Ecclesiastes 4:16

There is no end of all the people The words continue the picture of the crowds who follow the young king.

even of all that have been before them The last words are not of time but position. The people are before their king, or rather, he is before them all, going in and out before them (1 Samuel 18:16; 2 Chronicles 1:10), ruling and guiding. The reference of the words to the Messianic child of Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:6, falls under the same category as the interpretation which finds the doctrine of the Trinity in the "threefold cord" of Ecclesiastes 4:12. It is true of both that they may be devout applications of the words, but are in no sense explanatory of their meaning.

they also that come after This is added as the crowning stroke of the irony of history. The reign which begins so brightly shares the inevitable doom, and ends in darkness, and murmuring and failure. "Il n'y a pas d'homme necessaire," and the popular hero of the hour finds himself slighted even in life, and is forgotten by the next generation. The glory of the most popular and successful king shares the common doom and is but as a feeding upon wind. Here again the statement is so wide in its generalization that it is not easy to fix on any historical identification. David, Solomon himself, Jeroboam, Cyrus, Antiochus the Great, Herod have been suggested by the ingenuity of commentators.