Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 1:14
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.
14. all is vanity and vexation of spirit ] The familiar words, though they fall in with the Debater’s tone and have the support of the Vulg. “ afflictio spiritus,” hardly express the meaning of the Hebrew and we must read “vanity and feeding upon wind.” The phrase has its parallel in Hos 12:2 (“Ephraim feedeth on wind”) and Isa 44:20 (“feedeth on ashes”) and expresses, with a bold vividness, the sense of emptiness which accompanies unsatisfied desire. Most commentators, however, prefer the rendering “striving after the wind” or “windy effort,” but “feeding” expresses, it is believed, the meaning of the Hebrew more closely. The LXX. gives (= resolve of wind, i.e. fleeting and unsubstantial). Symmachus gives and Aquila (= feeding). The word in question occurs seven times in Ecclesiastes but is not found elsewhere. The rendering “vexation” rests apparently on a false etymology.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Vexation of spirit – A phrase which occurs 7 times, and may be otherwise translated, feeding on wind. Modern Hebrew grammarians assert that the word rendered vexation must be derived from a root signifying to feed, follow, strive after. This being admitted, it remains to choose between two translations:
(1) striving after wind, or windy effort; adopted by the Septuagint and the majority of modern interpreters; or
(2) feeding on wind. Compare Hos 12:1 : and similar phrases in Pro 15:14; Isa 44:20; Psa 37:3.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Ecc 1:14
All is vanity and vexation of spirit.
The vanity of a worldly life
The tone of these words is intensely sad, and perhaps some of us are inclined to think that they embody a morbid conception of human life, for they seem to lack the healthy inspiration of hope. However, we shall understand this declaration by considering it, not as a Divine assertion, but as the expression of a particular human experience. God does not condemn all earthly good as vanity, but man in one of his moods utters this bitter cry,–it is the wail of disappointment. Life is a very different thing to different persons in different positions, just as our view of the landscape changes with our standpoint and the varying state of the elements. The hills and valleys, how different is their appearance when veiled in dim twilight or mantled in thick darkness to what it is when flooded with the glorious sunlight. So is our view of life affected by our fluctuating feelings and changeful circumstances. To the boy life is a promise, a beautiful flower in the bud; to the old man it is a closing day, a solemn sunset; to the man in prosperity it is a quiet lake, with only the gentlest zephyrs rippling its surface; to the man in adverse circumstances it is a stormy sea kept in perpetual disquiet by the rude and boisterous breezes; to the satiated pleasure-seeker, the worn-out sensualist, the disappointed voluptuary, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. But while human life has many phases corresponding to the many moods of the soul, each life is developing into something real, and what that something shall be depends upon how the life is lived. In changing circumstances we are forming a permanent character, transitory experiences are creating in us settled dispositions; and we must decide whether our life shall culminate in the joy of satisfaction or the agony of despair.
I. A life spending itself in search of pleasure is a vexatious experience. Here we have the representation of a man seeking everywhere for pleasure; yet, completely baffled in his search, the phantom constantly eludes his grasp. This man was not limited to a very narrow sphere in his endeavours after happiness; he had a kingdom at his command; he made its vast resources subservient to his amusement. He ransacked the treasures of earth to find some new source of delight, and was determined, if possible, to discover pleasurable excitements. He seems almost to have exhausted the science of pleasure, and he sums up the result of his experiments in these words, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. From this we learn that pleasure sought for itself has no reality; it is a vain imagination, a deceitful fancy. Selfishness defeats and torments itself until it becomes the victim of a perpetual discontent. Or, in other words, to seek happiness for its own sake is not the way to find it; it comes constantly to pure and healthful activity; it dwells ever in the hearts of the good; but it does not reveal itself to the mere devotee of pleasure. This is true of every kind of pleasure of which our nature is capable.
1. The natural and moderate gratification of our appetites yields satisfaction, and so God has ordained that a healthy human life shall be sweet and enjoyable. But when a man makes this sensuous gratification his god, and hopes to find in it an unfailing source of joy, he deceives himself. Even natural indulgence exalted so as to become the chief end of life soon loses its power to please. The sensibilities are dulled, the palate fails to relish luxuries which once ravished it with delight, the eye tires of splendid artificial sights, and the ear grows weary of sound in its most pleasing combinations. The system is thrown out of tune, and that which should produce sweet harmony makes only annoying discord.
