TRANSLATION.

"desert a beggar born,And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,And purest faith unhappy forsworn,And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,And strength by limping sway disabled,And art made tongue-tied by authority,And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,And captive good attending captain ill;"

if, "tired with all these," he cried for "restful death," we can hardly wonder that the Preacher, who had fallen on times so evil that, compared with his, Shakespeare's were good, should prefer death to life.

But there is another side to this sad story of the Captivity, another and a nobler side. If the Jews suffered much from Persian misrule, they learned much and gained much from the Persian faith. In its earlier form the religious creed whose documents Zoroasterafterwards collected and enlarged in the Zendavesta was probably the purest of the ancient heathen world; and even when it was corrupted by the baser additions of later times, its purer form was still preserved in songs (Gâthâs) and traditions. There can be no reasonable doubt that it largely affected the subsequent faith of the Hebrews, not indeed teaching them any truth they had not been taught before, but constraining them to recognize truths in their Scriptures which hitherto they had passed over or neglected.

In its inception the Persian creed and practice were a revolt against the sensuous and sensual worship of the great forces of Nature into which most Eastern religions, often pure enough, in their primitive forms, had degenerated, and, in especial, from the base forms into which the Hindus had degraded that primitive faith which is still to be recovered from the Rig-Veda. It acknowledged persons, real spiritual intelligences, in place of mere natural powers; and it drew moral distinctions between them, dividing these ruling intelligences into good and bad, pure and impure, benignant and malevolent,—an immense advance on the mere admiration of whatever was strong. Nay, in some sense, the Persian faith affirmed monotheism against polytheism; for it asserted that one Great Intelligence ruled over all other intelligences, and through them over the universe. This Supreme Intelligence, which the Persianscalled Ahura-mazda (Ormazd), is the true Creator, Preserver, Governor, of all spirits, all men, all worlds. He is "good," "holy," "pure," "true," "the Father of all truth," "the best Being of all," "the Master of Purity," "the Source and Fountain of all good." On the righteous He bestows "the good mind" and everlasting happiness; while He punishes and afflicts the evil. His worshippers were to the last degree intolerant of idolatry. They suffered no image to profane their temples; their earliest symbol of Deity is almost as pure and abstract as a mathematical sign, a circle with wings; the circle to denote the eternity of God, and the wings his omnipresence. Under this Supreme Lord, "the God of heaven," they admitted inferior beings, angels and archangels, whose names mark them out as personified Divine attributes, or as faithful servants who administer some province of the Divine empire.

To win the favour of the God of heaven it was requisite to cultivate the virtues of purity, truthfulness, industry, and a pious sense of the Divine presence; and these virtues must spring from the heart, and cover thought as well as word and deed. His worship consisted in the frequent offering of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving; in the reiteration of certain sacred hymns; in the occasional sacrifice of animals which, after being presented before Ormazd, furnished fortha feast for priest and worshipper; and in the performance of a mystic ceremony (theSoma), the gist of which seems to have lain in a grateful acknowledgment that the fruits of the earth, typified by the intoxicating juice of the Homa plant, were to be received as the gift of Heaven. A sentence or two from one of the hymns[21]of which there are many in the Zendavesta, will show better than many words to how high a pitch Divine worship was carried by the Persians: "We worship Thee, Ahura-mazda, the pure, the master of purity. We praise all good thoughts, all good words, all good deeds which are or shall be; and we likewise keep clean and pure all that is good. O Ahura-mazda, thou true happy Being! We strive to think, to speak, and to do only such things as may be best fitted to promote the two lives" (i.e.the life of the body and the life of the soul).

In this course of well-doing the faithful were animated and confirmed by a devout belief in the immortality of the soul and a conscious future existence. They were taught that at death the souls of men, both good and bad, travelled along an appointed path to a narrow bridge which led to Paradise; over this bridge only pious souls could pass, the wicked falling from it into an awful gulf in which they received the due reward oftheir deeds. The happy souls of the good were helped across the long narrow arch by an angel,[22]and as they entered Paradise a great archangel rose from his throne to greet each of them with the words, "How happyart thou, who hast come to us from mortality to immortality!"

