Ecclesiastes 8:8

There is no man that hath power over the spirit The word for "spirit," may mean either "the wind" or the "spirit," the "breath of life" in man, and each sense has been adopted by many commentators. Taking the former, which seems preferable, the latter involving a repetition of the same thought in the two clauses of the verse, we have a parallel in Proverbs 30:4, perhaps also in John 3:8. Man is powerless to control the course of the wind, so also is he powerless (the words, though general in form, point especially to the tyrannous oppressor,) to control the drift of things, that is bearing him on to his inevitable doom. The worst despotism is, as Talleyrand said of Russia, "tempered by assassination."

neither hath he power in the day of death Better, over the day of death. The analogy of the previous clause, as to man's impotence to control or direct the wind, suggests that which is its counterpart. When "the day of death" comes, whether by the hand of the assassin, or by disease and decay, man (in this case again the generalized thought applies especially to the oppressor) has no power, by any exercise of will, to avert the end. The word for "power" in the second clause is, as in Daniel 3:3, the concrete of the abstract form in the first, There is no ruler in the day of death.

there is no discharge in that war The word for "discharge" occurs elsewhere only in Psalms 78:49, where it is rendered "sending," and as the marginal reading ("no casting of weapons") shews has been variously interpreted. That reading suggests the meaning that "in that war (against death), there is no weapon that will avail." The victorious leader of armies must at last succumb to a conqueror mightier than himself. The text of the English version is probably, however, correct as a whole, and the interpolated "that," though not wanted, is perhaps excusable. The reference is to the law (Deuteronomy 20:5-8) which allowed a furlough, or release from military duty, in certain cases, and which the writer contrasts with the inexorable sternness which summons men to their battle with the king of terrors, and that a battle with a foregone and inevitable conclusion. Here the strict rigour of Persian rule under Darius and Xerxes, which permitted no exemption from service in time of war, was the true parallel (Herod. iv. 84, vii. 38).

neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it Better, neither shall wickedness deliver its lord. The last word is the same as Baal, in the sense of a "lord" or "possessor," and is joined with words expressing qualities to denote that they are possessed in the highest degree. Thus "a lord of tongue" is a "babbler" (ch. Ecclesiastes 10:11), "lord of hair" is "a hairy man" (2 Kings 1:8), and so on. Here, therefore, it means those who are specially conspicuous for their wickedness. The thought is as before, that a time comes at last, when all the schemes and plans of the oppressor fail to avert his punishment, as surely as all efforts to prolong life fail at last to avert death.