historical Allusions in Koheleth.—See the general remarks on the passages here-alluded to, in the Appendix to the Introduction, p. 30. The older commentators who were firm in respect to the Solomonic origin, first began this kind of speculation. The Jewish Rabbis were excessively absurd in some of their midrashin. And so the older Christian interpreters were very fond of treating such passages as describing real historical events. They referred them to Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Joseph, Abraham, or any body else, because they thought it for the honor of the book, or of the Scriptures generally; as, in this way, one part confirmed another. The attempts to verify such hypotheses, however, only led to confusion, and tended rather to discredit than to increase confidence in the production. What was still worse, the Rationalists, whose interest it was bring the book down to a very late date, began, in like manner, to use these supposed references for their own purposes. The result has been a still greater confusion; and the great difficulty of making any thing clear out of them, ought to satisfy every sober mind of the falsity of the entire historical theory. Regarded as general illustrations, they are in perfect harmony with the authorship of Solomon; whilst the attempts of another kind show the insuperable difficulty of settling upon any other date than the one claimed in the book itself. The most extravagant hypothesis is that of Hitzig, as is shown by Zöckler and Stuart. A priest has to be turned into a king, and when even that fails, the taking away of a very subordinate office is to be treated as a dethronement. “What an outcry would be made by Ewald and his school, should they find similar wrenchings of language and history in commentators called orthodox ! As presented by Hitzig and others, it becomes all a mass of rationalistic confusion. Even if the author was of so late a date, he certainly means to personate the old king of Israel. He must, therefore, himself have been “old and foolish,” or consistency would have kept him from using as an illustration an incident so evidently anachronistic, as compared with any historical example likely to be given by Solomon. A writer assuming to personate some one in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and then using an illustration, insignificant in itself, and savoring wholly of the time of Gladstone, Bright, and Queen Victoria, would not have acted more absurdly.
The confusion and difficulty which such a mode of treatment (whether by Orthodox or Rationalist) has made in the interpretation of Ecc_4:13, have been greatly increased by a wrong translation of Ecc_4:14 th. It has been most commonly held that the, pronoun in מַלְכוּתוֹ (his kingdom) refers to the young man, and נוֹלָד, to some one, or to the subjects generally, born under his usurped power. This certainly destroys the contrast which the arrangement and the particles of the two verses seem to intend. Again, נוֹלָד (as a participle), or נוֹלַד, has been taken as referring to the young man himself, born in his, that is, the old man’s, kingdom—said young usurper himself afterwards becoming poor. Such seems to be Zöckler’s view partially. All sorts of twists are resorted to by others to make this applicable to Jeroboam, or Hitzig’s “young man” Joseph, or to somebody else. Our E.V. is ambiguous as to which is meant, and leaves the sense in total darkness. There is a striking contrast intended here, as is shown by the order of the words, and the particles כִּיֹ גַם. There is meant to be the most direct antithesis, as best illustrating such a vicissitude of fortune. The one born to a throne and becoming poor, is put in strongest contrast with the one born in obscurity and rising to power: “For out of prison (out of servitude or some condition of restraint, it may be actual imprisonment) the one comes forth to reign, whilst the other, though born in his kingdom (in his royal state), becomes a pauper. “The particle גַּם has an emotional force; it expresses astonishment at such a case: yea, more—what is stranger still—“the royally born becomes poor.” There is good authority for such a view, although most of the commentators wander after something else. The Vulgate renders it most clearly and literally: De carcere et catenis quis egrediatur inlerdum ad regnum, et alius, natus in regno, inopia consumatur: “From prison and from chains one may sometimes come forth to a kingdom, whilst another born in a kingdom may be reduced to want.” It is clear, from the mode of expression, that the Latin translator looked upon it as a general illustration of the changes in human fortune. A still better authority is the old Greek Version of Symmachus, the best of the Greek interpreters: ‘O MEN γὰρ ἐκ φυλακῆςͅ ἐξῆλθε βασιλεῦσαι, ‘Ο ΔΕ, καίπερ βασιλεὺς γεννηθέις, ἐστιν ἐνδεής: “The one comes from prison to reign, the other, born a king, becomes needy. This is confirmed by the Syriac translation of Origen’s Hexapla, which follows the Greek of Symmachus, word for word. See it, as given in the Syriac marginal translations to Middledorpf’s edition of the Codex Syriaco-hexaplaris.
Ecc_4:15. “I beheld all the living walking beneath the sun,” etc. Zöckler may well call this “a somewhat inflated description of the dominion which that youth had acquired.” It is indeed uberschwanglich, high-flown, most extravagant, as thus applied; and the thought should have shown him that there must be something false in the application. It is barely suggested by what was said before (Ecc_4:14) about the vicissitudes of the individual life, but has no other connection with it. It is a rising of the view to a higher scale, so as to take in the world, or race at large, and its olamic vicissitudes, as they might be called. ראיתי, I saw, I surveyed, or contemplated. It is presented as a picture of the mind taking in not single events, but all the living, כָּל הַחַיִּים. No where else in the Bible is this most sweeping language applied to such narrow uses as are here supposed. Where it is not used abstractly for life, as the plural חיים often is, it is never found in any less sense than the human race, or of the living as opposed to the dead. Comp. Job_28:12; Isa_8:20, “Land of the living,” Psa_142:6, “Light of the living,” similar expressions, Psa_116:9; also Ecc_6:8; Ecc_9:5, and other places. Here כל joined with it (and it is the only place where it is so joined) makes it still more difficult to restrict it to such a narrow sense. The language rises beyond this: “I surveyed, I contemplated, all the living, as they walked beneath the sun,” cunctos viventes ambulantes sub sole. These are certainly very lofty words to apply to a crowd running after Jeroboam, or Hitzig’s ambitious youth, or any other personage of that kind. No artificial rule of criticism, de universalibus restrinfendis, etc., can justify the use of such language, in such a case. The true idea, moreover, is intensified by the participle מְהַלְּכִים, in piel, marching, stately stepping, denoting a bold and proud movement, as in Ecc_11:9 הַלֵּךְ “march on in the ways of thine heart.” The piel does, indeed, seem, sometimes, to be used like the kal, but here every thing calls for its intensive or frequentative force. Comp. מְהַלֵּךְ, the bold invader, Pro_6:11, in parallelism with אִישׁ מָגֵן “man of the shield.” In this intensive sense of marching it would seem to picture the grand procession of the race, moving on, squadron after squadron, the countless multitude that has already passed, עִם הַיֶּלֶד השֵׁנִי, together “with the second generation,” as we do not hesitate to render it, that shall stand in its place,—the עִם here simply denoting the connection between the different parts of the picture or survey. The old procession that he thus saw walking beneath the sun (a term every where else used for the theatre of the human race), or the old part of it, is disappearing, whilst a younger world is now coming upon the stage and continuing the same ceaseless movement. As this rises before the mental vision of the seer [הָרֹאֶה], he cries out, אֵין קֵץ לְכָל הָעָם “ there is no end to all the people,”—there is no numbering the ranks of this vast host, as they ever come and go. As applied to Jeroboam, such language as this would not be a mere hyperbole, but a transcendental bombast, unworthy of the author and his most serious book. It calls to mind that sublime picture which Addison presents in his Vision of Mirza, the countless multitudes on the broken bridge of life, as they are ever coming out of the dark cloud on the one side, and passing away with the great flood of eternity on the other. It is this evident pictorial element in the verse, when rightly rendered, that strongly opposes the idea of any such comparatively petty historical references, and forces us to regard it as a representation of the great human movement through time into eternity. “No end to all that were before; yea, these that come after shall not rejoice in it [בּוֹ] that is, the עָם the people, the all, that were before it, now regarded collectively as the past in whom there is no more delight,—each generation satisfied with itself, and boasting of itself, as ours does, deeming itself, as it were, the all on earth; for what are all the ages past to this nineteenth century ! Now the pronoun in תָּהְתָּיו though singular in form, may have a collective antecedent, a case too common in the Hebrew language to require citations. The only antecedent of this kind, or of any kind, in the verse, is the אֶת־כָּל־הַחַיִּים the all of the living, and which the makkephs, and the accents, show to be taken as one: “all the living, etc., with the second generation that shall arise in its stead.” The evident parallelism favors this choice of the singular pronoun; but if we are to overlook all this for the purpose of maintaining a historical reference, then we must go back two verses, and find the antecedent in “ the old and foolish king,” in whose place this second child, with “all the living beneath the sun, and the people without end,” marching with him, is to stand! The common sense of the reader must judge in this matter. If, then, the pronoun in תַּחְתָּיו has for its antecedent the אֶת־כָּל־הַחַיִּים, grammatical consistency would demand, as the antecedent of the pronoun in בּוֹ (in it, instead of in him), the כֹּל אֲשֶׁר just before, especially as joined with the singular substantive verb הָיָה. Besides the desire to find historic allusions, two verbal peculiarities here seem to have had much influence upon translators. One is the use of this singular pronoun which has just been explained, and which the parallelism of the picture so strongly demands. The other is the somewhat peculiar use of the word יֶלֶד in Ecc_4:15, and its contiguity to יֶלֶד in Ecc_4:13, leading to the false inference that they must be used in precisely the same manner. Now though the use of יֶלֶד for generation is not found elsewhere in the Bible Hebrew, yet it is perfectly natural and in harmony with the frequent generic use of בּן. It is, too, highly poetical, thus to regard one generation as the offspring, the child, of the preceding. It is only using יֶלֶד for the cognate תּוֹלְדָה from the same root, and the unusual expression may have been suggested by the יֶלֶד in Ecc_4:13, giving such a turn to the thought and the language. The order of ideas would be this: as the “young man” succeeds the old, so does the young race succeed its progenitor. So the primary sense of γένος in Greek is child, offspring, and from this comes its use for race, generation. Whilst, then, it may be said that the word, etymologically, fits the thought, nothing could be more graphic than, the mode of representation.