This wonderfully pure creed was, however, in process of time, corrupted in many ways. First of all, "the sad antithesis of human life," the conflict between light and darkness, good and evil—the standing puzzle of the world—led the votaries of Ormazd todualism. Ormazd loved and created only the good. The evil in man, and in the world, must be the work of an enemy. Thisenemy, Ahriman (Augrô-maniyus), has been seeking from eternity to undo, to mar and blast, the fair work of the God of heaven. He is the baleful author of all evil, and under him are spirits as malignant as himself. Between these good and evil powers there is incessant conflict, which extends to every soul and every world. It will never cease until the great Deliverer arise—for even ofHimthe Persians had some dim prevision—who shall conquer and destroy evil at its source, all things then rounding to their final goal of good.

Another corrupting influence had its origin in a too literal interpretation of the names given to the Divine Being, or the qualities ascribed to Him, by the founders of the faith. Ormazd, for example, had been described as "true,lucid,shining, the originator of all the best things, of the spirit in nature and of the growth in nature,of the luminaries and of the self-shining brightness which is in the luminaries." From these epithets and ascriptions there sprang in later days the worship of the sun, then of fire, as a type of God—a worship still maintained by the disciples of Zoroaster, the Ghebers and the Parsees. And from this point onward the old sad story repeats itself; once more we have to trace a pure and lofty primitive faith along the grades through which it declines to the low, base level of a sensuous idolatry. The Magians, always the bitter enemies of Zoroastrianism, held that the four elements—fire, air,earth, and water—were the only proper objects of human reverence. It was not difficult for them to persuade those who already worshipped fire, and were beginning to forget of Whom fire was the symbol, to include in their homage air, water, and earth. Divination, incantations, the interpretation of dreams and omens soon followed, with all the dark shadows which science and religion cast behind them. And then came the lowest deep of all, that worship of the gods by sensual indulgence to which idolatry gravitates, as by a law.

Nevertheless, we must remember that, even at their worst, the Persians preserved the sacred records of their earlier faith, and that their best men steadily refused to accept the base additions to it which the Magians proposed. Corrupt as in many respects many of them became, the conquest of Babylon was the death-blow to the sensual idol-worship which had reigned for twenty centuries on the Chaldean plain; it never wholly recovered from it, though it survived it for a time. From that date it declined to its fall: "Bel bowed down; Nebo stooped; Merodach was broken in pieces" (Isa. xlvi. 1; Jer. l. 2). The nobler monarchs of Persia were true disciples of the primitive creed of their race. It was similarity of creed which won their favour for the Hebrew captives. In the decree which enfranchised them (Ezra i. 2, 3)Cyrus expressly identifies Ormazd, "the God of heaven," with Jehovah, the God of Israel; he says, "The Lord God of heavenhath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He hath charged me to buildHima house at Jerusalem." Nor was this belief in one God, whose temple was to be defiled by no image even of Himself, the only point in common between the better Persians, such as Cyrus and Darius, and the better Jews. There were many such points. Both believed in an evil spirit tempting and accusing men; in myriads of angels, all the host of heaven, who formed the armies of God and did his pleasure; in a tree of life and a tree of knowledge, and a serpent the enemy of man; both shared the hope of a coming Deliverer from evil, the belief in an immortal and retributive life beyond the grave, and a happy Paradise in which all righteous souls would find a home and see their Father's face. These common faiths and hopes would all be points of sympathy and attachment between the two races; and it is to this agreement in religious doctrine and practice that we must ascribe the striking facts that the Persians, ordinarily the most intolerant of men, never persecuted the Jews; and that the Jews, ordinarily so impatient of foreign domination, never made a single attempt to cast off the Persian yoke, but stood by the declining empire even when the Greeks were thundering at its gates.

On one question all competent historians and commentators are agreed; viz. that the Jews gained immensely in the clearness and compass of their religious faith during the Captivity. That, which was the punishment, was also the term, of their idolatry; into that sin they never afterwards fell. Now first, too, they began to understand that the bond of their unity was not local, not national even, but spiritual and religious; they were spread over every province of a foreign empire, yet they were one people, and a sacred people, in virtue of their common service of Jehovah and their common hope of Messiah's advent. This hope had been vaguely felt before, and just previous to the Captivity Isaiah had arrayed it in an unrivalled splendour of imagery; now it sank into the popular mind, which needed it so sorely, and became a deep and ardent longing of the national heart. From this period, moreover, the immortality of the soul and the life beyond death entered distinctly and prominently into the Hebrew creed. Always latent in their Scriptures, these truths disclosed themselves to the Jews as they came into contact with the Persian doctrines of judgment and future rewards. Hitherto they had thought mainly, if not exclusively, of the temporal rewards and punishments by which the Mosaic law enforced its precepts. Henceforth they saw that, in time and on earth, human actions are not carried totheir final and due results; they looked forward to a judgment in which all wrongs should be righted, all unpunished sins receive their recompense, and all the sufferings of the good be transmuted into joy and peace.