2. We are susceptible of still purer and deeper delights through the medium of the intellect. The arts and sciences may contribute largely to our enjoyment if we possess the power to appreciate them. The man who seeks pleasure in philosophy will find more problems to perplex than ideas to amuse; whereas the man who strives after truth will always discern some heavenly thoughts capable of stimulating him amid the uncertainties of his investigation. The man who ransacks the treasures of literature with no higher aim than entertainment will have no continuity of joy, for he will be the victim of inclination, the sport of passion; he will not see the beauties which have charmed men of nobler motive. When we learn that life is not a selfish search, but an unselfish service; not the sacrifice of everything to self, but the subordination of self to God; then we receive a spiritual joy. The man who has spent his life like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower in search of sweets at last whines out the melancholy cry, All is vanity and vexation of spirit. But the noble soul who has used himself in the service of God and humanity goes to his heaven exclaiming, I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand, etc.
II. An earthly life separated from the future is a perplexing mystery. To the mind of the disappointed pleasure-seeker all is vanity, because the future is left completely out of sight. This view of life is secularistic. It regards only one world, and in this world seeks the highest good, but does not find it. This worldly view of human existence transforms our life into a dark mystery, and shuts out every ray of Divine light. This world is incomplete, it needs another to explain it; this life requires another for its interpretation. The first paradox that meets us is–
1. If this be the only world, earthly enjoyment is the highest good, but the struggle for it brings vexation. Banish the belief in an eternal future, and the first reflection is, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Let us regulate our life so as to secure the largest share of earthly good, even though we thus destroy our finer feelings. Being convinced that there is no future life, we must value things by their power to fill up our measure of present gratification. Why should thoughts of morality or retribution be allowed to bridle our inclinations if morality is a delusion, and judgment simply a dream? But this conception of human life is a glaring contradiction. The life which it sets before us leads to sorrow, and ends in pain. Indulgence induces weariness, selfishness creates disquietude, and passionate pleasures bring forth death.
2. When the future is left out of sight the godly life loses one of its most powerful motives. The culture of manhood is at a discount in a world where men are estimated by what they have, and not by what they are. The devout and thoughtful man finds himself in possession of truths which the world is not prepared to receive, the utterance of which will call forth the opposition of prejudice and pride. The honest man must suitor if he will carry his convictions into the realm of daily business life. True, some modern teachers say that we should be strong enough to live a Christly life without the hope of personal immortality, consoling ourselves with the sublime idea that we shall live on in the influences which we transmit to posterity. This doctrine may possess charms for the select few, it is scarcely suited to the multitude of disciples.
III. A life which does not acknowledge God is a hopeless disappointment. This is the root of the matter: man is restless and dissatisfied so long as he puts selfish pleasure in the place of God. It is taught in the Bible, engraven on our constitution, and attested by experience that every attempt to find a substitute for God is vain. We owe our supreme love to Him, and can only be really happy when we render it cheerfully.
1. Faith in God reveals an inexhaustible source of bliss. Of every other fountain Christ has said, He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but he that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but it shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life. Here we have an unfailing spring of joy, a sun always shining.
2. Faith in God exerts its highest influence when earthly joys are fading. In sorrow, when worldly joys are distasteful, faith illumines the darkness and gently dissipates our fear. In pain, when pleasures have fled and human consolations are feeble, God is manifest as the God of all comfort. Oppressed by the thought of having grieved our God, Christ appears as the Pardoner of our sins and the Healer of broken hearts. And at last, when this world is passing from our gaze and we enter the thick gloom of death, we shall hear the Divine Voice saying, Fear not, for I am with thee. Then, when we tremble before the portals of the mysterious future, and pass through the last trying storm, inspired by heavenly love, we may cry, not All is vanity and vexation of spirit! but O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? (W. G. Jordan, B. A.)