Agreeing with this is an interpretation given by that acute Jewish critic, Aben-Ezra, except that it takes the pronoun in בּוֹ as referring to the עוֹלָם or world, so frequently mentioned. After stating the other view, he proceeds to say: “There are those who interpret הַיֶּלֶד הַשֵּׁנִי the second child, as denoting the generation that comes after another (הדור הבא אחריו) and the meaning as being, that he saw the living as they walked beneath the sun, and they, with their heirs that shall stand in their place, are like those who went before them, and these, as well as those, shall have no joy (בּוֹ) in it, that is, בעולם in the world.” It is the same procession so curtly, yet so graphically, described eh. Ecc_1:4 : “generation comes, and generation goes,” לעולם Rashi regards ילד as meaning generation, but strangely refers it to the generation of Noah, and the אחרנים or “they who come after,” to that of Peleg.
The Hebrew preposition עם like the Latin cum and the English with when used for and, may denote a connection in thought, or in succession, as prmterea, besides, as well as, like the Arabic דַًَ “I saw all the living walking, etc., and together with, or along with them, or besides this, I saw the second generation." This is a well established use of the preposition. Comp. 1Sa_17:4; 1Sa_16:12 : אדמוני עם יפה מראה “ruddy as well as fair,” and in this book, Ecc_2:16, חכם עם הכםיל “the wise man as well as the fool,” 1Ch_25:8, מבין עם תלמיד “teacher (with) as well as the disciple,” Psa_106:6, “we with our fathers,” we and our fathers, or we as well as our fathers; also Neh_3:12; Psa_115:13; Dan_11:8; Psa_104:25, “the great as well as the small,” and other places. The great difficulty in the way of the common view is the word הַשֵּׁנִי “The second child,” “the child the second,” must denote one of two or more. A concordance shows that there is no exception to this. To take it in the sense of successor to something of a different kind (a second one) is without an example to support it. No mention is made of any other “child,” or “young man.” The difficulty has led some to give השּׁני the sense חבר, companion, for which they seek a warrant in the 10th verse; and then they refer it to a son of Hiram, who was Solomon’s friend or companion: “I saw the child (the son) of my friend.” See Notes to Noldius Heb. Part. No.1023. This is very absurd; and yet the one who defends it denounces the absurdity of the more common reference to Jeroboam. Whoever wishes to see “confusion on confusion heaped,” in the treatment of these passages, and in the attempt to restrict the extent of this language, may consult De Dieu, Crit. Sac., p. 183. Take these verses, however, as general reflections on the vicissitudes of the individual and of the race, and all this confusion immediately gives place to harmony.—T. L.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
(With Homiletical Hints.)
Among the examples in proof of the imperfection and inconstancy of earthly happiness, which the Preacher communicates in the above section from the rich treasures of his own experience, we find the relation of an ascending grade from lower to higher and more brilliant conditions of happiness. From the sad lot of victims innocently suffering from tyrannical persecution and oppression (1–3), the description proceeds directly to the more lucky but not more innocent condition of persons consumed with envy, dissatisfaction and jealousy, and who with toilsome efforts chase after the treasures of this earth, looking with jealous envy on the successful rivals of their struggles, and with scorn on those less fortunate, who are contented with a more modest lot (4–6). Then follow reflections regarding the happiness of such persons as have risen through the abundance of their goods to a distinguished and influential position in human society, but who, in consequence of this very wealth, run the risk of falling into a helpless, joyless, and isolated condition, destitute of friends and adherents (Ecc_7:12). The illustration hereby induced of the value of closer social connection of men, and harmonious co-operation of their powers to one end (9–12) leads to the closing reflection; this is devoted to the distress and disaster of the highest circles of human society, acknowledging the fate even of the most favored pets of fortune, such as the occupants of princely or kingly thrones, to be uncertain and liable to a reverse, and thus showing that the sentence against the vanity of all earthly things necessarily extends even to the greatest and most powerful of earth (13–16).
“There is no complete and lasting happiness here below, neither among the lofty nor the lowly,” or: “Every thing is vanity on earth, the life of the poor as of the rich, of the slave as of the lord, of the subject as of the king;”—this would be about the formula of a theme for a comprehensive consideration of this section. The effort of Hengstenberg to restrict the historical references of this section to the sufferings of the children of Israel mourning under the yoke of Persian dominion, is quite as unnecessary as the corresponding position in the preceding chapter; yet still the most of the concrete examples for the truth of the descriptions given, may be drawn from the history of post-exile Israel, which are therefore thus to be chosen and arranged in the homiletical treatment.
HOMILETCAL HINTS ON SEPARATE PASSAGES
Ecc_4:1-3. Brenz:—The word of God teaches us that crosses and sufferings pave the way to eternal bliss, and that the Lord grants to the wicked in this world a free hand for the exercise of their crimes and violence, with the view of sinking them ever deeper in their lusts; but it teaches also that the faith of the pious is to be maintained through suffering, and to be finally brought to light in the judgment of the last day, in the great decision of all things.
Starke:—Thou miserable one, who sighest and weepest at violence and wrong, know that the Lord sees and counts thy tears (Psa_56:9). Beware of impatience, distrust, and self-revenge against thy persecutors (Rom_12:19)!
Hengstenberg:—Such an experience of human misery (as is here depicted, and also in Jer. chap. 20.) is not only natural, but it lies in the purpose of God, who brings about the circumstances that call it forth. God wishes to draw us to Him, by making this world thoroughly distasteful, and nothing but vanity to us. We must be liberated from earthly things through many trials, and thus enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Ecc_4:4-6. Brenz:—The world greatly errs in always demanding for its satisfaction a superfluity of goods and treasures, and in regarding modest possession as deprivation and misery. And yet one can live contented and satisfied just as well with a little as with rich superfluity, if one only aims, in a proper manner, after contentment, or in such a way that one lets God the Lord be his treasure and highest good.
Geier:—One should not consider a rich man happier than a poor man, because of his many possessions. He who has much, has also much unrest and care, and is moreover greatly envied by others.
Wohlfarth:—With true wisdom, Solomon warns us just as much against a passionate and excessive effort after a lofty aim, as against that indolence which folds its hands in its lap and waits for miracles. He admonishes us rather to a sober and well-ordered labor in our vocation, and thus, in every respect, recommends the just medium in our activity.
Ecc_4:7-12. Melanchthon:—Solomon here shows how necessary for human life is the social combination of men for the advancement of the arts, industries, and duties of life. All classes need such mutual aid and assistance, and each individual must prosecute his labor for the welfare of the whole, must advance their interest, and make every effort to prevent division and separation.
Cramer (Ecc_4:7-8):—The slaves of mammon are blinded, and are their own tyrants. They do not leave themselves space enough to enjoy their blessings; therefore the rust of their gold and silver is a testimony against them. (Jam_5:3).
Zeyss (Ecc_4:9-12):—If a community of the body is so useful a thing, how much more useful must be a community of spirit, when pious Christians with united strength of spirit withstand the realms of Satan.
Wohlfarth:—It is not merely a sacred desire that draws men to men, brings together souls of like inclination, and binds kindred hearts. We can neither rejoice in our happiness, nor finally bear the trials that meet us, nor joyfully advance in the way of piety and virtue, if we have not true friends. Oh how sacred, therefore, is the union of wedlock, of parents and children, of relatives and friends!
Von Gerlach:—Joy shared is two-fold joy; grief shared loses half its pain.
Ecc_4:13-16. Brenz:—Faith has here a good probationary school, in which it can learn and try its powers. For when God elevates the lowly, faith can cherish hope, but when He bends and overthrows the proud necks of the rich, it learns to fear. God presents such examples to the eyes of His chosen, that they may increase and be exercised both in the fear of His holy wrath, and in hope of heavenly glory.
Weimar Bible:—We should never depend on large possessions and great power, and much less seek true happiness therein, Psa_75:5-6.
