{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ECC","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Ecclesiastes","commonName":"Ecclesiastes","introduction":"The Hebrew title is Koheleth, which the speaker in it applies to himself (Ecc 1:12), \"I, Koheleth, was king over Israel.\" It means an Assembler or Convener of a meeting and a Preacher to such a meeting. The feminine form of the Hebrew noun, and its construction once (Ecc 7:27) with a feminine verb, show that it not only signifies Solomon, the Preacher to assemblies (in which case it is construed with the verb or noun masculine), but also Divine Wisdom (feminine in Hebrew) speaking by the mouth of the inspired king. In six cases out of seven it is construed with the masculine. Solomon was endowed with inspired wisdom (Kg1 3:5-14; Kg1 6:11-12; Kg1 9:1-9; Kg1 11:9-11), specially fitting him for the task. The Orientals delight in such meetings for grave discourse. Thus the Arabs formerly had an assembly yearly, at Ocadh, for hearing and reciting poems. Compare \"Masters of assemblies\" (see on Ecc 12:11, also Ecc 12:9). \"The Preacher taught the people knowledge,\" probably viva voce (\"orally\"); Kg1 4:34; Kg1 10:2, Kg1 10:8, Kg1 10:24; Ch2 9:1, Ch2 9:7, Ch2 9:23, plainly refer to a somewhat public divan met for literary discussion. So \"spake,\" thrice repeated (Kg1 4:32-33), refers not to written compositions, but to addresses spoken in assemblies convened for the purpose. The Holy Ghost, no doubt, signifies also by the term that Solomon's doctrine is intended for the \"great congregation,\" the Church of all places and ages (Psa 22:25; Psa 49:2-4).\n\nSolomon was plainly the author (Ecc 1:12, Ecc 1:16; Ecc 2:15; Ecc 12:9). That the Rabbins attribute it to Isaiah or Hezekiah is explicable by supposing that one or the other inserted it in the canon. The difference of its style, as compared with Proverbs and Song of Solomon, is due to the difference of subjects, and the different period of his life in which each was written; the Song, in the fervor of his first love to God; Proverbs, about the same time, or somewhat later; but Ecclesiastes in late old age, as the seal and testimony of repentance of his apostasy in the intervening period: Psa 89:30, Psa 89:33 proves his penitence. The substitution of the title Koheleth for Solomon (that is, peace), may imply that, having troubled Israel, meantime he forfeited his name of peace (Kg1 11:14, Kg1 11:23); but now, having repented, he wishes to be henceforth a Preacher of righteousness. The alleged foreign expressions in the Hebrew may have been easily imported, through the great intercourse there was with other nations during his long reign. Moreover, supposed Chaldaisms may be fragments preserved from the common tongue of which Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, and Arabic were offshoots.\n\nTHE SCOPE of Ecclesiastes is to show the vanity of all mere human pursuits, when made the chief end, as contrasted with the real blessedness of true wisdom, that is, religion. The immortality of the soul is dwelt on incidentally, as subsidiary to the main scope. Moses' law took this truth for granted but drew its sanctions of rewards and punishments in accordance with the theocracy, which was under a special providence of God as the temporal King of Israel, from the present life, rather than the future. But after Israel chose an earthly king, God withdrew, in part, His extraordinary providence, so that under Solomon, temporal rewards did not invariably follow virtue, and punishments vice (compare Ecc 2:16; Ecc 3:19; Ecc 4:1; Ecc 5:8; Ecc 7:15; Ecc 8:14; Ecc 9:2, Ecc 9:11). Hence the need arises to show that these anomalies will be rectified hereafter, and this is the grand \"conclusion,\" therefore, of the \"whole\" book, that, seeing there is a coming judgment, and seeing that present goods do not satisfy the soul, \"man's whole duty is to fear God and keep his commandments\" (Ecc 12:13-14), and meanwhile, to use, in joyful and serene sobriety, and not abuse, the present life (Ecc 3:12-13).\n\nIt is objected that sensual epicurism seems to be inculcated (Ecc 3:12-13, Ecc 3:22, &c.); but it is a contented, thankful enjoyment of God's present gifts that is taught, as opposed to a murmuring, anxious, avaricious spirit, as is proved by Ecc 5:18, compare with Ecc 5:11-15, not making them the chief end of life; not the joy of levity and folly; a misunderstanding which he guards against in Ecc 7:2-6; Ecc 11:9; Ecc 12:1. Again, Ecc 7:16; Ecc 9:2-10, might seem to teach fatalism and skepticism. But these are words put in the mouth of an objector; or rather, they were the language of Solomon himself during his apostasy, finding an echo in the heart of every sensualist, who wishes to be an unbeliever, and, who, therefore, sees difficulties enough in the world around wherewith to prop up his wilful unbelief. The answer is given (Ecc 7:17-18; Ecc 9:11-12; Ecc 11:1, Ecc 11:6; Ecc 12:13). Even if these passages be taken as words of Solomon, they are to be understood as forbidding a self-made \"righteousness,\" which tries to constrain God to grant salvation to imaginary good works and external strictness with which it wearies itself; also, that speculation which tries to fathom all God's inscrutable counsels (Ecc 8:17), and that carefulness about the future forbidden in Mat 6:25.\n\nTHE CHIEF GOOD is that the possession of that which makes us happy, is to be sought as the end, for its own sake; whereas, all other things are but means towards it. Philosophers, who made it the great subject of inquiry, restricted it to the present life, treating the eternal as unreal, and only useful to awe the multitude with. But Solomon shows the vanity of all human things (so-called philosophy included) to satisfy the soul, and that heavenly wisdom alone is the chief good. He had taught so when young (Pro 1:20; Pro 8:1); so also; in Song of Solomon, he had spiritualized the subject in an allegory; and now, after having long personally tried the manifold ways in which the worldly seek to reach happiness, he gives the fruit of his experience in old age.