Ecclesiastes 1:9

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. THAT WHICH IS DONE - accomplished. The results of doing are now what they shall be in the present order of things. NO NEW (THING) - (Hebrew, 'no new thing at all,' as .) This is not meant in a general sense; but there is no new source of happiness (the subject in question) which can be devised: the same round of petty pleasures, cares, business, study, wars, etc., being repeated over and over again (Holden). Since the old has been unsatisfactory, it is a great evil that there is nothing new. 'Man cannot escape out of the charmed circle into which he was driven by the curse (), be his exertions what they may (Hengstenb...

9-11 Men's hearts and their corruptions are the same now as in former times; their desires, and pursuits, and complaints, still the same. This should take us from expecting happiness in the creature, and quicken us to seek eternal blessings. How many things and persons in Solomon's day were thought very great, yet there is no remembrance of them now!...

Verse Ecclesiastes 1:9. _THE THING THAT HATH BEEN_] Every thing in the whole economy of nature has its _revolutions_; summer and winter, heat and cold, rain and drought, seedtime and autumn, with the whole system of _corruption_ and _generation_, alternately succeed each other, so that _whatever has been_ shall _be again_. There is really, physically, and philosophically, nothing absolutely new under the sun, in the course of sublunary things. The same is the case in all the revolutions of the heavens....

HATH BEEN ... IS DONE - i. e., Hath happened in the course of nature ... is done by man....

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 1:1 THE TITLE. THE WORDS OF THE PREACHER, THE SON OF DAVID, KING IN JERUSALEM; Septuagint, "King of Israel in Jerusalem" (comp.Ecclesiastes 1:12). The word rendered "Preacher" is _Koheleth_,_ _a feminine noun formed from a verb _kalal_,_ _"to call" (see Introduction, § 1), and perhaps better rendered" Convener" or "Debater." It is found nowhere else but in this book, where it occurs three times in this chapter (Ecclesiastes 1:1, Ecclesiastes 1:2,...

THE THING THAT HATH BEEN, IT [IS THAT] WHICH SHALL BE,.... The thing that has been seen and heard is no other than what shall be seen and heard again; so that what is now seen and heard is only what has been seen and heard before; it is but the same thing over again; and that is the reason why the eye and ear are never satisfied; the same objects, as the visible heavens and earth, and all therein, which have been from the beginning, these are they which shall be, and there is nothing else to be seen and heard, and enjoyed; AND THAT WHICH IS DONE, [IS] THAT WHICH SHALL BE DONE; what is done in the present age, nay, in this year, month, or day, shall be done over again in the next; AND [THERE IS] NO NEW [THING] UNDER THE SUN; which is to be understood of things natural, as the works of creation, which were finished from the beginning of the world, and continue as they were ever since,...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS PART I. Chapter S 1-6 1. The Prologue and the Search Begun CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The introduction and prologue (Ecclesiastes 1:1)_ 2. The seeker; his method and the results (Ecclesiastes 1:12) Ecclesiastes 1:1. In the general introduction we have already referred to the opening verses as giving the information who the author is and what is the object of his treatise. So sure is the critical school that Solomon is not the king mentioned that one says “the fact that Solomon is not the author, but is introduced in a literary figure, has become such an axiom of the present day interpretation of the book, that no extended argument to prove

ECCLESIASTES 1:2 may be called an introduction to the book; it also presents the writer's conclusions. He has surveyed life from many angles and decided that all human effort is fruitless and unavailing, or as he puts it, vanity. This is his key-word (the Hebrew means vapour, breath, and so nothingness): it occurs forty times. VANITY OF VANITIES is the Heb. way of saying utmost vanity. Man toils under the sun, _i.e._ upon the earth, but reaps no gain; like players on a stage the ever-changing generations come and go, while the earth, man's scene of toil, abides. As with man so with nature; sun, winds (north and south, _cf._ Ca. Ecclesiastes 4:16), streams, all pursue a dreary round of endless repetition and accomplish nothing, _e.g._ the sea is never filled. The whole

_The thing that hath been_ What has been affirmed of natural phenomena is now repeated of the events of human life. The writer reproduces or anticipates the Stoic doctrine of a recurring cycle of events which we find reproduced in Virgil: "Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo. Alter erit tum Tiphys, et altera quæ vehat Argo Delectos heroas; erunt etiam altera bella, Atque iterum ad Troiam magnus mittetur Achilles." "Lo! the great cycle runs its course anew: A second Tiphys springs to life, and steers A second Argo with its warrior freight Of chosen heroes, and new wars arise, And once again Achilles sails for Troy." Virg. _Ecl._iv. 5, 34 36....

_THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN -- ECCLESIASTES 1:9-11:_ Things of this world are very fatiguing to those that have them. Solomon's goal was to cause us to understand the unsatisfying nature of all things under the sun. "The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." Man searches for something new continually. The eye and the ear are never satisfied because they see and hear the same kind of things over and over again. When Solomon said, "there is no new thing under the sun" he likely referred to things of nature. Solomon asked the people to name any new thing under the sun. We now know that there are many "new things." Especially, there are many things that are "new" spiritually. There is (1) the new covenant, (2) the new commandment, (3) the new and living way (4) a new name, and (5) the New Testament. Solomon said that the reason that