Starke:—It is a clear indication of Divine Providence, that in no place, and at no epoch, is there a failure of children and posterity to fill the places of the aged as they disappear.
Footnotes:
[1] [There is a still more striking contrast, a double antithesis, it may be said, between the classical and the Scriptural poets. In their descriptions of nature and of human life we often find the former class of writers beginning in the joyful or major mood, and ending in the minor. It may be called the melancholy of Epicureanism. Thus it is with Anacreon, though he lived before the time of the sensual philosopher. How often does he begin with “flowers, and love, and rosy wine ”—
Επὶ μυρσίναις τερείναις
Επὶ λωτίναις τε ποίαις κ. τ. λ.
On beds of softest fragrance laid,
Soft beds of lote and myrtle shade.
And so goes on the joyful strain—but not far before the modulation changes into the mournful key—into a wail of despair, as it would almost seem:
βιότος τρέχει κυλισθεὶς,
ὀλίγη δὲ κεισόμεσθα
So swiftly runs the wheel of life,
And we shall lie—a little dust—
A heap of mouldering bones.
See also how similar jovial strains are closed by his sad picture of old age, and the still darker one of the dreadful Hades:
Ἀἴδέω γὰρ ἐστὶ δεινὸς
καθόδος——
For dreadful is that gloomy vale;
And then the dark descent so deep,
That none can reascend the steep.
This peculiarity is no less striking in Horace. Thus, in the 4th ode of the 1st Book, there is a most charming picture of spring, continuing for some distance, till it closes with the exulting strain—
Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto;
Aut flore terræ quam ferunt solutæ.
And then, without any warning prelude, there comes the mournful minor:
Pallida mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,
Regumque turres.
Pale Death, with equal step, at kingly tower,
And at the poor man’s cottage, knocks.
Again, Ode 7th, Lib. iv., commencing with—
Diffugere nives, redeunt jam gramina campis.
The snows are fled, the flowers again return.
Then the picture of the dancing Graces, when immediately a different voice seems to meet our ears:
Immortalia ne speres,———
Damna tamen celeres reparant cœlestia lunæ—
Nos ubi decidimus,
Pulvis et umbra sumus:
Hope not for immortality———
The waning moons again their waste repair;
But we, when once to death gone down,
Are nought but dust and shadow.
In contrast with this, how joyfully rings out the prophetic strain, Isa_26:19 :
Awake and sing, ye dwellers in the dust.
How different, too, in these respects, from Horace and Anacreon, are the lyrics of the Psalmist. The most mournful descriptions of the frailty and transitory state of man on earth are so frequently succeeded by assurances of some future blessedness, which, although not clearly defined, and containing little or no direct allusions to an after life, do ever seem to imply it as the ground of confidence in the Divine goodness. “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Thus in the 103 Psalm, Ecc_4:15, etc.:
Frail man—like grass his days;
As the flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over, and it is gone;
Its place knoweth it no more.
Immediately hope rises:
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting—
Even unto everlasting, upon those who fear him;
His righteousness to children’s children.
Again,—encouragement in the contemplation of human weakness is derived from the thought of the Divine permanence and eternity, Psa_102:1 :
My days are like a shadow that declineth;
I am withered like grass;
But thou, Jehovah, dost endure forever.
Thy remembrance unto all generations.
Again, Psa_115:17 :
The dead praise not the Lord———
and immediately the language of hope, implying something more than that mere selfish thought of survivorship, which the rationalist would give it:
But we will bless the Lord,
From henceforth and forever—hallelujah.
A similar transition, Psa_73:26 :
My flesh and heart do fail:
Body and soul both suffer from their connection with a fallen spiritual state, and a degenerate nature.
But God is the rock of my soul;
He is my portion for ever.
Similar illustrations of these affecting contrasts might be derived from Job, as in chapters 14 and 19, especially the latter, where the triumphant strain, “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” follows so soon after what might Seem almost a piteous cry of despair. In Koheleth there are no such vivid bursts of joy and hope, but there is to be found in him a species of transition similar, and equally striking. It is when be rises from the seemingly doubting mood, to a firm faith in the ultimate Divine justice, and to a most confident expression of his belief that somehow, and somewhere, and at some time , every wrong shall be righted. conceding to him this, we are led, irresistibly, to infer something else which is necessary to give meaning to the announcement,—namely, that there shall be a real forensic manifestation with a conscious knowledge of it on the part of every intelligent subject, or object, of such righteousness.—T. L.]
[2] [This is not so clear, although Zöckler has with him most of the commentators. There is good reason for regarding it as the language of the idle envier, who would justify his sloth by making a pretended virtue of it. “why all this labor? Better take the world easy.” It has something of the look of the “sour grapes” fable; or it may be compared to the bacchanalian song of the shiftless idler, assuming to despise what he has not the talent nor the diligence to acquire:
“Why are we fond of toil and care?”
The view taken by Zöckler and others seems very confused it is not easy to discover any true connection in it. The perplexity, we think, comes from assuming that ver.5 is a quoted proverb, and not the very languages of the author, setting the idle envious fool and his words (in ver.6) in contrast with the diligent and prosperous laborer whom the fool envies but cannot imitate. This is the view presented in the Metrical Translation:
The fool [in envy] folds his hands, and his own flesh devours. For better [saith he] is the one hand filled with quietness, Than both hands full of toil, and windy vain desire.
It seems to make a clearer connection.—T. L.]
[3][One of the best illustrations of the is to be found in captain Kane’s Journal of his Arctic Voyage, Vol. II., p. 144. He describes his camping out on the snow, in company with the Esquimaux chief, Kalatunah, and the agreeable warmth arising from the close contact of their bodies, at a time when the thermometer showed a most intense degree of cold. The comfort of the position overbalanced all the repulsiveness that, under other circumstances, he should have felt towards his squalid companion.—T. L.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. The writer now looks upon the suffering which…
1. The writer now looks upon the suffering which arises from “man’s inhumanity to man.” The royal writer, if such he be, does not confine his survey of the oppressions practiced by men to his own kingdom alone. He surveys all the oppressions under the sun, whether in his own kingdom, in neighboring nations, or in universal history. He states not merely what he saw but what he considered. I returned, and considered, is equivalent to, again I saw, implying merely a new line or object of observation. In the Hebrew the same word occurs twice. Our version renders it, oppressions and oppressed. Better, oppressed, each time: all the oppressed who are made such under the sun; the latter part serving to hold the attention longer. The down-trodden classes, like the French peasantry until the Revolution, the English agricultural labourers, the former American slaves, and very many other examples, illustrate this observation.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. So I returned, and considered] The thought that…
1. So I returned, and considered] The thought that follows is the same in substance as that of chap. Ecc_3:16, but, in the speaker’s wanderings of thought he passes once again, after the manner of the ἐποχὴ, or “suspense” of Pyrrho, he looks at the same facts, the “oppressions” and disorders of the world as from another stand-point, and that standpoint is the negation of immortality, or, at least, the impossibility of being sure of it. It may be noted that the tone is that of a deeper compassion than before. He sees the tears of the oppressed and sighs at their hopelessness: “Oh, the pity of it! the pity of it!” We can see in this new element of despair, that which was the beginning of a better life. The man was passing, to use modern terms, from egoism to altruism, thinking more of the misery of others than of his own enjoyment.
they had no comforter] The iteration rings like a knell of doom. The words have sometimes been taken as if they meant “they had no advocate, none to plead their cause,” but there is no sufficient reason for abandoning the more natural meaning. It was the bitterest drop in their cup, that men met with no sympathy, no visits of consolation such as Job’s friends paid him. They found none to pity or to comfort them. So the absence of comforters is the crown of sorrow in Psa_69:20; Lam_1:2; Jer_16:7, as its presence was one of the consolations of the bereaved household of Bethany (Joh_11:19). It may be noted, that, as far as it goes, this picture of the social state in which the Debater found himself is in favour of a later date than that of Solomon. The picture of that king’s reign was, like that of the days of “good Queen Bess” in our own history, one of almost proverbial prosperity; the people “eating, drinking and making merry” (1Ki_4:20), and his administration, as far as his own subjects were concerned, one of “judgment and justice” (1Ki_10:9). It was probably equally true of the Persian kings and of the Ptolemies that their rule was cruel and oppressive. The picture which Justin gives of the state of Egypt under Ptolemy Philopator (xxix. 1) and Ptolemy Epiphanes exactly corresponds with that drawn by Koheleth.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Having dwelt on the instability of human happiness,…
IV.
(1) Having dwelt on the instability of human happiness, the Preacher now turns to contemplate the actual misery of which the world is full.
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Oppressions.—Job_35:9; Amo_3:9.
No comforter.—If Solomon were the writer, one asks, What was the king about? Could he do nothing but express helpless despair?
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-16. Section 5. Koheleth proceeds to give further…
Vers. 1-16. Section 5. Koheleth proceeds to give further illustrations of mans inability to be the architect of his own happiness. There are many things which interrupt or destroy it.