Pessimism
(with Gen 1:31):–What could be more different than the tempers of mind which uttered sayings like these? Creation and life very good. Creation and life, vanity, delusion, hollowness, and vexation of spirit. Both cannot be right. But statements so diverse are easily enough explained if we remember that in the Bible we are dealing, not with a book, but with a library; not with a literary work, but with a nations literature. It is not a pure revelation we have, but the strange eventful history of one. We may expect, therefore, to find in it great variety, and almost hopeless difference of view. The present form of that chapter of Genesis may be regarded roughly as bearing the impress of the eighth or ninth century me., the sanguine stamp of a great prophetic time. The Book of Ecclesiastes, on the other hand, is not earlier than the third century, when the disruption of the two kingdoms, the insecurity of an absolute and semipagan monarchy, the captivity of the nation, the setting up of the hierarchy, and the conquest by both Greek thought and Greek arms had deeply changed and saddened the spirit of Hebrew dream. Our own generation find a special attraction in this Book of Ecclesiastes. We too have fallen on an age when the first free fearless vigour of our Elizabethan time has gone by, when even the John Bull view of England is collapsing, when the condition and prospers of our crowded society are raising questions which only the stupid can face with a light heart, or treat with the old answers. The old pharmacopoeia of politics has no medicine for the new disease. We in England doubt and fear. Abroad they deny and destroy. In this country we are not as yet seriously troubled with the more thoroughgoing forms of pessimism; but I do not think we have escaped it, for the reason that we have not yet come to it. We are as yet only in the Agnostic stage, but we are fairly well through that, and are beginning to get dissatisfied with it. From that stage we must go either up or down. We may go up. A truer philosophy (not even now without a witness) may restore the vigour of a nobler faith. Or we may go down. We may descend to the next level of unbelief, to the lower cycle in the minds inferno. The next level is pessimism. To deal with pessimism and to prevent pessimism we must have an ideal which is something more than an idea of ours, something more than an ambition of ours. We must have an ideal which is the fountain head of our ideas and ambitions, one which is working incessantly to bring us to its own image; one in whose presence we feel inspiration and attainment; one last and surely blended; one that is gradually filling up the abyss of pessimism by drawing together its edges and reconciling what we are with what we long to be. We must have a God, in brief, who is at once our Mighty One and our Redeemer. The solution of life is not to be found in grappling with pain, but in the conflict with sin. The strongest soul that ever lived was crushed by sins rather than pains, by sins not His own, not by the pains which were. Here lies the centre and secret of Christianity, not in the miracles of healing, but in the miracles of forgiveness, and in the Cross, the greatest of them all. And here lies the key and reason why Christianity, with all its melancholy, with all its Divine sadness, can never be pessimist. It is not simply and generally that, being a religion of faith and hope, it cannot give way to despair. But it is here, in this principle, viz. that in Christianity we never become aware of the worst till we are in possession of the best. The deepest sense of evil is possible only to a believer in redemption–not a redemption that shall be one day, but that is now going on. How could we bear to see the worst and utmost evil and sorrow, but for the sense and certainty that it has in it the sentence of its own death? How could we, as a race, face death successfully–death, the great ravager of love–except in the loving faith that death itself is wounded unto death? The best, in revealing to us the worst, abolishes it, and the light of God, which maketh all things manifest, brings sin out only that it may die in the great and terrible daylight of the Lord. (P. T. Forsyth, M. A.)
Insatisfaction
Various explanations have been offered of this strange restlessness and insatisfaction.
1. One set of observers see in this the mainspring of activity, progress, and improvement. If man, say they, found happiness at any point of his life, he would cease to aim at a higher state. The most contented people are ever the most barbarous, and the beast of the field is more contented than the lowest classes of men. With animals and men of the lowest grade there is stagnation. Not until you produce insatisfaction, not, rather, till you give the mind ability to conceive the higher state, and aim at elevation from the lower, will the world be improved. Without insatisfaction the arts would be impossible, and all higher enjoyments unknown.
2. A second and higher view is that which, while admitting that insatisfaction is the mainspring of activity and progress, still further affirms that it is indicative of a nature in man to be satisfied, not with the terrestrial, but with the heavenly,–not with the things of sense, but with the things of faith,–not with the creature, but with God. This is surely the true explanation of that unrest of the soul which still, after each new conquest, whether of truth or means of enioyment, feels unsatisfied. It is the higher nature in us that is still ungratified. We want to know truth and beauty–all truth and beauty; not merely their outward shadows, but themselves.
3. But, further, we have to take into account the fact of depravity and sinfulness. I rather think that this fact, however, is not to be considered as explanatory of our insatisfaction so much as of dissatisfaction. Insatisfaction is right; dissatisfaction is wrong. God intended that the soul should not be satisfied; but He wants that we shall not be dissatisfied. Much light is yours, which Solomon, wise as he was, had not. He probably had glimpses of the depravity of his own heart, and generally of the human heart, yet hardly with the demonstrative clearness with which it comes home to our convictions; and he seems to have been greatly in the dark relative to that future life which hath been brought to light through Christ, to which is reserved the full enjoyment of the soul. He said, All is vanity, because he did not know the all. His eye ranged only over time. Eternity was all darkness.
