Ecclesiastes 4:15

I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead. I CONSIDERED ALL THE LIVING - all the present generation of subjects. WITH THE SECOND CHILD THAT SHALL STAND UP IN HIS STEAD - in relation to ("with") the "second youth" (the legitimate successor of "the old king," as opposed to the "poor youth," the one first spoken of, about to be raised from poverty to a throne) - i:e., Rehoboam. IN HIS STEAD - the old king's....

13-16 People are never long easy and satisfied; they are fond of changes. This is no new thing. Princes see themselves slighted by those they have studied to oblige; this is vanity and vexation of spirit. But the willing servants of the Lord Jesus, our King, rejoice in him alone, and they will love Him more and more to all eternity....

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 ascended the throne of Israel after having been long in prison. See Josephus, Ant. lib. xviii. c. 8. This the heathens attributed to _fortune_. Si fortuna volet, fies de rhetore consul; Si volet haec eadem, fies de consule rhetor. JUV. Sat. vii., ver. 197. Though I have given what the Jews suppose to be the allusion in these verses, yet the reader may doubt whether the reference be correct. There is a case implied, whether from _fact_ or _assumption_ I cannot say; but it seems to

These verses set forth the vanity of earthly prosperity even on a throne. Opinion as to their application is chiefly divided between considering them a parable or fiction like that of the childless man in Ecclesiastes 4:8 : or as setting forth first the vicissitudes of royal life in two proverbial sayings Ecclesiastes 4:13, and then Ecclesiastes 4:15, the vicissitudes or procession of the whole human race, one generation giving place to another, Which in its turn will be forgotten by its successor. On the whole, the first appears to have the better claim. Ecclesiastes 4:13

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 4:1 Section 5. Koheleth proceeds to give further illustrations of _man_'_s inability to be the architect of his own happiness_._ _There are many things which interrupt or destroy it. ECCLESIASTES 4:1 First of all, he adduces the oppression of man by his fellow-man. ECCLESIASTES 4:1 SO I RETURNED, AND CONSIDERED ALL THE OPPRESSIONS THAT ARE DONE UNDER THE SUN. This is equivalent to, "again I saw," as Ecclesiastes 4:7, with a reference to the wickedness i

I CONSIDERED ALL THE LIVING WHICH WALK UNDER THE SUN,.... All men that were then alive, who were capable of walking upon the earth; even all of them that were under the heavens, in every land and nation, under whatsoever dominion or government: these, and their manners, Solomon had particularly observed, and made his remarks upon, by which it appeared how fickle the minds of the populace were under every government, and how precarious and uncertain were the honour and dignity of princes; WITH THE SECOND CHILD THAT SHALL STAND UP IN HIS STEAD: the heir and successor or every prince, that shall rise up and take the throne of his father or predecessor, and reign in his stead. The wise man observed how the people commonly behaved towards him; how that they generally stood best affected to him, than to the reigning prince; worshipped the rising sun, courted his favour and friendship, soothed...

CHAPTER 4 OBSERVATIONS OF DIFFERENT WRONGS _ 1. Concerning oppressions (Ecclesiastes 4:1)_ 2. Concerning envy of fools and the rich (Ecclesiastes 4:4) 3. Concerning the miser (Ecclesiastes 4:8) 4. Concerning popularity (Ecclesiastes 4:13) Ecclesiastes 4:1. He observes that the world is filled with oppressions. This connects with the statement made in the previous chapter, (verse 16). Criticism declares in connection with this passage that it could not have been written by

ECCLESIASTES 4. A GLOOMY SURVEY. The chapter falls into four parts, which treat respectively of oppression (Ecclesiastes 4:1), rivalry (Ecclesiastes 4:4), isolation amounting to self-torture (Ecclesiastes 4:7), and a paragraph on a young king's popularity (Ecclesiastes 4:13). ECCLESIASTES 4:1. Man's inhumanity to man awakens Qoheleth's compassion; THEY HAD NO COMFORTER must refer in both cases to the oppressed; the words are repeated for the sake of emphasis....

_with the second child that shall stand up in his stead_ If we take the word "second" in its natural meaning, the clause may point either to the wise young ruler of the previous verse, as succeeding (_i.e._coming _second_to) the old and foolish king, or possibly to _his_successor, and points in either case to what we have learnt to call the "worship of the rising Sun." All gather round him, and their name is legion. There is "no end of all the people....

I CONSIDERED ALL THE LIVING— _I saw all the living eager to walk under the sun, with the second son who should succeed him._—Ver. 16. _No end of all the people! of all that resorted to them! Yet they who shall come after will have no reason to be glad of that successor._ I do not find, says Desvoeux, that the interpreters have taken any notice of the phrase, _walking under the sun with a man in power,_ as of a figurative expression. Nay, our version turns it so as to make it a mere repetition of _all the living;_ yet this expression is the more remarkable here, as it is followed in the next verse by another, which, from a comparison between Genesis 5:22; Genesis 5:24; Genesis 17:1 appears to be synonimous to