60 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
60 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
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<title>Blue Letter Bible: Text Commentaries</title>
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PriorBook = 'Proverbs';
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Title = 'Ecclesiastes; or the Preacher';
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SubTitle1 = 'Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET';
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SubTitle3 = 'CHAPTER 4';
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<p id="Chapter4" align="center">Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET<br>CHAPTER 4
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<p id="Ec4_1"><a onclick="return mV('Ecc',4,'1-16');">Ecc 4:1-16</a>.
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<p><b>1. returned</b>—namely, to the thought set forth (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',3,16);">Ecc 3:16</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Job',35,9);">Job 35:9</a>).
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<br><br><b>power</b>—MAURER, not so well, "violence."
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<br><br><b>no comforter</b>—twice said to express <i>continued</i> suffering without any to give comfort (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',53,7);">Isa 53:7</a>).
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<p id="Ec4_2"><b>2.</b> A profane sentiment if severed from its connection; but just in its bearing on Solomon's scope. If religion were not taken into account (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',3,17);">Ecc 3:17</a>, <a onclick="return mV('Ecc',3,19);">19</a>), to die as soon as possible would be desirable, so as not to suffer or witness "oppressions"; and still more so, not to be born at all (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',7,1);">Ecc 7:1</a>). Job (<a onclick="return mV('Job',3,12);">Job 3:12</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Job',21,7);">21:7</a>), David (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',73,3);">Psa 73:3</a>, etc.), Jeremiah (<a onclick="return mV('Jer',12,1);">Jer 12:1</a>), Habakkuk (<a onclick="return mV('Hab',1,13);">Hab 1:13</a>), all passed through the same perplexity, until they went into the sanctuary, and looked beyond the present to the "judgment" (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',73,17);">Psa 73:17</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hab',2,20);">Hab 2:20</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Hab',3,17,18);">3:17-18</a>). Then they saw the need of delay, before completely punishing the wicked, to give space for repentance, or else for accumulation of wrath (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',2,15);">Rom 2:15</a>); and before completely rewarding the godly, to give room for faith and perseverance in tribulation (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',92,'7-12');">Psa 92:7-12</a>). Earnests, however, are often even now given, by partial judgments of the future, to assure us, in spite of difficulties, that God governs the earth.
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<p id="Ec4_3"><b>3. not seen</b>—nor <i>experienced.</i>
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<p id="Ec4_4"><b>4. right</b>—rather, "prosperous" (see on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/Ecc/Ecc002.html#Ec2_21">Ec 2:21</a>). Prosperity, which men so much covet, is the very source of provoking oppression (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',4,1);">Ecc 4:1</a>) and "envy," so far is it from constituting the chief good.
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<p id="Ec4_5"><b>5.</b> Still the
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<br><br><b>fool,</b> the <i>wicked</i> oppressor who "folds his hands together" (<a onclick="return mV('Pro',6,10);">Pro 6:10</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Pro',24,33);">24:33</a>), <i>in idleness,</i> living on the means he wrongfully wrests from others, is not to be envied even in this life; for such a one
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<br><br><b>eateth his own flesh</b>—that is, is a <i>self-tormentor,</i> never satisfied, his spirit preying on itself (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',9,20);">Isa 9:20</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',49,26);">49:26</a>).
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<p id="Ec4_6"><b>6.</b> <i>Hebrew;</i> "One <i>open hand (palm) full of</i> quietness, than both <i>closed hands full of</i> travail." "Quietness" (mental tranquillity flowing from honest labor), opposed to "eating one's own flesh" (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',4,5);">Ecc 4:5</a>), also opposed to anxious labor to gain (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',4,8);">Ecc 4:8</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Pro',15,16,17);">Pro 15:16-17</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Pro',16,8);">16:8</a>).
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<p id="Ec4_7"><b>7.</b> A vanity described in <a onclick="return mV('Ecc',4,8);">Ecc 4:8</a>.
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<p id="Ec4_8"><b>8. not a second</b>—no partner.
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<br><br><b>child</b>—"son or brother," put for any heir (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',25,'5-10');">Deu 25:5-10</a>).
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<br><br><b>eye</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',1,8);">Ecc 1:8</a>). The miser would not be able to give an account of his infatuation.