Vers. 1-3. First of all, he adduces the oppression of man by his fellowman.
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So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun. This is equivalent to, "again I saw," as ver. 7, with a reference to the wickedness in the place of judgment which he had noticed Ecc_3:16. Ashukim, "oppressions," is found in Job_35:9; Amo_3:9, and, being properly a participle passive, denotes oppressed persons or things, and so abstractedly "oppressions." Taav (Septuagint) calumnias (Vulgate). The verb is used of high-handed injustice, of offensive selfishness, of the hindrances to his neighbor"s well-being caused by a man"s careless disregard of aught but his own interests. (comp. 1Sa_12:4; Hos_12:8, etc.) Beheld the tears of such as were oppressed; twn sukofantoumenwn (Septuagint); innocentium (Vulgate). He notes now not merely the fact of wrong being done, but its effect on the victim, and intimates his own pity for the sorrow. And they had no comforter. A sad refrain, echoed again at the end of the verse with touching pathos. Oujk estin aujtoiv parakalwn (Septuagint); they had no earthly friends to visit them in their affliction, and they as yet knew not the soothing of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter (Paraklhtov). There was no one to wipe away their tears (Isa_25:8) or to redress their wrongs. The point is the powerlessness of man in the face of these disorders, his inability to right himself, the incompetence of others to aid him. On the side of their oppressors there was power (koach), in a bad sense, like the Greek bia equivalent to "violence." Thus the ungodly say, in the Book of RAPC Wis 2:11, "Let our strength be the law of justice." Vulgate, Nec posse resistere eorun violentiae, cunctorum auxilio destitutes. It is difficult to suppose that the state of things revealed by this verse existed in the days of King Solomon, or that so powerful a monarch, and one admired for "judgment and justice", (1Ki_10:9) would be content with complaining of such disorders instead of checking them. There is no token of remorse for past unprofitableness or anguish of heart at the thought of failure in duty. If we take the words as the utterance of the real Solomon, we do violence to history, and must correct the existing chronicles of his reign. The picture here presented is one of later times, and it may be of other countries. Persian rule, or the tyranny of the Ptolemies, might afford an original from which it might be taken.
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1-3.
Two pessimistic fallacies; or, the glory of being born.
I THE FIRST FALLACY. That the dead are happier than the living.
1. Even on the assumption of no hereafter, this is not evident. The already dead are not praised because they enjoyed better times on earth than the now living have. But
(1) if they had better times when living, they have these no more, having ceased to be; while
(2) if their times on earth were not superior to those of their successors, they have still only escaped these by subsiding into cold annihilation, and it has yet to be proved that "a living dog" is not "better than a dead lion". (Ecc_9:4) Besides,
(3) it is not certain there is no hereafter, which makes them pause and hesitate to jump the life to come. When they discuss with themselves the question
Whether "tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?
they generally come to Hamlet"s conclusion, that it is better to
Bear the ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of.
2. On the assumption that there is a hereafter, it is less certain that the dead are more to be praised than the living. It depends on who the dead are, and what the kind of existence is into which they have departed.
(1) If they have lived unrighteously on earth, it will not be safe, even on grounds of natural reason, to conclude that their condition in the unseen land into which they have vanished is better than that of the living who are yet alive, even should these also be wicked; since for these there are still time and place for repentance, which cannot be affirmed of the ungodly dead.
(2) If their lives on earth have been pious e.g., if as Christians they have fallen asleep in Jesus it need hardly be doubted that their condition is better even than that of the godly living, who are still dwellers in this vale of tears, subject to imperfections, exposed to temptations, and liable to sin.
II THE SECOND FALLACY. That better than both the living and the dead are the not yet born.
1. On the assumption that this life is all, it is not universally true that not to have been born would have been a preferable lot to having been born and being dead. No doubt it is sad that one born into this world is sure, while on his pilgrimage to the tomb, to witness spectacles of oppression such as the Preacher describes; and sadder that many before they die will be the victims of such oppressions; while of all things, perhaps the saddest is that a man may even live to become the perpetrator of such cruelties; yet no one can truly affirm that human life generally contains nothing but oppression on the one side and tears upon the other, or that in any individual"s life naught exists but wretchedness and woe, or that in the experiences of most the joys do not nearly counterbalance, if not actually outweigh, the griefs, while in that of not a few the pleasures far exceed the pains.
2. On the assumption of a hereafter, only one case or class of cases can be pointed to in which it would have been decidedly better not to have been born, viz. that in which one who has been born, on departing from this world, passes into an undone eternity. Christ instanced one such case; (Mat_26:24) and if there be truth in the representations given by Christ and his apostles of the ultimate doom of those who die in unbelief and sin Mat_11:22 Mat_13:41, 42 22:13 24:51; Joh_5:29; 2Th_1:9; Rev_21:8 it will not be difficult to see that in their case also the words of the Preacher will be true.
3. In every other instance, but chiefly in that of the good, who does not see how immeasurably more blessed it is to have been born? For consider what this means. It means to have been made in the Divine image, endowed with an intellect and a heart capable of holding fellowship with and serving God. And if it also signifies to have been born into a state of sin and misery in consequence of our first parents" fall, it should not be forgotten that it signifies, in addition, to have been born into a sphere and condition of existence in which God"s grace has been before one, and is waiting to lift one up, completely and for ever, out of that sin and misery if one will. No one accepting that grace will ever afterwards deem it a misfortune that he was born. Thomas Halyburton, the Scottish theologian (A.D. 1674-1712), did not so regard his introduction to this lower world,with all its vicissitudes and woes. "Oh, blessed be God that I was born!" were his dying words. "I have a father and a mother, and ten brothers and sisters, in heaven, and I shall be the eleventh. Oh, blessed be the day that ever I was born!
Learn:
1. The existence of sin and suffering no proof that life is an evil thing.
2. The wickedness of undervaluing existence under the sun.
3. The folly of over-praising the dead and underrating the living.
4. A worse thing than seeing "evil work" beneath the sun is doing it.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Ver. 1.
The oppressed and the oppressor.
Liberty has ever been the object of human desire and aspiration. Yet how seldom and how partially has this boon been secured during the long period of human history! Especially in the East freedom has been but little known. Despotism has been and is very general, and there have seldom been states of society in which there has been no room for reflections such as those recorded in this verse.
I THE TYRANNY OF THE OPPRESSOR.
1. This implies power, which may arise from physical strength, from hereditary authority, from rank and wealth, or from civil and political position and dignity. Power will always exist in human society; drive it out at one door, and it will re-enter by another. It may be checked and restrained; but it is inseparable from our nature and state.
2. It implies the misuse of power. It may be good to have a giant"s strength, but "tyrannous to use it like a giant." The great and powerful use their strength and influence aright when they protect and care for those who are beneath them. But our experience of human nature leads us to believe that where there is power there is likely to be abuse. Delight in the exercise of power is too generally found to lead to the contempt of the rights of others; hence the prevalence of oppression.
II THE SORROWFUL LOT OF THE OPPRESSED.
1. The sense of oppression creates grief and distress, depicted in the tears of those suffering from wrong. Pain is one thing; wrong is another and a bitterer thing. A man will endure patiently the ills which nature or his own conduct brings upon him, whilst he frets or even rages under the evil wrought by his neighbor"s injustice.
2. The absence of consolation adds to the trouble. Twice it is said of the oppressed, "They had no comforter." The oppressors are indisposed, and fellow-sufferers are unable, to succor and relieve them.
3. The consequence is the slow formation of the habit of dejection, which may deepen into despondency.
III THE REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY SUCH SPECTACLES.
1. No right-minded person can look upon instances of oppression without discerning the prevalence and lamenting the pernicious effects of sin. "To oppress a fellow-man is to do despite to the image of God himself.
2. The mind is often perplexed when it looks, and looks in vain, for the interposition of the just Governor of all, who defers to intervene for the rectification of human wrongs. "How long, O Lord!" is the exclamation of many a pious believer in Divine providence, who looks upon the injustice of the haughty and contemptuous, and upon the woes of the helpless who are smitten and afflicted.
3. Yet there is reason patiently to wait for the great deliverance. He who has effected a glorious salvation on man"s behalf, who has visited and redeemed his people," will in due time humble the selfish tyrant, break the bonds of the captive, and let the oppressed go free. T.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-3.
Pessimism and Christian life.
It is a very significant fact that this pessimistic note (of the text) should be as much heard as it is in this land and in this age; in this land, where the hard and heavy oppressions of which the writer of Ecclesiastes had to complain are comparatively unknown; in this age, when Christian truth is familiar to the highest and the lowest, is taught in every sanctuary and may Be read in every home. There are to be found
(1) not only many who, without the courage of the suicide, wish themselves in their grave; but
(2) also many more who believe that human life is worth nothing at all, even less than nothing; who Would say with the Preacher, "better than both is he who hath not been;" who would respond to the English poet of this century in his lament
Count o"er the joys thy life has seen, Count o"er thy days from sorrow free; But know, whatever thou hast been, Tis something better not to be.