Now this, as we shall see, is the very moral of the Book Ecclesiastes, the triumphant climax to which it mounts. The endeavour of Coheleth is to show how evil and good were blended in the human lot, evil so largely preponderating in the lot of many of the good as to make life a curse unless it were sustained by hope; to give hope by assuring the Hebrew captives that "God takes cognizance of all things," and "will bring every work to judgment," good or bad; and to urge on them, as the conclusion of his Quest, and as the whole duty of man, to prepare for that supreme audit by fearing God and keeping his commandments. This was the light he was commissioned to carry into their great darkness; and if the lamp and the oil were of God, it is hardly too much to say that the spark which kindled the lamp was taken from the Persian fire, since that too was of God. Or, to vary the figure, and make it more accurate, we may say that the truths of the future life lay hidden in the Hebrew Scriptures, and that it was by the light of the Persian doctrine of the future that the Jews, stimulated by the mental culture and activity acquired in Babylon, discovered them in the Word.

It is thus, indeed, that God has taught men in all ages. The Word remains ever the same, but our conditions change, our mental posture varies, and with our posture the angle at which the light of Heaven falls on the sacred page. We are brought into contact with new races, new ideas, new forms of culture, new discoveries of science, and the familiar Word forthwith teems with new meanings, with new adaptations to our needs; truths unseen before, though they were always there, come to view, deep truths rise to the surface, mysterious truths grow simple and plain, truths that jangled on the ear melt into harmony; our new needs stretch out lame hands of faith, and find an unexpected but ample supply; and we are rapt in wonder and admiration as we afresh discover the Bible to be the Book for all races and for all ages, an inexhaustible fountain of truth and comfort and grace.

Chap. I., vv. 1-11.

1 The words of the Preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem.2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher;Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,3 Since man hath no profit from all his labourWhich he laboureth under the sun![23]4 One generation passeth, and another generation cometh;While the earth abideth for ever.5 The sun also riseth, and the sun goeth down;And panteth toward the place at which it will rise again.6 The wind goeth toward the south, and veereth to the north;It whirleth round and round;And the wind returneth on its course.7 All the streams run into the sea, yet the sea is not full;To the place whence the streams came, thither they return again.8 All things are weary with toil. Man cannot utter it.The eye can never be satisfied with seeing,Nor the ear with hearing.9 What hath been will be,And that which is done is that which will be done;And there is no new thing under the sun.10 If there be anything of which it is said, "Behold, this is new!"It hath been long ago, in the ages that were before us.11 There is no remembrance of those who have been;Nor will there be any remembrance of men who are to comeAmong those that will live after them.

Chap. I., v. 12, toChap. II., v. 26.

The Quest in Wisdom.Ch. i., vv. 12-18.

12 I, the Preacher, was King over Israel, in Jerusalem:13 And I applied my heart to survey and search by wisdomInto all that is done under heaven:This sore task hath God given to the children of men,To exercise themselves therewith.

Ver. 13.To survey and search into, etc.The verbs indicate the broad extent which his researches covered, and the depth to which they penetrated.

14 I have considered all the works that are done under the sun,And, behold, they are all vanity and vexation of spirit.

Ver. 14.Vexation of spirit.Literally, "striving after the wind." But the time-honoured phrase, "vexation of spirit," sufficiently expresses the writer's meaning; and it seems better to retain it than, with the Revised Version, to introduce the Hebrew metaphor, which has a somewhat novel and foreign sound.

