From dangers, disappointments, grief, and pain."
Verse 15
As it happeneth to the fool - Literally, "According as the event is to the fool, it happens to me, even me." There is a peculiar beauty and emphasis in the repetition of me. Having pointed out the advantages that wisdom has over folly, he takes this opportunity of reminding us of the danger of trusting too much to it, by showing that it is equally subject to the common accidents of life; and, therefore, incapable of making us completely happy. Having given his sentiments on this point in general terms, he proceeds to those particular instances wherein human prudence chiefly exerts itself; and shows how egregiously it is mistaken in every one of them - C.
Verse 16
There is no remembrance - The wise and the fool are equally subject to death; and, in most instances, they are equally forgotten. Time sweeps away all remembrances, except the very few out of millions which are preserved for a while in the page of history.
Verse 17
Therefore I hated life - את החיים et hachaiyim, the lives, both of the wise, the mad man, and the fool. Also all the stages of life, the child, the man, and the sage. There was nothing in it worth pursuing, no period worth re-living and no hope that if this were possible I could again be more successful.
Verse 18
I hated all my labor - Because,
1. It has not answered the end for which it was instituted.
2. I can enjoy the fruits of it but a short time.
3. I must leave it to others, and know not whether a wise man, a knave, or a fool will possess it.
Verse 19
A wise man or a fool? - Alas! Solomon, the wisest of all men, made the worst use of his wisdom, had three hundred wives and seven hundred concubines, and yet left but one son behind him, to possess his estates and his throne, and that one was the silliest of fools!
Verse 20
I went about to cause my heart to despair - What makes all worse, there is no remedy. It is impossible in the present state of things to prevent these evils.
Verse 21
For there is a man - Does he not allude to himself? As if he had said, "I have labored to cultivate my mind in wisdom and in science, in knowledge of men and things, and have endeavored to establish equity and dispense justice. And now I find I shall leave all the fruits of my labor to a man that hath not labored therein, and consequently cannot prize what I have wrought." Does he not refer to his son Rehoboam?
Verse 22
For what hath man of all his laborer - Labour of body, disappointment of hope, and vexation of heart, have been all my portion.
Verse 23
His days are sorrows - What a picture of human life where the heart is not filled with the peace and love of God! All his days are sorrows; all his labors griefs; all his nights restless; for he has no portion but merely what earth can give; and that is embittered by the labor of acquisition, and the disappointment in the using.
This is also vanity - Emptiness of good and substantial misery.
Verse 24
There is nothing better for a man - The sense of this passage is well expressed in the following lines: - "For these disorders wouldst thou find a cure,
Such cure as human frailty would admit?
Drive from thee anxious cares; let reason curb
Thy passions; and with cheerful heart enjoy
That little which the world affords; for here,
Though vain the hopes of perfect happiness,
Yet still the road of life, rugged at best,
Is not without its comforts -
Wouldst thou their sweetness taste, look up to heaven,
And praise the all-bounteous Donor, who bestows
The power to use aright."
Verse 26
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.
Giveth - wisdom, and knowledge, and joy -
1. God gives wisdom - the knowledge of himself, light to direct in the way of salvation.
2. Knowledge - understanding to discern the operation of his hand; experimental acquaintance with himself, in the dispensing of his grace and the gifts of his Spirit.
3. Joy; a hundred days of ease for one day of pain; one thousand enjoyments for one privation; and to them that believe, peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
But to the sinner he giveth travail - He has a life of labor, disappointment, and distress; for because he is an enemy to God, he travails in pain all his days; and, as the wise man says elsewhere, the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just. So he loseth earthly good, because he would not take a heavenly portion with it.
Introduction
Every thing has its time and season, [Ecc 3:1-8]. Men are exercised with labor, [Ecc 3:9], [Ecc 3:10]. Every thing is beautiful in its season, [Ecc 3:11]. Men should enjoy thankfully the gifts of God, [Ecc 3:12], [Ecc 3:13]. What God does is for ever, [Ecc 3:14]. There is nothing new, [Ecc 3:15]. The corruption of judgment; but the judgments of God are right, [Ecc 3:16], [Ecc 3:17]. Man is brutish, and men and brutes die in like manner, [Ecc 3:18-21]. Man may enjoy the fruit of his own labors, [Ecc 3:22].