There is an unfailing remedy for this wretched pessimism, and that is found in an earnest Christian life. No man who heartily and practically appropriates all that Christina truth offers him, and who lives a sincere and genuine Christian life, could cherish such a sentiment or employ such language as this. For the disciple of Jesus Christ who really loves and follows his Divine Master has
I COMFORT IN HIS SORROWS. He never has reason to complain that there is "no comforter." Even if human friends and earthly consolations be lacking, there is One who fulfils his word, "I will not leave you comfortless;" "I will come to you;" "I will send you another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth." Whether suffering from oppression, or from loss, or bereavement, or bodily distress, there are the "consolations which are in Jesus Christ;" there is the "God of all comfort" always near.
II REST IN HIS HEART. That peace of mind, that rest of soul which is of simply incalculable worth (Mat_11:28; Rom_5:1) a sacred, spiritual calm, which the world "cannot take away.
III RESOURCES WHICH ARE UNFAILING. In the fellowship he has with God, in the elevated enjoyments of devotion, in the intercourse he has with holy and earnest souls like-minded with himself, he has sources of sacred joy, "springs that do not fail.
IV THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS IN ALL HIS HUMBLEST LABOR. He does everything, even though he be a servant or even a slave, as "unto Christ the Lord;" and all drudgery is gone; life is filled with interest, and toil is crowned with dignity and nobleness.
V JOY IN UNSELFISH SERVICE OF HIS KIND.
VI HOPE IN DEATH. C.
HOMILIES BY J. WILLCOCK
Vers. 1-3.
Oppression of man by his fellows.
Many different phases of human misery are depicted in this book, many different moods of depression recorded; some springing from the disquietude of the writer"s mind, others from the disorders he witnessed in the world about him. Sensuous pleasure he had declared (Ecc_3:12, Ecc_3:13, Ecc_3:22) to be the only good for man, but now he finds that even that is not always to be secured. There are evils and miseries that afflict his fellows, against which he cannot shut his eyes. A vulgar sensualist might drown sorrow in the wine-cup, but he cannot, "His merriment is spoiled by the thought of the misery of others, and he can find nothing "under the sun "but violence and oppression. In utter despair, he pronounces the dead happier than the living" (Cheyne). If he does not actually deny the immortality of the soul, and is therefore without the consolation of believing that in a life to come the evils of the present may be reversed and compensated for, he ignores it as something of which we cannot be sure. We may see in this passage the germ of a higher character than is to be formed by the most elaborate self-culture; the spontaneous and deep compassion for the sufferings of others which the writer manifests tells us that a nobler emotion than the desire of personal enjoyment fills his mind. He tells us what he saw in his survey of society, and the feelings which were excited within him by the sight.
I THE WIDESPREAD MISERY CAUSED BY INJUSTICE AND CRUELTY. (Ver. 1.) His description has been only too frequently verified in one generation after another of the world"s history.
Man"s inhumanity to man Hakes countless thousands mourn.
The barbarities of savage life, the wars and crusades carried on in the name of religion, the cruelties perpetrated by despotic rulers to secure their thrones, the hardships of the slave, the pariah, and the down-trodden, fill out the picture suggested by the words, "I considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun." They all spring from the abuse of power (ver. 1), which might and should have been used for the protection and comfort of men. The husband and father, the king, the priest, the magistrate, are all invested with rights and authority of a greater or less extent over others, and the abuse of this power leads to hardships and suffering on the part of those subject to them which it is almost impossible to remedy. For many of the evils that may afflict a community a revolution may seem the only way of deliverance; and yet that in the vast majority of cases means, in the first instance, multiplying disorders and inflicting fresh sufferings. Anarchy is a worse evil than bad government, and the fact that this is so, is calculated to make the most ardent patriot hesitate before attempting to set wrong right with a strong hand.
II THE FEELINGS EXCITED BY A CONTEMPLATION OF HUMAN MISERY. (Vers. 2, 3.) One good point in the character of the speaker we have already noticed, and that is that he cannot banish the thought of the distresses of others by attending to his own ease and self-enjoyment. He is not like the rich man in the parable, who fared sumptuously every day, and took no notice of the hungry, naked beggar covered with sores that lay at his gate. (Luk_16:19-21) On the contrary, a deep compassion fills his heart at the thought of the oppressed who have no comforter, and the fact that he cannot deliver them or ameliorate their lot does not lead him to consider it unnecessary for him to distress himself about them; it rather tends to deepen the despondency he feels, and to make him think those happy who have done with life, and rest in the place where "the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary be at rest". (Job_3:17) Yea, better, he thinks, never to have been than to see the evil work that is done under the sun (ver. 3). The distress which the sight of the sufferings of the oppressed produces is unrelieved by any consolatory thought. The writer does not, as I have said, anticipate a future life in which the righteous are happy, and the wicked receive the due reward of their deeds; he does not invoke the Divine interposition on behalf of the oppressed in the present life, or speak of the salutary discipline of sufferings meekly borne. In short, we do not find here any light cast upon the problem of evil in a world governed by a God of infinite power, wisdom, and love, such as is given in other passages of Holy Scripture (Job, passim; Ps 73; Heb_12:5-11) But we may freely admit that the depth and intensity of feeling with which our author speaks of human misery is infinitely preferable to a superficial optimism founded, not upon Christian faith, but upon an imperfect appreciation of moral an-d spiritual truth, and generally accompanied by a selfish indifference to the welfare of others. A striking parallel to the thought in this passage is to be found in the teaching of Buddhism. The spectacle of miseries of old age, disease, and death, drove the Indian prince, Cakya Mouni, to find in Nirvana (annihilation, or unconscious existence) a solution of the great problem. But both are superseded by the teaching of Christ, who gives us to understand that "not to have been born" is not a blessing which the more spiritually minded might covet, but a state better only than that exceptional misery which is the doom of exceptional guilt. J.W. (Mat_26:24)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that…
Ecc_4:1
So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun.
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The nature and wickedness of oppression
There is scarce any sin against which more is said in the Word of God, or which is more reproachful to a man and to a Christian, or more mischievous to society, than oppression. Yet I fear it is a sin which more persons are guilty of, and more suffer by, than is generally known.
I. Consider what oppression is, and the most striking instances in which men are guilty of it.
1. It is dealing unjustly or unkindly by a person over whose time, goods, trade, or business the oppressor hath power. It is principally the vice of rich men and superiors, who have power over their workmen, servants, tenants, and other inferiors. But it is not confined to them. The poor often meet with very bad, if not the worst, treatment from those who in station and fortune are very little above them. It is oppression, when men impose what terms they please upon others in commerce and dealings, without regarding what is just and right; when they oblige others to sell their goods under their real value, because they are in necessity; or to give more for a commodity than it is worth, because they cannot do without it. Selling bad and damaged goods to persons who dare not refuse to take them, and yet must lose by them, or not sell them again for a reasonable profit, is another instance of this vice. If a person makes a relation, a neighbour, or dependant, pay dearer for what he buys than his other customers, because he is under particular obligations to buy of him, he is an oppressor. Taking exorbitant interest for money lent, or exchange of bills and cash, on account of mens necessities, is extortion and oppression. Where a person, or a combination of persons, engross the whole of any commodity which is to be sold, in order to make an excessive gain of it, or to injure other tradesmen in the same way of business, this is oppression. Again, to be rigorous in exacting debts or other rights to the very utmost farthing, where poverty, sickness, losses, dear seasons, or a large family render men incapable of paying what they owe; to allow them no time to satisfy their creditors; or to strip them of their all; this is cruelly oppressive. Obliging persons, over whom men have power, to vote or act against their consciences; persecuting, reviling, or even bantering, men for their religious sentiments and worship, is dreadful oppression. In the black list of oppressors must likewise be ranged parents, masters and mistresses of families and schools, who behave cruelly and severely to their children, servants, and scholars. There is likewise great oppression in a haughty, insolent, overbearing way of speaking to inferiors, which is very grating and hurtful to any sensible mind.
II. The great evil and wickedness of it.
1. It proceeds from a very bad disposition of mind. The principal source of it is covetousness; an inordinate love of the world (Jer_22:17). In some persons the practice of this sin proceeds from pride; to show their authority over others, and to keep them in awe. Hence they treat their inferiors as if they were of a lower species, and not worthy of common justice. This chows a base, ignoble mind (Psa_63:6-8). In some, it is owing to luxury and extravagance. They are dressed with the spoils of the poor; and their fine houses, equipages, and entertainments are supported by the properties and comforts of others. It is sometimes owing to sloth; because, like drones in the hive, they will not work, they prey upon the labours of the industrious. It is very often owing to resentment, malice, and ill-nature.