15 That which is crooked cannot be set straight,And that which is lacking cannot be made up.16 Therefore I spake to my heart, saying,Lo, I have acquired greater wisdomThan all who were before me in Jerusalem,My heart having seen much wisdom and knowledge;17 For I had given my heart to find knowledge and wisdom.I perceive that even this is vexation of spirit;

Ver. 17.To find knowledge and wisdom.Both the Authorized and Revised Versions render "to know wisdom, and to knowmadness and folly." The latter clause, however, violates both the sense and the grammatical construction. The word translated "to know" is not an infinitive, but a noun, and should be rendered "knowledge;" the word translated "folly" means "prudence," and the word translated "madness" hardly means more than "folly." The text, too, seems corrupt. The sense of the passage is against it, I think, as it now stands; for the design of the Preacher is simply to show the insufficiency of wisdom and knowledge, not to prove folly foolish. On the whole, therefore, it seems better to follow the high authority which arranges the text as it is here rendered. The Hebraist will find the question fully discussed inGinsburg.

18 For in much wisdom is much sadness,And to multiply knowledge is to multiply sorrow.

The Quest in Pleasure.Ch ii., vv. 1-11.

1 Then I said to my heart,Go to, now let me prove thee with mirth,And thou shalt see pleasure:And, lo, this too is vanity!2 To mirth I said, Thou art mad!And to pleasure, What canst thou do?3 I thought in my heart to cheer my body with pleasure,While my spirit guided it wisely,And to lay hold on folly,Till I should see what it is good for the sons of men to do under heaven,Through the brief day of their life.4 I gave myself to great works;I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards;5 I made me gardens and parks,And I planted in them all manner of fruit-trees;6 I made me tanks of water,From which to water the groves:7 I bought me men-servants and maid-servants,And had servants born in my house.I had also many herds of oxen and sheep,More than all who were before me in Jerusalem:8 I heaped up silver and gold,And the treasures of kings and of kingdoms:I got me men-singers and women-singers;And took delight in many fair concubines:9 So that I surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem,My wisdom abiding with me;10 And nothing that my eyes desired did I withhold from them,I did not keep back my heart from any pleasure;For my heart took joy in all my toil,And this was my portion therefrom.11 But when I turned to look on all the works which my hands had wrought,And at the labour which it cost me to accomplish them,Behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit,And there was no profit under the sun.

Wisdom and Pleasure compared.Ch. ii., vv. 12-23.

12 Then I turned to compare wisdom with madness and folly—And what can he do that cometh after the kingWhom they made king long ago?—13 And I saw that wisdom excelleth follyAs far as light excelleth darkness:14 The wise man's eyes are in his head,While the fool walketh blindly.Nevertheless I knew that the same fate will befall both.15 Therefore I spake with my heart:"A fate like that of the fool will befall me, even me;To what end, then, am I wiser?"And I said to my heart:"This too is vanity,16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise man than of the fool;For both will be forgotten,As in time past so also in days to come:And, alas, the wise man dieth even as the fool!"17 So life became hateful to me, for a sore burden was upon me,Even the labour which I wrought under the sun;Since all is vanity and vexation of spirit:18 Yea, I hated all the gain which I had gained under the sun,Because I must leave it to the man who shall come after me,19 And who can tell whether he will be a wise man or a fool?Yet shall he have power over all my gainWhich I have wisely gained under the sun:This too is vanity.20 Then I turned and gave my heart up to despairConcerning all the gain which I had gained under the sun;21 For here is a man who hath laboured wisely, and prudently, and dexterously,And he must leave it as a portion to one who hath not laboured therein:This also is vanity and a great evil;22 For man hath nothing of all his heavy labour,And the vexation of his heart under the sun,23 Since his task grieveth and vexeth him all his days,And even at night his heart hath no rest:This too is vanity.

The Conclusion.Ch. ii., vv. 24-26.

24 There is nothing better for a man than to eat and to drink,And to let his soul take pleasure in his labour.But even this, I saw, cometh from God;25 For who can eat,And who enjoy himself, apart from Him?26 For to the man who is good before Him,He giveth wisdom and knowledge and joy;But to the sinner He giveth the task to gather and to heap up,That he may leave it to him who is good before God:This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Chap. III., v. 1, toChap. V., v. 20.

The Quest obstructed by Divine Ordinances; Ch. iii., vv. 1-15.