4. And this summons before us another view explanatory of the insatisfaction of man. We are here preparing, conning our lesson, forming our character–a character which is to last with us for ever. We were not sent here that we might enjoy, but that we might learn, that we might grow up strong men fit to live through the everlasting ages. The Christian life is a race, a battle, a work, a crucifixion. Through the portals of death alone we gain the Elysian fields. (J. Bennet.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Behold, all is vanity] After all these discussions and experiments, when even the results have been the most successful, I have found only rational satisfaction; but not that supreme good by which alone the soul can be made happy.
O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!
“How anxious are our cares, and yet how vain
The bent of our desires!”
PERS. Sat. i., v. 1.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I have seen, i.e. diligently observed, and in great measure understood.
Behold; for it was a great surprise to me, and therefore may seem strange to you.
All is vanity and vexation of spirit; and not only unsatisfying, but also troublesome, and an affliction or breaking to a mans spirit or mind. Or, as others, both ancient and modern translators, render it, a feeding upon wind, as these very words, save only that there is the verb from which this noun seems most probably deduced, are rendered, Hos 12:1, where also it signifies a fruitless or lost labour, and a disappointment of their hopes and desires of satisfaction. And so this is a repetition of the same thing in other words, according to the manner of these books.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. The reason is here given whyinvestigation into man’s “works” is only “soretravail” (Ec 1:13);namely, because all man’s ways are vain (Ec1:18) and cannot be mended (Ec1:15).
vexation of“apreying upon”
the SpiritMAURERtranslates; “the pursuit of wind,” as in Ecc 5:16;Hos 12:1, “Ephraim feedethon wind.” But old versions support the English Version.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun,…. All things done by the Lord, that were on the earth, and in it, and in the sea; he considered them, and endeavoured to search into the nature of them; and did attain to a very great knowledge of them, so that he could speak of them to the instruction of others; see 1Ki 4:33; and all that were done by men, by their head, or by their hands; all that were written or wrought by them; all their philosophical works and experiments, and all their mechanic operations; as well as all their good and bad works, in a moral sense; so the Targum,
“I saw all the deeds of the children of men, which are done under the sun in this world;”
and, behold, all [is] vanity and vexation of spirit; not only the things known, but the knowledge of them; it is mere vanity, there is nothing solid and substantial in it, or that can make a man happy; yea, on the contrary, it is vexatious and distressing; it is not only a weariness to the flesh to obtain it, but, in the reflection of it, gives pain and uneasiness to the mind: it is a “breaking of the spirit” n of the man, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Alshech, interpret the phrase; it wastes and consumes his spirit, as well as his time, and all to no purpose; it is, as some ancient Greek versions and others render it, and not amiss, a “feeding on wind” o; what is useless and unprofitable, and like labouring for that; see Ho 12:1 Ec 5:16; and so Aben Ezra.
n “affiictio spiritus”, V. L. Junius Tremellius “contritio spiritus”, so some in Vatablus. o , Aquila; “pastio venti”, Mercerus, Piscator, Gejerus, Amama.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He adduces proof of the wearisomeness of this work of research: “I saw all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and striving after the wind.” The point of the sentence lies in = , so that thus rathi is the expression of the parallel fact (circumst. perfect). The result of his seeing, and that, as he has said Ecc 1:13, of a by no means superficial and limited seeing, was a discovery of the fleeting, unsubstantial, fruitless nature of all human actions and endeavours. They had, as hevel expresses, not reality in them; and also, as denoted by reuth ruahh (the lxx render well by ), they had no actual consequences, no real issue. Hos 12:1 also says: “Ephraim feedeth on wind,” i.e., follows after, as the result of effort obtains, the wind, roeh ruahh ; but only in the Book of Koheleth is this sentence transformed into an abstract terminus technicus ( vid., under Reth ).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(14) Vexation.The word occurs only in this book (Ecc. 2:11; Ecc. 2:17; Ecc. 2:26; Ecc. 4:4; Ecc. 4:6; Ecc. 6:9). The A. V. translation, vexation of spirit, is difficult to justify. Very nearly the same phrase occurs in Hos. 12:1, and is there translated feeding on wind, for in Hebrew, as in some other languages, the name for spirit primarily denotes breath or wind. Accordingly many interpreters understand the phrase of the text feeding on wind (see Isa. 44:20). The same root, however, which means to feast on a thing, has the secondary meaning to delight in a thing, and so the corresponding noun in Chaldee comes to mean pleasure or will. (Comp. Ezr. 5:17; Ezr. 7:18.) Accordingly the LXX. and many modern interpreters understand the phrase of the text effort after wind.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. I have seen Meaning, “I have looked at, or considered.” The author is conscious of having done his work.