2. Oppression is a high ingratitude and affront to the righteous God. It is ingratitude to Him, because He giveth men all their wealth and power over others, and He doth this, not that they may oppress, but protect, relieve, and serve others, and be a blessing to them. It must, therefore, be horrid ingratitude to abuse and pervert these favours to their injury. But what renders it worse is, that He hath bestowed upon men spiritual blessings and Christian privileges, and, therefore, to oppress and injure them must be proportionably wicked. Further, He hath placed men in different circumstances in life; made both the rich and the poor. He hath allotted to men such conditions here that they need one anothers assistance. The rich want the labour of the poor, as the poor want the money of the rich; and God expects that they should help one another, and so contribute to the general happiness. To oppress the poor, then, is defeating the wise and kind design of Gods providence.
3. It is detestable inhumanity and cruelty to the oppressed. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. What then must we think of those who are oppressive and cruel to their fellow-men, but that they are utterly void of justice, goodness, and humanity, that they are monsters and not men?
4. It is directly contrary to the design of the Gospel; which is to promote righteousness, love, peace, and happiness upon earth, as well as to secure the eternal salvation of mankind.
5. It will sink men into everlasting ruin. God is a just and righteous Being, and at the judgment-day He will render to every one according to his works. The Lord seeth and remembereth all the oppression that is done under the sun, and He will at length reckon with those who have done it.
application.
1. I shall address oppressors; those whose consciences tell them, as in the sight of God, that they have been guilty of this sin in the instances above mentioned or any other. I exhort you, sirs, to hearken to the voice of conscience as the voice of God; to submit to its reproofs; and to be humbled deeply before God for your injustice and cruelty to men.
2. Let me address the oppressed. It may perhaps be the ease of some of you, and I would endeavour to be your comforter. Acknowledge the justice of the Lord in what you suffer from the hand of men. Though they are unrighteous, He is righteous, for you have sinned; and He may choose this method of afflicting you, to lead you to repentance, to exercise your virtues, and make your hearts better. Let me exhort you to guard against a spirit of malice and revenge. Remember that their oppressing you will be no excuse for injustice to them. That it is no harm to bite the biter is a very wicked maxim. It is better to suffer many wrongs than to do one. Yea, it is our duty to render good for evil.
3. I would address those who can appeal to a heart-searching God that they are guiltless of this sin. I would exhort you to guard against the love of money, which is the chief root of this evil. To prevent your becoming oppressors, go not to the utmost bounds of things lawful. Keep on the safe side. Be not only just, but honourable, generous, and charitable, and abstain from the very appearance of evil. Let me exhort you, likewise, to be comforters of the oppressed. (Job Orton, D. D.)
Womans work and overwork
It was considered honourable for women to toil in olden times. Alexander the Great stood in his palace showing garments made by his own mother. The finest tapestries at Bayeux were made by the queen of William the Conqueror. Augustus, the Emperor, would not wear any garments except those that were fashioned by some member of his royal family. So let the toilers everywhere be respected! The greatest blessing that could have happened to our first parents was being turned out of Eden after they had done wrong. Ashbel Green, at fourscore years, when asked why he kept on working, said: I do so to keep out of mischief. We see that a man who has a large amount of money to start with has no chance. Of the thousand prosperous and honourable men that you know, nine hundred and ninety-nine had to work vigorously at the beginning. But I am now to tell you that industry is just as important for a womans safety and happiness. The little girls of our families must be started with that idea. The curse of our American society is that our young women are taught that the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, tenth, fiftieth, thousandth thing in their life is to get somebody to take care of them. Instead of that, the first lesson should be how under God they may take care of themselves. Madame do Stael said: It is not these writings that I am proud of, but the fact that I have facility in ten occupations, in any one of which I could make a livelihood. Though you live in an elegant residence and fare sumptuously every day, let your daughters feel it is a disgrace to them not to know how to work. I denounce the idea prevalent in society that though our young women may embroider slippers and crochet and make mats for lamps to stand on without disgrace, the idea of doing anything for a livelihood is dishonourable. It is a shame for a young woman belonging to a large family to be inefficient when the father toils his life away for her support. It is a shame for a daughter to be idle while her mother toils at the wash-tub. No woman, any more than a man, has a right to occupy a place in this world unless she pays a rent for it. Society is to be reconstructed on the subject of womans toil. A vast majority of those who would have woman industrious shut her up to a few kinds of work. My judgment in this matter is that a woman has a right to do anything she can do well. There should be no department of merchandise, mechanism, art, or science barred against her. If Miss Hosmer has genius for sculpture, give her a chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has a fondness for delineating animals, let her make The Horse Fair. If Miss Mitchell will study astronomy, let her mount the starry ladder. If Lydia will be a merchant, let her sell purple. It is said, if woman is given such opportunities she will occupy places that might be taken by men. I say, if she have more skill and adaptedness for any position than a man has, let her have ill She has as much right to her bread, to her apparel, and to her home as men have. But it is said that her nature is so delicate that she is unfitted for exhausting toil. I ask in the name of all past history what toil on earth is more severe, exhausting, and tremendous than that toil of the needle to which for ages she has been subjected? Oh, the meanness, the despicability, of men who begrudge a woman the right of work anywhere in any honourable calling! I go still further and say that women should have equal compensation with men. By what principle of justice is it that women in many of our cities get only two-thirds as much pay as men and in many cases only half? Here is the gigantic injustice--that for work equally well, if not better, done, women receive far less compensation than men. Years ago one Sabbath night, in the vestibule of this church, after service, a woman fell in convulsions. The doctor said she needed medicine not so much as something to eat. As she began to revive, in her delirium she said, gaspingly: Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight cents! I wish I could get it done, I am so tired. I wish I could get some sleep, but I must get it done. Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight cents! We found afterwards that she was making garments for eight cents apiece, and she could make but three of them in a day. Hear it! Three times eight are twenty-four. Hear it, men and women who have comfortable homes. How are these evils to be eradicated? Some say: Give women the ballot. What effect such ballot might have on other questions I am not here to discuss; but what would be the effect of female suffrage on womens wages? I do not believe that women will ever get justice by womans ballot. Indeed, women oppress women as much as men do. Do not women, as much as men, beat down to the lowest figure the woman who sews for them? Woman will never get justice done her from womans ballot. Neither will she get it from mans ballot. How then? God will rise up for her. God has more resources than we know of. The flaming sword that hung at Edens gate when woman was driven out will cleave with its terrible edge her oppressors. But there is something for women to do. Let young people prepare to excel in spheres of work, and they will be able after a while to get larger wages. If it be shown that a woman can, in a store, sell more goods in a year than a man, she will soon be able not only to ask, but to demand more wages, and to demand them successfully. Unskilled and incompetent labour must take what is given; skilled and competent labour will eventually make its own standard. (T. DeWilt Talmage.)
They had no comforter.
No comforter
It is the glory of the Gospel that it is not only a religion of conversion, but a religion of consolation. It ministers peace, and makes even the human side of life capable of deep and abiding joy. The promise has been fulfilled, and the soul bears witness that He is true who says, I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
I. The latent pain. This pain does not leap forth at once. It is a kind of hidden fire: a sort of slumbering force. Students of life should think deeply on this, that pain lies hidden in pleasure. The strangest fact in life is that the measure of joy is often the measure of sorrow. The height of gain is the length of the shadow of loss. The keener our affection, the more bitter our anguish when bereavement comes. The more ardent our pursuit, the more depressing the disappointment in missing the goal. In Jesus Christ our Lord He has offered us a renewed nature and a restful heart. He has given us a Saviour and a Comforter. We need no more. If the latent pain leaps forth, we have an anodyne for sorrow, a perfect absolution for sin, a balm for broken hearts, a brother born for adversity, and beyond the present the glories of immortal life. At our peril we put Christ away. Out in the wide fields of human search we come upon no footprints of another Saviour.
II. The charlatan comforters. Yes! there are comforters. We find that men will put the poppy in the pillow when there is no peace in the heart. They seek comfort. Sometimes in quiet retreats, where the scenes of the city life do not haunt them, Natures floral groves and woodland shadows constitute a veil to hide the weird forms of guilt and shame and sorrow to be met with in crowded centres of life. But past life will there come back to memory, and unforgiven sin will there send its sharp dagger to the heart. Or it may be that freedom from necessity brings comfort, and that superfluity has made the old days of care and struggle only a memory! Now at all events there are no sleepless nights, no battles amid daily anxiety for daily bread, and we sit under the restful shadow of trees planted long ago! Then, too, much looks like comfort, which comes from ease of circumstance, when the couch is of down, and no spectre of anxiety crosses the earthly threshold. But even then there are deep necessities of the soul, if we are dead to things divine.
III. The fulness of Christ. I do not mean merely Divine perfectness in the quantity of sympathy, but, if I may say so, in the quality of it. Nothing is more wonderful than the way in which the weary soul finds sympathy in the Saviour. There is a revelation of grace in Christ which makes Him the complement of each mans nature. Sorrows differ; doubts differ; needs differ; tastes differ; and even the wounds inflicted by bereavement differ. But Christ searches us, and knows us all. And what sweet response comes from hearts that have trusted in Him, as they unite in testifying, His grace is sufficient for us! How patiently Christians suffer! How trustfully they rest! How cheerfully they live! How hopefully they die!
