Ecclesiastes 2:25

For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I? WHO CAN EAT, OR WHO ELSE CAN HASTEN (HEREUNTO), MORE THAN I? - Hebrew, yaachuwsh (H2363) chuwts (H2351) mimeniy (H4480): Who can hasten more than I, and beyond me? The Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint, read, 'without Him' - i:e., without His permission (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:24). "Hasten," eagerly pursue such enjoyments. None can compete with me in this. If I, then, with all my opportunities of enjoyment, failed utterly to obtain solid pleasure, of my own making, apart from God ...

18-26 Our hearts are very loth to quit their expectations of great things from the creature; but Solomon came to this at length. The world is a vale of tears, even to those that have much of it. See what fools they are, who make themselves drudges to the world, which affords a man nothing better than subsistence for the body. And the utmost he can attain in this respect is to allow himself a sober, cheerful use thereof, according to his rank and condition. But we must enjoy good in our labour; we must use those things to make us diligent and cheerful in worldly business. And this is the gift of God. Riches are a blessing or a curse to a man, according as he has, or has not, a heart to make a good use of them. To those that are accepted of the Lord, he gives joy and satisfaction in the knowledge and love of him. But to the sinner he allots labour, sorrow, vanity, and vexation, in seeking...

Verse 25. _FOR WHO CAN EAT - MORE THAN I?_] But instead of חוץ ממני _chuts mimmenni, more than I_; חוץ ממנו chuts mimmennu, without _HIM_, is the reading of _eight_ of _Kennicott's_ and _De Rossi's_ MSS., as also of the _Septuagint, Syriac_, and _Arabic_. "For who maye eat, drynke, or bring enythinge to pass without him?" - COVERDALE. I believe this to be the true reading. No one can have a true relish of the comforts of life without the Divine blessing. This reading connects all the sentences: "This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God;-for who can eat, and who can relish without HIM? For God giveth to man that is good." It is through his liberality that we have any thing to eat or drink; and it is only through his blessing that we can derive good from the use of what we possess....

Solomon having found that wisdom and folly agree in being subject to vanity, now contrasts one with the other Ecclesiastes 2:13. Both are brought under vanity by events Ecclesiastes 2:14 which come on the wise man and the feel alike from without - death and oblivion Ecclesiastes 2:16, uncertainty Ecclesiastes 2:19, disappointment Ecclesiastes 2:21 - all happening by an external law beyond human control. Amidst this vanity, the good (see...

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 2:1 Section 2. _Vanity of striving after pleasure and wealth._ ECCLESIASTES 2:1 Dissatisfied with the result of the pursuit of wisdom, Koheleth embarks on a course of sensual pleasure, if so be this may yield some effect more substantial and permanent. I SAID IN MINE HEART, GO TO NOW, I WILL PROVE THEE WITH MIRTH. The heart is addressed as the seat of the emotions and affections. The Vulgate misses the direct address to the heart, which the words, rightly interpreted, imply, translating, _Vadam et offluam delieiis_._ _The Septuagint correctly gives, Δεῦρο δὴ πειράσω σε ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ._ _It is like the rich fool's language in Christ's parable, "I will sa

FOR WHO CAN EAT?.... Who should eat, but such a man that has laboured for it? or, who has a power to eat, that is, cheerfully, comfortably, and freely to enjoy the good things of life he is possessed of, unless it be given him of God? see Ecclesiastes 6:1; OR WHO ELSE CAN HASTEN [HEREUNTO] MORE THAN I? the word "chush", in Rabbinical language, is used of the five senses, seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting: and R. Elias says c, there are some that so interpret it here, "who has [his] sense better than I?" a quicker sense, particularly of smelling and tasting what be eats, in which lies much of the pleasure of eating; and this is of God; which interpretation is not to be despised. Or, "who can prepare?" according to the Arabic sense of the word d; that is, a better table than I? No man had a greater affluence of good things than Solomon, or had a greater

CHAPTER 2THE RESULTS OF THE SEARCH AND DIFFERENT VANITIES _ 1. His personal experience (Ecclesiastes 2:1)_ 2. Various vanities and a conclusion (Ecclesiastes 2:12) Ecclesiastes 2:1. Here we find first of all the king's personal experience. He experimented, so to speak, with that which is the possession of the natural man, a fallen nature. In that nature are found three things: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. We can trace these three things in the opening verses. The lust of the flesh in verses 1-3; the lust of the eyes in Ecclesiastes 2:4, and

ECCLESIASTES 1:12 TO ECCLESIASTES 2:26. QOHELETH'S INVESTIGATIONS. Assuming the character of Solomon the writer tells of his search for happiness under many forms. The pursuit of wisdom (Ecclesiastes 1:12), absorption in pleasure (Ecclesiastes 2:1), the study of human nature (Ecclesiastes 2:12), the acquisition of wealth (Ecclesiastes 2:18), alike fail to yield satisfaction. After all his experience the only

WHO ELSE CAN HASTEN HEREUNTO. who can enjoy? MORE THAN I. Some codices, with Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, read _mimmennu,_ instead of _mimmenni,_ "without Him" (i.e. without His favour)....

_For who can eat_ The sequence of thought is obscure, and many commentators follow the LXX. and the Syriac version, as implying an original text which gives a better meaning, WHO CAN EAT AND WHO CAN HASTEN (_i.e._be eager in this pursuit of pleasure), or, as some take the words, HAVE ENJOYMENT, WITHOUT HIM, _i.e._without God. This, it is obvious, follows on the thought of the preceding verse, that the calm enjoyment of which it speaks as "good," is "from the hand of God." Those who keep to the received text give it very different meanings, of which the two most prominent are: (1) that we have, as it were, the words of the labourer whose lot the DEBATER here admired, "Who has a right to eat and enjoy himself, if not I?" the thought being parallel to that of 2 Timothy 2:6 ("The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits"); and (2) that the De