Behold, all is vanity Koheleth states the result before he gives us the process by which he reached it. The phrase vexation of spirit is strangely inaccurate. It should be, a grasping after wind. So it is properly rendered in Hos 12:1, “feedeth on wind.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 828
THE CREATURE IS VANITY AND VEXATION
Ecc 1:14-15. I have seen all the works which are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting, cannot be numbered.
THE Book of Ecclesiastes is generally supposed to have been written by Solomon, after he had repented of his manifold transgressions: and it is pleasing to view it in this light: for, if it be not so, we have no record whatever of his penitence. But in this view its declarations are doubly interesting: as inspired by God, they are of Divine authority; and, as resulting from actual experience, they carry a much deeper conviction with them to our minds. Had one of the fishermen of Galilee spoken so strongly respecting the vanity of the world, we might have said that he had never had any opportunity of knowing experimentally what attractions the world possessed: but Solomon had an ampler range for enjoyment than any other human being. As a king, he had the wealth of a nation at his command. As endued with a greater measure of wisdom than all other men, he could combine all kinds of intellectual pleasure with that which was merely sensual. As having a peaceful reign, he was free from all the alarms and disquietudes of war, and able to prosecute pleasure as the one object of his life. Every species of gratification being thus easily within his reach, he was amply qualified to judge of what the world could give: and yet, after having made the experiment, and seen all the works that are done under the sun, he pronounced them all to be vanity and vexation of spirit.
Two things in our text are to be noticed;
I.
The general assertion
Never was any truth more capable of demonstration than this, that the world, and every thing in it, is,
1.
Vanity
[If we view the creature in itself, what a poor worthless thing is it! Take gold, for instance: much as it is in request, it has in itself no value: the value put on it is merely arbitrary, arising not so much from its usefulness to us, as from the scarcity of it. Iron is of infinitely greater service to mankind than gold: and would be more valued by us, if it did not happen that it is to be found in much larger quantities than gold. So it is with jewels: the value of them is quite ideal: in themselves they are of no more use than common pebbles: and he who possesses them in the greatest abundance, is in reality no richer than if he possessed so much gravel out of the pit.
Nor is any thing that wealth can purchase, or any thing that is associated with it, worthy of any better name than vanity. What are high-sounding titles, but a mere sound that has its value only in the estimation of men; and that, by a change of its acceptation (such as not uncommonly takes place in language, as, for instance, in the term Despot), may convey the most painful feelings, instead of such as are agreeable to the mind? We may ask the same in reference to pleasure: What is it? Let but a very small change take place in the circumstances of the person, and the pleasure shall become a pain. Or let it be enjoyed in all its fulness; whom did it ever satisfy? To whom did it ever impart any permanent delight? The more exquisite it is, the sooner does it cloy; insomuch that we are soon forced to flee from it through very lassitude and disgust, And a recurrence to the same sources of gratification is far from producing the same emotions in the soul: by use and habit we become indifferent to the very things which once we most ardently affected; so poor, so empty, so transient is all that passes under the semblance and the name of pleasure.
We may say therefore of all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, that it is not only vain, but vanity in the abstract: Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity [Note: ver. 2.].]
2.
Vexation of spirit
[So far is the creature from affording any real happiness, that it is an occasion of constant vexation to the mind. The pursuit of earthly things is attended with much labour, and with much uncertainty also as to the attainment of them. When attained, they excite nothing but envy in others, and disquietude in ourselves. By reason of the casualties to which the possession of them exposes us, we are filled with care; insomuch, that those who only behold our acquisitions, often derive more pleasure from them than we who are the owners of them. Besides, the more we have attained, the more our desires are enlarged after something unpossessed; so that our labours are never at an end: and the pain issuing from a single disappointment frequently outweighs the pleasure arising from manifold successes. Indeed, the things from which we promise ourselves most pleasure, generally become, by some means or other, the sources of our keenest anguish; and our most sanguine expectations usually terminate in the bitterest disappointment: yea, it not unfrequently happens, that after having attained the object of our wishes, we welcome the period of our separation from it, and bless ourselves more in the loss of it, than ever we did in the acquisition.