IV. The missing good. No comforter! Then who will show us any good? For we cannot unmake ourselves. There is the connection of comfort with conscience. Divine redemption still, as of old, is a necessity of the human heart. Then there is the connection of comfort with character. We are made new creatures in Christ Jesus. We have new motives, new aims, new desires, new sympathies, new relationship to God. Our life is hid with Christ in God--the blessed God: and then peace flows like a river through the heart. This is life eternal. Then there is the connection of comfort with influence. That man has no comforter who realizes that the influence of his life is an infection of evil, an impulse to the lower life. Even if he possess genius, it may be but an added force for harm. But the Christian has this comfort, though no minstrel sings the story of his chivalry, though no sculptured marble tells the tale of his renown--yet he liveth to the Lord, he dieth to the Lord. The world of holy influence will be the richer for his being! (W. M. Statham.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Ecc_4:1. So I returned.] Passing from the reflections of…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecc_4:1. So I returned.] Passing from the reflections of the last chapter to a new subject of contemplation. They had no comforter. The repetition of this phrase is intended to make the thought emphatic.
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Ecc_4:4. Every right work.] Every work marked by excellence and skill. But the writer has chiefly in view that successful work which excites the envy of others.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Ecc_4:1-3
THE TYRANNY OF FORCE AGAINST RIGHT
I. Such tyranny is an immense evil.
1. It is an old evil. From the days of Cain, who did the first murder, there have been tyrants who have used their power to oppress the innocent. Brute force, without the government of the reason and conscience, employed to crush the defenceless, is one of the earliest forms of human iniquity.
2. It is an inveterate evil. Since Abel’s murder, the oppressors and the oppressed have been the chief actors in history. In every age, might has prevailed over right. No nation can show a clear page, purged from this blot. Humanity has become so indoctrinated with the claims of mere power that armies are still called “forces.” Even now, society is not advanced enough to render supreme homage to reason and moral right. Still the ultimate appeal of nations is to force.
II. Such tyranny gives rise to extreme suffering. The innocent may be strong in the sense of right, and in the defence of conscience; still human nature must feel.
1. These sufferings open the fountains of sorrow. When courage, goodness, and skill are of no avail against a vicious power; when the innocent are trampled under by the iron heel of tyranny, no wonder that the eye fills, and the heart is overwhelmed with emotion.
2. These sufferings are sometimes aggravated by the circumstance that they have no earthly comforter. The good have often been alone in the sorrows inflicted by the oppressor, and have looked around in vain for a sympathetic heart. With no eye to pity, and no heart to cheer, the load of misery comes with crushing weight.
III. Such tyranny causes existence to seem but a questionable benefit. The long record of human agony produced by the tyranny of the powerful; the cruel persecutions of some of the brightest ornaments of human nature—these things are a sore trial to our faith in the goodness of the Supreme Power. It seems as if God were indifferent to the most grievous wrongs of men. The existence of such evils in the world tempts a man to indulge in the most extravagant and desperate language.
1. He affirms that the dead are better off than the living. (Ecc_4:2.) The thought of the wrongs which man inflicts on man so sickens the heart that we are plunged into that gloomy mood in which we are ready to hail the condition of the dead, and welcome the long sleep and the safe shelter of the grave. There are deeds so horrible that the contemplation of them is enough to make us loathe life.
2. That the gift of existence is itself an evil. (Ecc_4:3.) There are seasons when the contemplation of the darker side of history so occupies the mind that we are tempted to regard the gift of life itself as a doubtful blessing. We almost wish as if our eye had never opened to the light of day, and that we had never been called from that dark negation which we once were. A state of non-existence appears to us preferable to a state of ill-existence.
3. There are times when this melancholy thought presses itself with peculiar force upon the mind. Times in the individual life—times in the life of nations. The state of mind, however, here described, does not and cannot last. Though the soul may have to pass through this shadow, she emerges into the light of a better hope. Elsewhere the Royal Preacher praises life as a Divine gift. Our feeling regarding the wrongs of time is thus modified by the higher truths, and the belief in eternal justice.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecc_4:1. Grace, while fortifying the soul against the violence of trouble, does not seal up the fountains of nature.
A tear is often the only tribute that the oppressed can give to misery.
The tears of the oppressed are—
1. A dumb protest against the cruel might of wrong.
2. An appeal to the justice of Heaven.
3. A revelation of an eternal future.
The pious, in the fiercest trial, though all men may forsake them, have yet a Comforter at their side.
Society has not yet reached that stage of progress wherein the convictions of reason and conscience bear supreme rule. Notwithstanding the advance of knowledge, and the presence of the Christian Religion for so many ages, humanity is still far from this ideal perfection.
A mechanical force is of no service to man unless he can guide and direct it to certain ends. There are some forces of nature of great potentiality, but they are like wild beasts that cannot be tamed. Power needs the direction of goodness to make it venerable, and worthy of praise.
The world has not yet got beyond the illusion of military glory—a proof that the worship of force has not yet disappeared from amongst us.
The Lord has a bottle, and into that bottle he puts His people’s tears, and the tears of all who are oppressed. When Joseph wept at Dothan, and the Jews at Babylon, it was not the sand of the desert, nor the stream of Euphrates, which intercepted the tear, but God’s bottle.… And whether it be the scalding tear of the Southern Slave, or that which freezes in the Siberian exile’s eye, God’s bottle has received them all; and when the measure is full, the tears of the oppressed burst in vials of vengeance on the head of the oppressor [Dr. J. Hamilton].
The power of the oppressor is, after all, a mere shadow—a vanishing thing. The power most to be dreaded is that which is on the side of the oppressed. He who has taken refuge in the citadel of God is the most terrible foe.
Ecc_4:2. When one attentively regards the innumerable sorrows of the heart, miseries, great evils, and troubles on earth, and the awful wickedness there is in the world, which is the devil’s kingdom, one must surely be of the mind that it were better to be dead than to see so much wretchedness [Luther].
There are such sights of misery on earth, that in the confusion of his feeling, the spectator finds a momentary relief in thinking upon the dread repose and secure refuge of the dark house.
The dead are clean escaped from the hands of the tyrant. The door of the sepulchre for ever bars the entrance of revenge.
Ecc_4:3. In certain frames of the feeling, it is natural to wish for the condition of non-existence. Extreme sorrow has plunged some of the best men into this trial—Job—Jeremiah.
When life seems so poor a heritage, the true and Absolute Being becomes all to us.
The tribulation through which we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven may consist of temptations to indulge the most extravagant and vain wishes.
There are times when we seem to snatch a consolation from the dreariest of all philosophies.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain It is a great principle, and not to be…
Ecc 4:1
It is a great principle, and not to be lost sight of, the weakness of oppression, the terrible strength of the oppressed. And though Solomon felt so perturbed by the prosperous cruelty he witnessed, had he bent his eye a little longer in the direction where it eventually rested, he would have found a Comforter for the oppressed, and would have seen the impotence of the oppressor. On the side of the oppressed is Omnipotence, and the most deathless of foes is a victim. Still liberty, or exemption from man’s oppression, is a priceless blessing; and it may be worth while to ask, What can Christians do for its culture and diffusion?
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I. Yourselves be free. Seek freedom from fierce passions and dark prejudices. If you are led captive by the devil at his will, you are sure to become an oppressor.
II. Beware of confounding liberty with licence. One of the greatest blessings in a State or in a Christian Church is good government; but, from mistaken notions of independence, it is the delight of some to "speak evil of dignities." The man who is magnanimous in obeying is likely to be mighty in command.
III. Cultivate a humane and gentle spirit. Here it is that the mollifying religion of Jesus comes in as the great promoter of freedom and the great opponent of oppression. By infusing a benevolent spirit into the bosom of the Christian, it makes him the natural guardian of weakness and the natural friend of innocence.
J. Hamilton, The Royal Preacher, Lecture IX.
Ecclesiastes 4:1-5:7
I. In the fourth chapter Koheleth comes to the conclusion that life is essentially and irretrievably wretched—wretched not because (as he had formerly thought) it would so soon be over, but wretched because it lasted too long. All that pleasure did for him was thus to increase his gloom. There was one thing he had forgotten in making out his programme: he had forgotten the miseries of other people. The prosperity he secured for himself did not remove their adversity, but only brought it out into more startling relief. He was infected by their wretchedness, for in the midst of all his dissipation he had preserved a kindly heart. "I considered," he says, "the tears of those who are oppressed, and who have no comforter." The oppression of the poor by the rich was one of the most characteristic phases of Oriental society. To be poor was to be weak, and to be weak was to be reduced more or less into the condition of a slave.
