ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 5 Vanities in divine matters, ECCLESIASTES 5:1. In murmuring and repining, ECCLESIASTES 5:8. In riches and covetousness. ECCLESIASTES 5:9,10; for riches rob men of ease, ECCLESIASTES 5:11,12, procure their death, ECCLESIASTES 5:13, fly away, ECCLESIASTES 5:14, cannot be carried... [ Continue Reading ]
BE NOT RASH WITH THY MOUTH; speak not without good understanding and due consideration. LET NOT THINE HEART BE HASTY; do not give way to every sudden motion of thine heart, nor suffer it to break out of thy lips till thou hast well weighed it. TO UTTER ANY THING BEFORE GOD; either, 1. In prayers di... [ Continue Reading ]
When men's minds are distracted and oppressed with too much business in the day, they dream of it in the night. A FOOL'S VOICE IS KNOWN; it discovers the man to be a foolish, and rash, and inconsiderate man. BY MULTITUDE OF WORDS; either, 1. In prayer. Or, 2. In vowing, i.e. by making many rash vo... [ Continue Reading ]
A VOW; which is a solemn promise, whereby a man binds himself to do something which is in his power to do. DEFER NOT TO PAY IT; perform it whilst the sense of thine obligation is fresh and strong upon thee, lest either thou seem to repent of thy promises, or lest delays end in denials and resolution... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THOU SHOULDEST NOT VOW; for this was no sin, because men are free to make such vows, or not to make them, as they think fit. See NUMBERS 30:3, &c.; DEUTERONOMY 23:22 ACTS 5:4. But having vowed we cannot forbear payment of them without sin.... [ Continue Reading ]
SUFFER NOT THY MOUTH, by uttering any rash or foolish vow. THY FLESH, i. e. thyself, the word flesh being oft put for the whole man, as GENESIS 6:12 ISAIAH 40:5 ROMANS 3:20, &c. And it seems to have some emphasis here, and to intimate either, 1. That such vows were made upon fleshly or carnal, and... [ Continue Reading ]
There is a great deal of vanity and folly, as in MULTITUDE OF DREAMS, which for the most part are vain and insignificant, so also _in many words_, i.e. in making many vows, whereby a man is exposed to many snares and temptations. FEAR THOU GOD; fear the offence and wrath of God, and therefore be spa... [ Continue Reading ]
Here is an account of another vanity, and a sovereign antidote against it. MARVEL NOT, as if it were inconsistent with God's wisdom, and justice, and truth to suffer such disorders, or a just cause for any man to throw off that fear and service of God which I have now commended to thee. HE THAT IS H... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PROFIT OF THE EARTH, the fruits procured from the earth by the skill and labour of the husbandman, is for all; are necessary and beneficial to all men whatsoever. The wise man, after some interruption, returns to his former subject, to discourse of the vanity of great riches, one argument or evi... [ Continue Reading ]
The greatest treasures of silver do not satisfy the covetous possessor of it; partly because his mind is insatiable, and his desires are increased by and with gains; partly because silver of itself cannot satisfy his natural desires and necessities as the fruits of the field can do, and the miserabl... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ARE INCREASED THAT EAT THEM; they require and are more commonly attended with a numerous company of servants, and friends, and retinues to consume them; which is a great torment to a covetous man, of whom he here speaks. WHAT GOOD IS THERE TO THE OWNERS THEREOF? what benefit hath he above other... [ Continue Reading ]
IS SWEET; because he is free from those cares and fears, wherewith the minds of rich men are oft distracted, and their sleep disturbed. WHETHER HE EAT LITTLE, then his weariness disposeth him to sleep, or much, in which case his healthful constitution and laborious course of life prevents those crud... [ Continue Reading ]
Because they frequently are the instruments and occasions both of their present and eternal destruction, as they feed their pride or luxury, or other hurtful lusts, which waste the body, and shorten the life, and damn the soul; and as they are great temptations to tyrants or thieves, yea, sometimes... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT, or _for_, or _or_, or _moreover_; for this particle is so rendered by divers others, both here and in other places of Scripture. THOSE RICHES PERISH: if they be kept, it is to the owner's hurt; and if not, they are lost to his grief. BY EVIL TRAVAIL; by some wicked practices, either his own, or... [ Continue Reading ]
RETURN TO GO into the womb or belly of the earth, the common mother of all mankind. SEE POOLE ON "JOB 1:21", SEE POOLE ON "ECCLESIASTES 12:7 ". And _return to go_, is put for _return and go_; and _going_ is here put for _dying_, as JOB 16:22 PSALMS 39:13. This is another vanity: if his estate be nei... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS ALSO, which I have last mentioned and shall now repeat. _For the wind_; for riches, which are empty and unsatisfying, uncertain and transitory, fleeing away swiftly and strongly, PROVERBS 23:5, which no man can hold or stay in its course, all which are the properties of the wind. Compare PROVER... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL HIS DAYS, to wit, of his life, ALSO HE EATETH IN DARKNESS; he hath no comfort in his estate, but even when he eats, when other men relax their minds, and use freedom and cheerfulness, he doth it with anxiety and discontent, as grudging even at his own necessary expenses, and tormenting himself w... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT WHICH I HAVE SEEN, i.e. learned by study and experience. GOOD AND COMELY; good or comfortable to man's self, and comely or amiable in the eyes of other men, as penuriousness is base and dishonourable. HIS PORTION, to wit, of worldly goods; for he hath another and a better portion in heaven. Thi... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH GIVEN HIM POWER, Heb. _hath given him the dominion_; who is the lord and master of his estate, not a slave to it. Of this and the former verse, SEE POOLE ON "ECCLESIASTES 2:24"; SEE POOLE ON "ECCLESIASTES 3:12", SEE POOLE ON "ECCLESIASTES 3:13". _To take his portion to his own use_, to use what... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL NOT MUCH REMEMBER; so as to disquiet or vex himself therewith. THE DAYS; either, 1. The troubles; days being here put for evil or sad days, by a usual synecdoche, as JOB 18:20 PSALMS 137:7 OB 12 MIC 7:4. Or, 2. The time in general; which is irksome and tedious to men oppressed with discont... [ Continue Reading ]