Say then whether Solomons testimony be not strictly true. Young people, when they hear such a sentiment avowed, are ready to think it an effusion of spleen, and a libel on the whole creation: but this testimony is the very truth of God, and shall sooner or later be found true in the experience of every living man: the world, and every thing in it, is a broken cistern, that disappoints the hopes of the thirsty traveller, and becomes to him, not only vanity, but vexation of spirit: and he that has most sought to satisfy himself with it, finds after all his labours, that he has only filled his belly with the east wind [Note: Job 15:2.].]
Such is the import of the general assertion. We now proceed to notice,
II.
The particular confirmation of it
Two things are here specified by Solomon, as strongly illustrating the foregoing truth: namely, that, however much we may exert ourselves,
1.
We cannot alter that which is unfavourable
[Every man, by the very constitution of his nature, is dependent on his fellow-man for the greater portion of his happiness. The welfare of a whole empire depends on the wisdom and prudence of the prince: as the princes prosperity and comfort do on the industry, the fortitude, the loyalty of his people. So it is through all ranks and orders of society; all are deeply affected by the conduct of those around them. In the domestic circle, how impossible is it for the husband or wife, the parent or child, the master or servant, to be happy, if those with whom he is more immediately connected be peverse and obstinate in an evil way! Yet all come more or less in contact with unreasonable men: and, however much they may strive to rectify the views, or reform the habits, of such people, they find it altogether beyond their power: they can as easily change the leopards spots or the Ethiopians complexion, as they can prevail on persons to change those habits which are productive of so much uneasiness to their minds. Hence, though they form the wisest and most benevolent plans, they cannot carry them into execution, because of the blindness and perverseness of those whose concurrence is necessary for the accomplishment of them [Note: This may be noticed especially in the opposition made to the diffusion of the Scriptures, which persons of benevolence and piety labour to circulate through the world.].
In like manner, there is often an untowardness in events as well as in men. The seasons will not consult us: nor will the elements obey us. Accidents utterly unforeseen will occur, and cannot be prevented by human foresight. Hence uncertainty attends our best concerted plans, and failure often disappoints our most labourious exertions. But these are crooked things which no man can make straight: no human wisdom or power can control them. We have a large and abundant harvest in prospect: but, behold, storms and tempests, or blasting and mildew, or insects of some kind, destroy the whole crop. We have gathered the harvest into our granaries, and a fire consumes it: or an enemy overruns the land, and devours it. We have attained the greatest felicity of which we suppose ourselves capable, by a connexion the most desirable, or by the acquisition of a first-born son: but how soon does death invade our dwelling, and blast all our promised joys! These are but a few of the evils to which we are exposed in this vain world: and they stamp vanity and vexation upon all that we possess.]
2.
We cannot supply that which is defective
[The rich, the poor, the old, the young, the learned, the unlearned, all without exception, find that there is much lacking, to render them completely happy. Of those who possess most of this worlds good, it must be said, In the fulness of their sufficiency they are in straits [Note: Job 20:22.]. Solomon is a remarkable example of this. He had formed, if not a wise, yet an honourable, connexion with Pharaohs daughter. Not satisfied, he sought happiness in a plurality of wives. Still not having attained happiness, he multiplied his wives and concubines to the number of one thousand; and found himself, after all, as far from happiness as ever. Every other thing which he thought could contribute to his happiness he sought with insatiable avidity: but, after he had attained all his objects, he found, that the things which were wanting could not be numbered. And so shall we find it to the latest hour of our lives. We may fancy that this or that will make us happy; but, when we have gained it, we have only followed a shadow that eludes our grasp. The truth is, that God never designed the creature to be a satisfying portion to man: not even Paradise itself could satisfy Adam: no, nor could the partner which he gave him: he must taste the forbidden fruit: he could not be content without an accession of wisdom, which God did not ever intend him to possess. Thus, even in mans state of innocence, nothing but God could satisfy his soul: nor can any thing, short of God himself, ever be a satisfying portion to any child of man.]
Address
1.