\n\nIt is divided into two parts-- Ecc. 1:1-6:10 showing the vanity of earthly things; Ecc. 6:10-12:14, the excellence of heavenly wisdom. Deviations from strict logical methods occur in these divisions, but in the main they are observed. The deviations make it the less stiff and artificial, and the more suited to all capacities. It is in poetry; the hemistichal division is mostly observed, but occasionally not so. The choice of epithets, imagery, inverted order of words, ellipses, parallelism, or, in its absence, similarity of diction, mark versification. \n\n\n\nNext: Ecclesiastes Chapter 1\n\n","order":21,"numberOfChapters":12,"sha256":"62a4e2df92d463e33901953fd7e9216b7cdda1901a15b41c1d5d575025baa481","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ECC/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ECC","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":12,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ECC/12.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ECC","chapter":12},"totalNumberOfVerses":202},"chapter":{"number":4,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["A profane sentiment if severed from its connection; but just in its bearing on Solomon's scope. If religion were not taken into account (Ecc 3:17, Ecc 3:19), 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 (Ecc 7:1). Job (Job 3:12; Job 21:7), David (Psa 73:3, &c.), Jeremiah (Jer 12:1), Habakkuk (Hab 1:13), all passed through the same perplexity, until they went into the sanctuary, and looked beyond the present to the \"judgment\" (Psa 73:17; Hab 2:20; Hab 3:17-18). Then they saw the need of delay, before completely punishing the wicked, to give space for repentance, or else for accumulation of wrath (Rom 2:15); and before completely rewarding the godly, to give room for faith and perseverance in tribulation (Psa 92:7-12). 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.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["not seen--nor experienced.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["right--rather, \"prosperous\" (see on Ecc 2:21). Prosperity, which men so much covet, is the very source of provoking oppression (Ecc 4:1) and \"envy,\" so far is it from constituting the chief good.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Still the \n\nfool (the wicked oppressor) is not to be envied even in this life, who \"folds his hands together\" in idleness (Pro 6:10; Pro 24:33), living on the means he wrongfully wrests from others; for such a one \n\neateth his own flesh--that is, is a self-tormentor, never satisfied, his spirit preying on itself (Isa 9:20; Isa 49:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Hebrew; \"One open hand (palm) full of quietness, than both closed hands full of travail.\" \"Quietness\" (mental tranquillity flowing from honest labor), opposed to \"eating one's own flesh\" (Ecc 4:5), also opposed to anxious labor to gain (Ecc 4:8; Pro 15:16-17; Pro 16:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["A vanity described in Ecc 4:8.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["not a second--no partner. \n\nchild--\"son or brother,\" put for any heir (Deu 25:5-10). \n\neye-- (Ecc 1:8). The miser would not be able to give an account of his infatuation.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Two--opposed to \"one\" (Ecc 4:8). Ties of union, marriage, friendship, religious communion, are better than the selfish solitariness of the miser (Gen 2:18). \n\nreward--Advantage accrues from their efforts being conjoined. The Talmud says, \"A man without a companion is like a left hand without the right.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["if they fall--if the one or other fall, as may happen to both, namely, into any distress of body, mind, or soul.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["(See on Kg1 1:1). The image is taken from man and wife, but applies universally to the warm sympathy derived from social ties. So Christian ties (Luk 24:32; Act 28:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["one--enemy. \n\nthreefold cord--proverbial for a combination of many--for example, husband, wife, and children (Pro 11:14); so Christians (Luk 10:1; Col 2:2, Col 2:19). Untwist the cord, and the separate threads are easily \"broken.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["The \"threefold cord\" [Ecc 4:12] of social ties suggests the subject of civil government. 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 (Kg1 11:26-40) 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 (Kg1 3:14; Kg1 9:2-9), he forsook God. \n\nwill no more be admonished--knows not yet how to take warning (see Margin) God had by Ahijah already intimated the judgment coming on Solomon (Kg1 11:11-13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["out of prison--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 (Kg1 11:40). 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. \n\nwhereas . . . becometh poor--rather, \"though he (the youth) was born poor in his kingdom\" (in the land where afterwards he was to reign).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["\"I considered all the living,\" the present generation, 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), that is, Rehoboam. \n\nin his stead--the old king's.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["Notwithstanding their now worshipping the rising sun, the heir-apparent, I reflected that \"there were no bounds, no stability (Sa2 15:6; Sa2 20:1), no check on the love of innovation, of all that have been before them,\" that is, the past generation; so \n\nalso they that come after--that is, the next generation, \n\nshall not rejoice in him--namely, Rehoboam. The parallel, \"shall not rejoice,\" fixes the sense of \"no bounds,\" no permanent adherence, though now men rejoice in him.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Ecclesiastes Chapter 5\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Ecc. 4:1-16)\n\nreturned--namely, to the thought set forth (Ecc 3:16; Job 35:9). \n\npower--MAURER, not so well, \"violence.\" \n\nno comforter--twice said to express continued suffering without any to give comfort (Isa 53:7).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ECC/4.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ECC","chapter":4},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ECC/5.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ECC","chapter":5},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ECC/3.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ECC","chapter":3},"numberOfVerses":15}