1 There is a time for all things,And a season for every undertaking under heaven:2 A time to be born, and a time to die;A time to plant, and a time to pluck up plants;3 A time to kill, and a time to heal;A time to break down, and a time to build up;4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh;A time to mourn, and a time to dance;5 A time to cast stones, and a time to gather up stones;A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;6 A time to get, and a time to lose;A time to keep, and a time to throw away;7 A time to rend, and a time to sew;A time to be silent, and a time to speak;8 A time to love, and a time to hate;A time for war, and a time for peace:9 He who laboureth hath therefore no profit from his labours.10 I have considered the task which God hath given to the sons of men,To exercise themselves withal:11 He hath made everything beautiful in its season;He hath also put eternity into their heart;Only they understand not the work of God from beginning to end.12 I found that there was no good for them but to rejoice,And to do themselves good all their life;13 But also that, if a man eat and drink,And take pleasure in all his labour,It is a gift of God.14 I found too that whatever God hath ordained continueth for ever;Nothing can be added to it,And nothing taken from it:And God hath so ordered it that men may fear before Him.15 That which is hath been,And that which is to be was long ago;For God recalleth the past.

And by Human Injustice and Perversity.Ch. iii., v. 16. Ch. iv., v. 3.

16 Moreover, I saw under the sunThat there was iniquity in the place of justice,And in the place of equity there was iniquity.17 I said to mine heart:"God will judge the righteous and the wicked,For there is a time for everything and for every deed with Him."18 Yet I said to my heart of the children of men:"God hath sifted them,To show that they, even they, are but as beasts.19 For a mere chance is man, and the beast a mere chance,And they are both subject to the same chance;As is the death of the one, so is the death of the other;And both have the same spirit:And the man hath no advantage over the beast,For both are vanity:20 Both go to the same place;Both sprang from dust, and both turn into dust:21 And who knoweth whether the spirit of man goeth upward,Or the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth?"

Ver. 21.The question is here, as so often in Hebrew, the strongest form of negative. As in ver. 19 the Preacher affirms of man and beast that "both have the same spirit," and, in ver. 20, that "both go to the same place," so, in this verse, he emphatically denies that there is any difference in their destination at death.

22 Wherefore I saw that there is nothing better for manThan to rejoice in his labours;For this is his portion:And who shall give him to see what will be after him?

iv.

1 Then I turned to consider once moreAll the oppressions that are done under the sun:I beheld the tears of the oppressed,And they had no comforter;And their oppressors were violent,Yet had they no comforter:2 And I accounted the dead who died long agoHappier than the living who are still alive;3 While happier than either is he who hath not been born,Who hath not seen the evil which is done under the sun.

It is rendered hopeless by the base Origin of Human Industries.Ch. iv., vv. 4-8.

4 Then too I saw that all this toil,And all this dexterity in toil,Spring from man's rivalry with his neighbour:This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.5 The sluggard foldeth his hands,Yet he eateth his meat:6 Better a handful of quietThan two handsful of labour with vexation of spirit.7 And again I turned, and saw a vanity under the sun:8 Here is a man who hath no one with him,Not even a son or a brother;And yet there is no end of all his labour,Neither are his eyes satisfied with riches:For whom, then, doth he labour and deny his soul any of his wealth?This too is vanity and an evil work.

Yet these are capable of a nobler Motive and Mode.Ch. iv., vv. 9-16.

9 Two are better than one,Because they have a good reward for their labour:10 For if one fall, the other will lift up his fellow;But woe to the lonely one who fallethAnd hath no fellow to lift him up!11 Moreover, if two sleep together, they are warm;But he that is alone, how can he be warm?12 And if an enemy assail the one, two will withstand him.And a threefold cord is not easily broken.13 Happier is a poor and wise youthThan an old and foolish kingWho even yet has not learned to take warning;14 For he goeth forth from the prison to the throne,Although he was born a poor man in the kingdom.15 I see all the living who walk under the sunFlocking to the youth who stood up in his stead;16 There is no end to the multitude of the people over whom he ruleth:Nevertheless those who live after him will not rejoice in him;For even this is vanity and vexation of spirit.

So also a nobler and happier Mode of Worship is open to men:Ch. v., vv. 1-7.

1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the House of God;For it is better to obey than to offer the sacrifice of fools,Who know not when they do evil.2 Do not hurry on thy mouth,And do not force thy heart to utter words before God;For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth:Therefore let thy words be few.3 For as a dream cometh through much occupation,So foolish talk through many words.4 When thou vowest a vow unto God,Defer not to pay it;For he is a fool whose will is not steadfast.Pay that which thou hast vowed.5 Better that thou shouldest not vowThan that thou shouldest vow and not pay.6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin,And say not before the Angel, "It was an error:"For why should God be angry at thine idle talkAnd destroy the work of thy hands?

