Ecclesiastes 5:17

he eateth in darkness The words are so natural a figure of a cheerless life with no "sweetness and light" in it (comp. Micah 7:8), that there is something almost ludicrous in the prosaic literalism which interprets them, either (1) of the miser as eating in the dark to save candlelight, or (2) working all day and waiting till nightfall before he sits down to a meal.

much sorrow and wrath with his sickness Better, and sickness and wrath. The Hebrew gives a conjunction and not a preposition. The words have been variously taken, (1) "is much disturbed and hath grief and vexation," (2) "grieveth himself much, and oh! for his sorrow and hatred," but the general meaning remains the same. Koheleth teaches, as St Paul does, that "they that will be (i.e.set their hearts on being) rich, pierce themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Timothy 6:6).