II. In Ecc 5:4 Koheleth makes a new departure. He remarks that greed is at the bottom of a good deal of human misery. All work, he says, and all dexterity in work, is due to envy, to a jealous determination to outstrip our neighbours, to what Mallock calls the "desire for inequality." In contrast to the career of selfish isolation, Koheleth describes the advantages of sympathetic co-operation with one’s fellow-men. We should not, he says, strive against one another, each for his own good; we should strive with one another, each for the good of the whole. Co-operation is preferable to competition.
III. It now occurs to Koheleth that we may perhaps find some help in religious observances. He has already pointed out to us how we are hemmed in on all sides by limitations and restrictions. It must evidently be important what attitude we assume towards the Power which thus checks and thwarts us. Take care, he says, how you go into the house of God, how you perform your sacrifices, and prayers, and vows. He teaches us, as wise men have always taught, that obedience is better than sacrifice. Again, the value of prayer depends not on its length, but on its sincerity. Speak only out of the fulness of your heart. God is not to be trifled with. He cannot be deluded into mistaking for worship what is mere idle talk.
A. W. Momerie, Agnosticism, p. 204.
References: Ecc 4:1-3.—J. Bennet, The Wisdom of the King, p. 174; T. C. Finlayson, A Practical Exposition of Ecclesiastes, p. 101. Ecc 4:1-8.—R. Buchanan, Ecclesiastes: its Meaning and Lessons, p. 136. Ecc 4:4-6.—J. Bennet, The Wisdom of the King, p. 196. Ecc 4:5, Ecc 4:6.—J. H. Cooke, The Preacher’s Pilgrimage, p. 54. Ecc 4:9, Ecc 4:10.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons for the Christian Year, p. 512; C. J. Vaughan, Memorials of Harrow Sundays, p. 16. Ecc 4:9-16.—R. Buchanan, Ecclesiastes: its Meaning and Lessons; p. 150. Ecc 4:12.—J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons, 1875, p. 9; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 395. Ecc 4:13.—J. Bennet, The Wisdom of the King, p. 234; New Manual of Sunday-school Addresses, p. 1. 4—C. Bridges, An Exposition of Ecclesiastes, p. 79. 4, 5—G. G. Bradley, Lectures on Ecclesiastes, p. 79.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Vicissitudes of Life. 'Oh, the pity of it!'
Vicissitudes of Life. 'Oh, the pity of it!'
1-3. The mass of human suffering and the absence of pity are such that better off are the dead and still more the unborn.
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It is not only through God's ordinance, but by reason of man's perversity, that he is disturbed and perplexed by the social disturbances around him. The world is full of trouble. The weak are oppressed by the strong.
4-6. Success involves envy. Better be secure and at peace.
4. Right] RV 'skilful,' RM 'successful.' For this.. neighbour] RM 'it cometh of a man's rivalry with his neighbour.' Effort is stimulated by competition, but then what man has gained by toil is marred by the hostility of the less fortunate. Vexation of spirit] see on Ecc_1:14.
5. Even the fool who idly runs through his substance is for the time better off, for he is at peace.
7-12. Two more ills of life are covetousness aria loneliness.
8. There is one alone] The avaricious has none to share his wealth or to succeed him; yet his toil is insatiable.
9-12. The advantages of companionship are shown by four illustrations, three of which are such as have special fitness in the mouth of an Oriental writer. Two companions in travel find their partnership of value, whether (a) they are walking upon a rough and steep path, or (b) sleeping at the end of the day in a narrow chamber with unglazed windows, or (c) in a sudden encounter with thieves, who have availed themselves of the darkness of the night to dig through the earthen walls in search of valuables. Lastly, (d) a threefold cord is strong to resist.
12. RV 'And if a man prevail against him that, is alone.'
13-16. A man may rise from the lowest to the highest station by wisdom; yet even so there is no permanence.
13. Child] RV 'youth.'
14. He cometh] i.e. the poor and wise youth. Whereas also.. poor] RV 'yea, even in his kingdom he (the child) was born poor.' Thus in RV the subject of the whole v. is the youth, whereas in AV two persons are spoken of, viz. the prisoner who rises through wisdom to be a king, and the king who becomes a beggar.
These vv. have been taken to refer to actual events, perhaps in the writer's own day; but no satisfactory reference for them has been found. Thus they had best be understood as a general statement.
15. With the second, etc.] RV 'that they were with the youth, the second, that stood,' etc.
16. There is] RV 'there was.' Even of.. them] RV 'even of all them over whom he was.' T he sketch is continued; there is an endless stream of those who crowd to pay court. They also] RV 'yet they,' etc. Oblivion will soon wipe out all.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain CHAPTER 4 Observations of Different Wrongs
CHAPTER 4 Observations of Different Wrongs
1. Concerning oppressions (Ecc 4:1-3)
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2. Concerning envy of fools and the rich (Ecc 4:4-7)
3. Concerning the miser (Ecc 4:8-12)
4. Concerning popularity (Ecc 4:13-16)
Ecc 4:1-3. He observes that the world is filled with oppressions. This connects with the statement made in the previous chapter, (verse 16). Criticism declares in connection with this passage that it could not have been written by Solomon, nor does it, they claim, describe the conditions of the people Israel during the reign of the king. One commentator asks, “Can this bitter experience be drawn, I asked in passing, from the golden day of Solomon, from the high noon of Hebrew prosperity, as sketched in the book of Kings?” They apply it to the days of the Ptolemies. But Solomon does not say that the oppressions were in Jerusalem at all. He says that he saw “all the oppressions that are done under the sun.” As the great king was in touch with other nations he knew what oppression, poverty, tears and sorrow are in the world, and that the oppressed, the grief stricken, the downtrodden, have no comforter. It is so still, “under the sun.” Oppression and all that goes with it is still the history of part of the race and will be as long as sin reigns. Injustice and unredressed wrongs have been the order for almost six thousand years. So deep is his sorrow over these conditions that he declares it would have been better for both the living and the dead if they had never existed at all.
Ecc 4:4-7. In continuing his observations he mentions the successful man, the man who has made life worth living. But success breeds envy. It makes his life bitter. Instead of being loved the successful man is hated; what else then is it but vanity and vexation of spirit! But now another extreme. It is the sluggard, the lazy man, the fool who eats his own flesh. But here is the best human wisdom can suggest. Avoiding both extremes, he declares, “Better is an handful with quietness, than two handsful with labor and vexation of spirit.”
Ecc 4:7-12. Another vanity is observed. Some are misers, heaping up riches and treasures untold. He has no relations, no children, no brother, even companionship and friendship are unknown to him. He lives his solitary life. His ambition is to labor and gather riches, but his eyes are never satisfied with riches; he wants more and more all the time. This also is vanity and is a sore travail.
Ecc 4:13-16. Popularity is another vanity and vexation of spirit. No lot is abiding. Upon the throne sits an old and foolish king. He is dethroned and is replaced by a youth out of prison.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Personal Misfortunes
Personal Misfortunes
v. 1. So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun, turning his reflections from the vanity of human life to the violence practiced by many men; and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter, no one to dry their tears by healing their injuries; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, that being the way of tyrants everywhere, but they had no comforter, the repetition of this phrase emphasizing the desperate and hopeless condition of the poor and downtrodden.
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v. 2. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead, and thus beyond the reach of tyranny and oppression, more than the living which are yet alive, and therefore always in danger of becoming victims of violence.
v. 3. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun, for, not having been born, he has been spared the pain of witnessing the many evidences of oppression and tyranny which are always found in the world. This is not an expression of unbelieving pessimism, but a statement of fact which will cause the believers to turn all the more eagerly to the comforts of the Christian religion.
v. 4. Again, I considered all travail and every right work, the prosperity coveted by men, the source and motive of so much of the oppression found in the world, that for this, namely, for his apparent success, a man is envied of his neighbor, this also resulting in a condition of misfortune. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit, for such emulation and striving is bound to result in misfortune to men.
v. 5. The fool foldeth his hands together, too lazy to exert himself, and eateth his own flesh, using up his fortune and ruining himself by his idleness, having no one but himself to blame for his misfortune.
v. 6. Better is an handful, a small amount of this world’s goods, with quietness, to be enjoyed in peace, than both the hands full, a large measure of riches, with travail and vexation of spirit, for riches, if obtained only by anxious labor and retained only with care and sorrow, are a misfortune and cannot be conducive to happiness.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 under the sun
under the sun
This refers to things that are done on earth. See how you translated this in Ecclesiastes 1:3. AT: "on the earth" (See: Idiom)
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behold, the tears
"I looked and I saw"
the tears of oppressed people
Here "tears" represent weeping. AT: "the oppressed people were weeping" (See: Metonymy)
Power was in the hand of their oppressors
This means that their oppressors were powerful. Here their "hand" represents what thet possess. AT: "Their oppressors were powerful" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
oppress
comfort
power
hand
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 4:1 all the oppression: Abuse is rampant at many…
4:1 all the oppression: Abuse is rampant at many levels in society—in family, religion, the workplace, government, and foreign powers.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.