Set not your affections on things below
[How happy would it be for us, if we could be content to receive the foregoing truths on the testimony of Solomon, instead of determining to learn them by our own experience! How much vexation and misery should we avoid! But, in spite of the united acknowledgments of all that have gone before us, we still think that we shall find something besides God to make us happy. This however we cannot do, even though we should possess all that Solomon ever enjoyed. We may continue our pursuit as long as we will; but we must come at last to the same conclusion as he, and give the same testimony as to the result of our experience. Be persuaded, Brethren, to credit the Divine testimony, and to spare yourselves all the pain and disappointment which, you must otherwise encounter. We mean not that you should renounce the pursuit of earthly things; for you cannot do that without abandoning the duties which you owe to your families and to society at large; but the expectation of happiness from them you may, and must, renounce. You must never forget, that the creature without God is nothing; and that happiness is to be found in God alone.]
2.
Seek the Lord Jesus Christ with your whole hearts
[He is a portion in which you will never find any lack: in him is a fulness sufficient to fill all the capacities, and satisfy all the desires of the whole universe. Millions and millions of immortal souls may go to that fountain, and never diminish his exhaustless store. To the possession of him too no disappointment can attach, nor from the enjoyment of him can any vexation ensue. In him all crooked things are made straight: and where he is, no want can possibly exist. If you ask of the creature to heal the wounds of sin, to give peace to a guilty conscience, to subdue in us our corruptions, or to cheer us with hopes of immortality, it cannot do any one of these things: no, not even for the body can the creature do any thing to heal its sickness, to assuage its anguish, or to prolong its existence. But the Lord Jesus Christ can do every thing, both for the body and the soul, both for time and for eternity, Seek him, then, Beloved: and seek him with your whole hearts. In seeking him, your exertions cannot be too earnest, nor can your expectations be too enlarged. If he give you his flesh to eat, and his blood to drink, you will never hunger, never thirst again, either in this world or in the world to come. Only be able to say, My Beloved is mine, and I am his, and then all, as well on heaven as in earth, is yours: according as it is written, All things are yours: and ye are in Christs: and Christ is Gods.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Ecc 1:14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.
Ver. 14. I have seen all the works that are done. ] I have seen them, and set down mine observations of them. 1Ki 4:33 Pliny did somewhat like unto this in his Natural History; which work of his, saith Erasmus, Non minus varium est quam ipsa rerum natura: imo non opus, sed thesaurus, sed vere mundus rerum cognitu dignissimarum, it hath as much variety in it as nature herself hath. To speak truth, it is not a work but a treasury; nay, a world of things most worthy to be known of all men.
And behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
vanity. See note on Ecc 1:2.
vexation of spirit = feeding on wind. The expression occurs nine times (Ecc 1:14, Ecc 1:17; Ecc 2:11, Ecc 2:17, Ecc 2:26; Ecc 4:4, Ecc 4:6, Ecc 4:16; Ecc 6:9.)
spirit. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Ecc 1:17, Ecc 1:18, Ecc 2:11, Ecc 2:17, Ecc 2:26, 1Ki 4:30-32, Psa 39:5, Psa 39:6
Reciprocal: Gen 3:17 – cursed Gen 42:38 – bring Est 5:13 – Yet all this Job 7:3 – months of Psa 78:33 – years Psa 127:2 – vain Psa 144:4 – Man Ecc 2:15 – Then I Ecc 3:10 – General Ecc 4:3 – who Ecc 4:4 – This is Ecc 4:16 – this Ecc 6:9 – this Ecc 8:9 – this Ecc 11:10 – for Ecc 12:8 – General Jer 2:13 – broken cisterns Mat 11:28 – all
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Ecc 1:14-15. I have seen all the works, &c. Diligently observed, and, in a great measure, understood them; and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit Not only unsatisfying, but also an affliction or breaking to a mans spirit. That which is crooked, &c. All our knowledge serves only to discover our miseries, but is utterly insufficient to remove them; it cannot rectify those disorders which are either in our own hearts and lives, or in the men and things of the world. That which is wanting In our knowledge, and in order to mans complete satisfaction and happiness; cannot be numbered Or, counted out to us from the treasures of human learning, but what is wanting will be so still; all our enjoyments here, when we have done our utmost to bring them to perfection, are still defective: and that which is wanting in our own knowledge is so much, that it cannot be numbered. The more we know, the more we see of our own ignorance.