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<p id="Ec4_9"><b>9. Two</b>—opposed to "one" (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',4,8);">Ecc 4:8</a>). Ties of union, marriage, friendship, religious communion, are better than the selfish solitariness of the miser (<a onclick="return mV('Gen',2,18);">Gen 2:18</a>).
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<br><br><b>reward</b>—Advantage accrues from their efforts being conjoined. The <i>Talmud</i> says, "A man without a companion is like a left hand without the right.
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<p id="Ec4_10"><b>10. if they fall</b>—if <i>the one or other</i> fall, as may happen to <i>both,</i> namely, into any distress of body, mind, or soul.
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<p id="Ec4_11"><b>11.</b> (See on JFB for <a href="./Comm/jfb/1Ki/1Ki001.html#a1Ki1_1">1Ki 1:1</a>). The image is taken from man and wife, but applies universally to the <i>warm</i> sympathy derived from social ties. So Christian ties (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',24,32);">Luk 24:32</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Act',28,15);">Act 28:15</a>).
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<p id="Ec4_12"><b>12. one</b>—enemy.
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<br><br><b>threefold cord</b>—proverbial for a <i>combination of many</i>—for example, husband, wife, and children (<a onclick="return mV('Pro',11,14);">Pro 11:14</a>); so Christians (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',10,1);">Luk 10:1</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Col',2,2,19);">Col 2:2, 19</a>). Untwist the cord, and the separate threads are easily "broken."
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<p id="Ec4_13"><b>13.</b> The "threefold cord" (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',4,12);">Ecc 4:12</a>) of social ties suggests the subject of <i>civil government.</i> In this case too, he concludes that kingly power confers no lasting happiness. The "wise" child, though a supposed case of Solomon, answers, in the event foreseen by the Holy Ghost, to Jeroboam, then a poor but valiant youth, once a "servant" of Solomon, and (<a onclick="return mV('1Ki',11,'26-40');">1Ki 11:26-40</a>) appointed by God through the prophet Ahijah to be heir of the kingdom of the ten tribes about to be rent from Rehoboam. The "old and foolish king" answers to Solomon himself, who had lost his wisdom, when, in defiance of two warnings of God (<a onclick="return mV('1Ki',3,14);">1Ki 3:14</a>; <a onclick="return mV('1Ki',9,'2-9');">9:2-9</a>), he forsook God.
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<br><br><b>will no more be admonished</b>—knows not yet how to take warning (see <i>Margin</i>) God had by Ahijah already intimated the judgment coming on Solomon (<a onclick="return mV('1Ki',11,'11-13');">1Ki 11:11-13</a>).
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<p id="Ec4_14"><b>14. out of prison</b>—Solomon uses this phrase of a supposed case; for example, Joseph raised from a dungeon to be lord of Egypt. His words are at the same time so framed by the Holy Ghost that they answer virtually to Jeroboam, who fled to escape a "prison" and death from Solomon, to Shishak of Egypt (<a onclick="return mV('1Ki',11,40);">1Ki 11:40</a>). This unconscious presaging of his own doom, and that of Rehoboam, constitutes the irony. David's elevation from poverty and exile, under Saul (which may have been before Solomon's mind), had so far their counterpart in that of Jeroboam.
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<br><br><b>whereas...becometh poor</b>—rather, "though he (the youth) was born poor in his kingdom" (in the land where afterwards he was to reign).
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<p id="Ec4_15"><b>15.</b> "I considered all the living," the present generation, in relation to ("with") the "<i>second</i> youth" (the "<i>legitimate</i> successor" of the "old king," as opposed to the "poor youth," the one <i>first</i> spoken of, about to be raised from poverty to a throne), that is, Rehoboam.
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<br><br><b>in his stead</b>—the old king's.
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<p id="Ec4_16"><b>16.</b> Notwithstanding their now worshipping the rising sun, the heir-apparent, I reflected that "there were no bounds, no stability (<a onclick="return mV('2Sa',15,6);">2Sa 15:6</a>; <a onclick="return mV('2Sa',20,1);">20:1</a>), no check on the love of innovation, of all that have been before them," that is, the past generation; so
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<br><br><b>also they that come after</b>—that is, the next generation,
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<br><br><b>shall not rejoice in him</b>—namely, Rehoboam. The parallel, "shall not rejoice," fixes the sense of "no bounds," <i>no permanent adherence,</i> though now men <i>rejoice</i> in <i>him.</i>
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