Ver. 6.Before the Angel.That is, before the Angel who, as the Hebrews thought, presided over the altar of worship, and who was present even when only two or three met for the study of the Law: to study the Law being in itself an act of worship.

7 For in many words, as in many dreams, there is vanity:But fear thou God.

And a more helpful and consolatory Trust in the Divine Providence.Ch. v., vv. 8-17.

8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor,And the perversion of justice in the State,Be not dismayed thereat;For superior watcheth superior,And superiors again watch over them:9 And the advantage for the people is, that it extendeth to all,For even the king is servant to the field.

Ver. 9.Some commentators prefer another possible reading of this difficult verse:But the profit of a land is every way a king devoted to the field, i.e.a lover and promoter of good husbandry. This reading, however, does not, I think, harmonise so well with the context as that given above.

10 He that loveth silver is never satisfied with silver,Nor he that clingeth to riches with what they yield:This too is vanity;11 For when riches increase they increase that consume them:What advantage then hath the owner thereof,Save the looking thereupon with his eyes?12 Sweet is the sleep of the husbandman,Whether he eat little or much;While abundance suffereth not the rich to sleep.13 There is a great evil which I have seen under the sun—Riches hoarded up by the richTo the hurt of the owner thereof:14 For the riches perish in some unlucky adventure,And he begetteth a son when he hath nothing in his hand:15 As he cometh forth from the womb of his mother,Even as he cometh naked,So also he returneth again,And taketh nothing from his labourWhich he may carry away in his hand.16 This also is a great evil,That just as he came so he must go.For what profit hath he who laboureth for the wind?17 Yet all his days he eateth in darkness,And is much perturbed, and hath vexation and grief.

The Conclusion.Ch. v., vv. 18-20.

18 Behold, that which I have said holds good,—That it is well for man to eat and to drinkAnd to enjoy the good of all his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun,Through the brief day of his life which God hath given him:For this is his portion.19 And I have also said,That a man to whom God hath given riches and wealth,If He hath also enabled him to eat thereof,And to take his portion and to rejoice in his labour;—This is a gift of God:20 He doth not fret because the days of his life are not many,For God hath sanctioned the joy of his heart.

Chaps. VI., ver. 1, to VIII., ver. 15.

The Quest in Wealth. He who makes Riches his Chief Good is haunted by Fears and Perplexities: Ch. vi., vv. 1-6.

1 There is another evil which I have seen under the sun,And it weigheth heavily upon men:2 Here is a man to whom God hath given riches and wealth and abundance,So that his soul lacketh nothing of all that it desireth;And God hath not given him the power to enjoy it,But a stranger enjoyeth it:This is vanity and a great evil.3 Though one beget a hundred children,And live many years,Yea, however many the days of his years,Yet if his soul be not satisfied with good,Even though the grave did not wait for him,Better is an abortion than he:4 For this cometh in nothingness and goeth in darkness,And its memory is shrouded in darkness;5 It doth not even see and know the sun:It hath more rest than he.6 And if he live twice a thousand years and see no good:—Do not both go to the same place?

For God has put Eternity into his Heart; Ch. vi., vv. 7-10.

7 All the labour of this man is for his mouth;Therefore his soul cannot be satisfied:8 For what advantage hath the wise man over the fool,Or what the poor man over the stately magnate?

Ver. 8.The magnate.Literally, "he who knoweth to walk before the living;" some "great person," some man of eminent station, who is much in the eye of the public.

9 It is better, indeed, to enjoy the good we haveThan to crave a good beyond our reach:Yet even this is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Ver. 9.To enjoy the good we have, etc. Literally, "Better is that which is seen by the eyes (the present good) than that which is pursued by the soul (the distant and uncertain good)."

10 That which hath been was long since ordained;And it is very certain that even the greatest is but a man,And cannot contend with Him who is mightier than he.

And much that he gains only feeds Vanity;

11 Moreover there are many things which increase vanity:What advantage then hath man?

Nor can he tell what will become of his Gains.

12 And who knoweth what is good for man in life,The brief day of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow?And who can tell what shall be after him under the sun?

The Quest in the Golden Mean. The Method of the Man who pursues it.Ch. vii., vv. 1-14.

