CHAPTER IV _The vanity of life is increased by oppression_, 1-3; _by envy_, 4; _by idleness_, 5. _The misery of a solitary life, and the advantages of society_, 6-12. _A poor and wise child; better than an old and foolish king_, 13. _The uncertainty of popular favour_, 14-16. NOTES ON CHAP.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ecclesiastes 4:2. _WHEREFORE I PRAISED THE DEAD_] I considered those happy who had escaped from the pilgrimage of life to the place where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ecclesiastes 4:3. _WHICH HATH NOT YET BEEN_] Better never to have been born into the world, than to have _seen_ and _suffered_ so many miseries.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ecclesiastes 4:4. _FOR THIS A MAN IS ENVIED_] It is not by injustice and wrong only that men suffer, but through _envy_ also. For if a man act uprightly and properly in the world, he soon becomes the object of his neighbour's envy and calumny too. Therefore the encouragement to do good, to act... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ecclesiastes 4:5. _THE FOOL FOLDETH HIS HANDS_] After all, without _labour_ and _industry_ no man can get any comfort in life; and he who gives way to idleness is the veriest of fools.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ecclesiastes 4:6. _BETTER_ IS _A HANDFUL_ WITH _QUIETNESS_] These may be the words of the _slothful_ man, and spoken in vindication of his idleness; as if he had said, "Every man who labours and amasses property is the object of _envy_, and is marked by the oppressor as a subject for spoil; be... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ecclesiastes 4:8. _THERE IS ONE_ ALONE, _AND_ THERE IS _NOT A SECOND_] Here _covetousness_ and _avarice_ are characterized. The man who is the centre of his own existence; has neither wife, child, nor legal heir; and yet is as intent on getting money as if he had the largest family to provide... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ecclesiastes 4:9. _TWO_ ARE _BETTER THAN ONE_] Married life is infinitely to be preferred to this kind of life, for the very reasons alleged below, and which require no explanation.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 13. _BETTER_ IS _A POOR AND A WISE CHILD_] The _Targum_ applies this to _Abraham_. "Abraham was a _poor child_ of only _three_ years of age; but he had the spirit of prophecy, and he refused to worship the idols which the _old foolish king_ - Nimrod - had set up; therefore Nimrod cast him into... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 14. _FOR OUT OF PRISON HE COMETH TO REIGN_] "Then Abraham left the country of the idolaters, where he had been _imprisoned_, and came and _reigned_ over the land of Canaan; and Nimrod became _poor_ in this world." This is the _fact_ to which the ancient rabbins supposed Solomon to allude.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 15. _WITH THE SECOND CHILD THAT SHALL STAND UP_] The _Targum_ applies this to the case of _Jeroboam_ and _Rehoboam_. History affords many instances of mean persons raised to sovereign authority, and of kings being reduced to the meanest offices, and to a morsel of bread. Agrippa himself ascend... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Ecclesiastes 4:16. THERE IS _NO END OF ALL THE PEOPLE_] This is supposed to refer to the multitudes of people who hail the advent and accession of a new sovereign; for, as _Suetonius_ remarks, _A_ _plerisque adorari solem orientem_, "Most people adore the rising sun." But when the new king bec... [ Continue Reading ]