Ecclesiastes 10:19

money answereth all things The maxim as it stands in the English Version, has a somewhat cynical ring, reminding us only too closely of the counsel condemned by the Roman satirist,

"O cives, cives, quærenda pecunia primum est;

Virtus post nummos."

"Money, my townsmen, must be sought for first;

Virtue comes after guineas,"

"Isne tibi melius suadet, qui rem facias; rem,

Si possis, recte; si non, quocunque modo rem?"

"Does he give better counsel whom we hear,

-Make money, money; justly if you can,

But if not, then in any way, make money?" "

Hor. Epp.i. 1. 53, 65.

So Menander (quoted by Delitzsch) "Silver and gold these are the Gods who profit most. If these are in thy house pray for what thou wilt and it shall be thine," and Horace:

Scilicet uxorem cum dote, fidemque, et amicos,

Et genus, et formam, regina pecunia donat;

Ac bene nummatum decorat Suadela Venusque."

"Seek'st thou a dowried wife, or friends, or trust,

Beauty or rank, Queen Money gives thee all;

Put money in thy purse, and thou shalt lack

Nor suasive power nor comeliness of form."

Epp.i. 6. 36 38.

The truer rendering of the Hebrew, however, gives not so much a maxim as the statement of a fact and is entirely in harmony with the preceding verses. For revelry they (i.e."man," indefinitely) prepare food (literally, bread) and wine that rejoices life, and money answereth all things, i.e.meets all they want. The words obviously point to the conduct of the luxurious and slothful princes condemned in Ecclesiastes 10:16; Ecclesiastes 10:18. Regardless of their duty as rulers and of the sufferings of their people, they aim only at self-indulgence and they look to money, however gained, as the means of satisfying their desires. So, in our own times, Armenians or Fellaheen may die by thousands of famine or pestilence, but the palaces of the Sultan and the Khedive are as full of luxury and magnificence as ever. The State may be bankrupt and creditors unpaid, but they manage somehow to get what they want. The money which they squeeze out from a starving province is for them as the God they worship who grants all they wish.