Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 4:8

There is one [alone], and [there is] not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet [is there] no end of all his labor; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither [saith he], For whom do I labor, and bereave my soul of good? This [is] also vanity, yea, it [is] a sore travail.

8. There is one alone, and there is not a second ] The gaze of the seeker now falls on another picture. That which strikes him as another example of the vanity of human efforts is the frequent loneliness of the worshipper of wealth. He is one, and he has no companion, no partner or friend, often none bound to him by ties of blood, child or brother, yet he labours on, as though he meant to be the founder of a dynasty. “He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them” Psa 39:6.

neither is his eye satisfied with riches ] The words paint vividly the special characteristic of the insatiability of avarice,

“Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit.”

“So grows our love of wealth as grows the wealth itself.”

neither saith he, For whom do I labour ] The words in italics “saith he” express the meaning of the original but deprive it of its dramatic boldness. The speaker imagines himself in the place of the miser and this is the question which in that case he would ask. The picture is, as it were, a replica of that already drawn in chap. Ecc 2:18-19.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 8. There is one alone, and there is not a second] Here covetousness and avarice are characterized. The man who is the centre of his own existence; has neither wife, child, nor legal heir; and yet is as intent on getting money as if he had the largest family to provide for; nor does he only labour with intense application, but he even refuses himself the comforts of life out of his own gains! This is not only vanity, the excess of foolishness, but it is also sore travail.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

One alone; either,

1. Who lives by himself, as grudging that any ether should partake of his provisions. Or rather,

2. Who hath none but himself to care and labour for, as the next words explain it.

He hath neither child nor brother, to whom he may leave his vast estate.

Yet is there no end of all his labour; he lives in perpetual restlessness and excessive toils.

His eye, i.e. his covetous mind or desire, fitly expressed by the eye, partly because that is the incentive of this sin, Jos 7:21; and partly because he hath no good by his riches, saving the beholding of them with his eyes, as it is affirmed, Ecc 5:11, compared with Ecc 2:10; 1Jo 2:16. Neither saith he, within himself; he considers nothing but how he may get more and more. For whom do I labour? having no posterity nor kindred to enjoy it, as was now said. Shall I take all this pains for a stranger, possibly for an enemy, who will reap the fruit of all my labours? Bereave my soul of good; deity myself those comforts and conveniencies which God hath allowed unto me.

A sore travail; a dreadful judgment and misery as well as a great sin.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

8. not a secondno partner.

child“son orbrother,” put for any heir (De25:5-10).

eye (Ec1:8). The miser would not be able to give an account of hisinfatuation.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

There is one [alone], and [there is] not a second,…. According to Aben Ezra, either no friend or companion, or no servant, or no wife, which last sense he prefers; no friend or companion he chooses, because friendship and fellowship lead to expenses; and no servant who would be chargeable to him; and no wife, which would be more expensive, and bring on a family of children; wherefore, to save charges, he chooses to have neither of these; for this is a covetous man who is here desert bed;

yea, he hath neither child nor brother; to inherit his substance, as the Targum adds; some worldly men, whose bellies are filled with hidden treasures, having enjoyed much, when they die, leave the rest of their substance to their babes; but the man here described has no children, nor any relations to leave his wealth unto;

yet [is there] no end of all his labour; when he has executed one scheme to get riches, he forms another; and having finished one work, he enters upon another; he rises early and sits up late, and works and toils night and day, as if he was not worth a dollar, and had a large and numerous family to provide for; or there is no end of what he labours for, or gets by his labour; there is no end of his treasures, Isa 2:7; he is immensely rich, so Aben Ezra interprets it;

neither is his eye satisfied with riches: with seeing his bags of gold and silver, though he takes a great deal of sure in looking upon them too, without making use of them; yet he is not satisfied with what he has, he wants more, he enlarges his desire as hell, and like the grave never has enough; see Ec 5:10;

neither [saith he], for whom do I labour? having neither wife nor child, nor relation, nor friend, and yet so wretchedly stupid and thoughtless as never once to put this question to himself, Who am I toiling for? I am heaping up riches, and know not who shall gather them; it is a vexation to a worldly man to leave his substance behind him, and even to a man that has an heir to inherit it, when he knows not whether he will be a wise man or a fool; but for a man that has no heir at all, and yet to be toiling and labouring for the world, is gross stupidity, downright madness, and especially when he deprives himself of the comfort of what he is possessed of;

and bereave my soul of good? instead of richly enjoying what is given him, he withholds it from himself, starves his back and belly, lives in pinching want amidst the greatest plenty; has not power to eat of what he has, and his soul desireth; see Ec 6:2.

This [is] also vanity, yea, it [is] a sore travail; a very vain and wicked thing; “an evil business”, as it may be rendered; a very great sin and folly indeed; it is thought by some divines to be the worst species of covetousness, most cruel and unnatural.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

8. One not a second Neither saith he, is not found in the Hebrew, but is inserted to guide to the sense. Yet it is livelier rhetoric to add nothing, but to take the simple personification of the original.

For whom do I labour In this verse Koheleth for the moment puts himself in the place of the lonely miser. This man, so solitary, struggles to amass riches for the mere love of possessing them. “If I were in his place, for whom should I be doing all this?”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ecc 4:8. There is one alone, and there is not a second Here is a man who hath no second, neither son nor brother; yet he puts no end to his labour: neither, &c.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Ecc 4:8 There is one [alone], and [there is] not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet [is there] no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither [saith he], For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This [is] also vanity, yea, it [is] a sore travail.

Ver. 8. There is one alone, and there is not a second. ] A matchless miser, a fellow that hardly hath a fellow; a solivagant, or solitary vagrant, that dare not marry for fear of a numerous offspring. Child he hath none to succeed him, nor brother to share with him, and yet “there is no end of all his labour”; he takes incessant pains and works like a horse, “neither is his eye satisfied with riches”; that lust of the eye – as St John calls covetousness 1Jn 2:16 – is as a bottomless gulf, as an unquenchable fire, as leviathan that wanteth room in the main ocean, or as behemoth, that “trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.” Job 40:23

Neither saith he, For whom do I labour and bereave my soul of good? ] Si haec duo tecum verba reputasses, Quid ago? respirasset cupiditas et avaritia paululum, saith Cicero to Nevius. a If thou wouldst but take up those two words, and say to thyself, What do I? thy lust and covetousness would be somewhat rebated thereby. But lust is inconsiderate and headlong; neither is anything more irrational than irreligion. The rich glutton bethought himself of his store, and resolved to take part of it, Luk 12:17 so did Nabal; but this wretch here hath not a second, he “plants a vineyard and eats not of the fruit thereof.” 1Co 9:7

And bereave my soul of good, ] i.e., Deprive myself of necessary conveniences and comforts, and defraud my genius of that which God hath given me richly to enjoy; 1Ti 6:17 or, bereave my soul of good, of God, of grace, of heaven, never thinking of eternity, of “laying up for myself a good foundation,” that I may “lay hold upon eternal life”; 1Ti 6:19 but by low ends, even in religious duties, making earth my throne and heaven my footstool. “This is vanity” in the abstract; “this is a sore travail,” because, Nulla emolumenta laborum, No good to be gotten by it – no pay for a man’s pains; but, as the bird that sitteth on the serpent’s eggs, by breaking and hatching them brings forth a perilous brood, to her own destruction, so do those that sit abrood on the world’s vanities.

a Orat. pro Quinti

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)