1 A good name is better than good nard,And the day of death better than the day of one's birth:2 It is better to go to the house of mourningThan to the house of feasting,Because this is the end of every man,And the living should lay it to heart:

Ver. 2."Becausethisis the end;"i.e.the death bewailed in the house of mourning.

3 Better is serious thought than wanton mirth,For by a sad countenance the heart is bettered:4 The heart of the wise therefore is in the house of mourning,But in the house of mirth is the heart of fools.5 It is better for a man to listen to the reproof of the wiseThan to listen to the song of fools;6 For the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns under a pot:This also is vanity.

Ver. 6.The laughter of fools, etc. There is a play on words in the original which cannot be reproduced in English. Dean Plumptre, following the lead of Delitzsch, proposes as the nearest equivalents, "As crackling nettles under kettles," or "As crackling stubble makes the pot bubble."

7 Wrong-doing maketh the wise man mad,As a bribe corrupteth the heart.8 The end of a reproof is better than its beginning,And patience is better than pride;9 Therefore hurry not on thy spirit to be angry:For anger is nursed in the bosom of fools.10 Say not, "How is it that former days were better than these?"For that is not the part of wisdom.11 Wisdom is as good as wealth,And hath an advantage over it for those who lead an active life:

Ver. 11.Those who lead an active life.Literally, "those who see the sun,"i.e.those who are much in the sun, who lead a busy active life, are much occupied with traffic or public affairs.

12 For wisdom is a shelter,And wealth is a shelter;But the advantage of wisdom isThat it fortifieth the heart of them that have it.

Ver. 12.Fortifieth the heart; i.e.quickens life, a new life, a life which keeps the heart tranquil and serene under all chances and changes.

13 Consider moreover the work of God,Since no man can straighten that which He hath made crooked.14 In the day of prosperity be thou content;And in the day of adversityConsider that God hath made this as well as that,In order that man should not be able to foresee that which is to come.

Ver. 14.:In the day of prosperity, etc. Literally, "in the day of good be in good." It may be rendered "in the good day be of good cheer."This as well as that; i.e.adversity as well as prosperity. God sends both in order that, not foreseeing what will come to pass, we may live in a constant and humble dependence on Him.

The Perils to which it exposes him.(1)He is likely to compromise Conscience: Ch. vii., vv. 15-20.

15 In my fleeting days I have seenBoth the righteous die in his righteousness,And the wicked live long in his wickedness:16 Be not too righteous therefore,Nor make thyself too wise lest thou be abandoned;17 Be not very wicked, nor yet very foolish,Lest thou die before thy time:18 It is better that thou shouldest lay hold of thisAnd also not let go of that;For whoso feareth God will take hold on both.

Ver. 18.This ... and that.Thisrefers to the folly and wickedness of ver. 17, andthatto the wisdom and righteousness of ver. 16.Take hold on both.Literally, "go along with both."

19 This wisdom alone is greater strength to the wiseThan an army to a beleaguered city;

Ver. 19.This wisdom: viz. the moderate common-sense view of life which has just been described.Than an army, etc. Literally, "Thanten(i.e.many) mighty men in a city."

20 For there is not a righteous man on earthWho doeth good and sinneth not.

(2)To be indifferent to Censure: Ch. vii., vv. 21, 22.

21 Moreover seek not to know all that is said of thee,Lest thou hear thy servant speak evil of thee;

Ver. 21.Seek not to know, etc. Literally, "Give not thyheart(even if thy ears) to all words that are uttered."

22 For thou knowest in thine heartThat thou also hast many times spoken evil of others.23 All this wisdom have I tried;I desired a higher wisdom, but it was far from me;24 That which was far off remaineth far off,And deep remaineth deep:Who can find it out?

(3)To despise Women; Ch. vii., vv. 25-29.

25 Then I and my heart turned to know this wisdomAnd diligently examine it—To discover the cause of wickedness, vice,And that folly which is madness:26 And I found woman more bitter than death;She is a net;Her heart is a snare, and her hands are chains:Whoso is good before God shall escape her,But the sinner shall be taken by her.27 Behold, what I have found, saith the Preacher—Taking things one by one to reach the result—28 I have found one man among a thousand,But in all that number a woman have I not found:29 Lo, this only have I found,That God made man upright,But that they seek out many devices.

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