Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 1:2
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all [is] vanity.
2. Vanity of vanities ] The form is the highest type (as in the “servant of servants” of Gen 9:25, the “chief over the chief” of Num 3:32) of the Hebrew superlative. The word translated “vanity,” identical with the name Abel or Hebel (Gen 4:2) means primarily a “breath,” or “vapour,” and as such becomes the type of all that is fleeting and perishable (Psa 62:9; Psa 144:4). It is uniformily translated by “vanity” in the English Version of this book, which is moulded on the Vulgate as that was upon the LXX. The other Greek versions gave “vapour of vapours” (Hieron. in loc.) and this may perhaps be regarded as, in some respects, a preferable rendering. The watchword of the book, the key-note of its melancholy music, meeting us not less than thirty-nine times, is therefore, whether we take it as a proposition or an exclamation, like that of the Epicurean poet “ Pulvis et umbra sumus ” (Hor. Od. iv. 7. 9), like that also, we may add, of St James (Jas 3:14) and the Psalmist (Psa 90:3-10). In the Wisdom of Solomon apparently written (see Introduction, chap. v.) as a corrective complement to Ecclesiastes we have a like series of comparisons, the “dust,” the “thin froth,” the “smoke,” but there the idea of ‘vanity’ is limited to the “hope of the ungodly” and the writer, as if of set purpose, avoids the sweeping generalizations of the Debater, who extends the assertion to the “all” of human life, and human aims. It is not without significance that St Paul, in what is, perhaps, the solitary reference in his writings to this book, uses the word which the LXX. employs here, when he affirms that “the creature was made subject to vanity ” and seeks to place that fact in its right relation to the future restitution of the Universe (Rom 8:20).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Vanity – This word hebel, or, when used as a proper name, in Gen 4:2, Abel, occurs no less than 37 times in Ecclesiastes, and has been called the key of the book. Primarily it means breath, light wind; and denotes what:
(1) passes away more or less quickly and completely;
(2) leaves either no result or no adequate result behind, and therefore
(3) fails to satisfy the mind of man, which naturally craves for something permanent and progressive: it is also applied to:
(4) idols, as contrasted with the Living, Eternal, and Almighty God, and, thus, in the Hebrew mind, it is connected with sin.
In this book it is applied to all works on earth, to pleasure, grandeur, wisdom, the life of man, childhood, youth, and length of days, the oblivion of the grave, wandering and unsatisfied desires, unenjoyed possessions, and anomalies in the moral government of the world.
Solomon speaks of the world-wide existence of vanity, not with bitterness or scorn, but as a fact, which forced itself on him as he advanced in knowledge of men and things, and which he regards with sorrow and perplexity. From such feelings he finds refuge by contrasting this with another fact, which he holds with equal firmness, namely, that the whole universe is made and is governed by a God of justice, goodness, and power. The place of vanity in the order of Divine Providence – unknown to Solomon, unless the answer be indicated in Ecc 7:29 – is explained to us by Paul, Rom. 8, where its origin is traced to the subjugation and corruption of creation by sin as a consequence of the fall of man; and its extinction is declared to be reserved until after the Resurrection in the glory and liberty of the children of God.
Vanity of vanities – A well-known Hebrew idiom signifying vanity in the highest degree. Compare the phrase, holy of holies.
All – Solomon includes both the courses of nature and the works of man Ecc 1:4-11. Compare Rom 8:22.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Ecc 1:2
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity
The Vanity of the world
Certainly, he, who had riches as plentiful as the stones of the street (1Ki 10:27), and wisdom as large as the sand of the sea (1Ki 4:29), could want no advantages, either to try experiments, or draw conclusions from them (Ecc 1:16-17).
Now this reflection of the same word upon itself is always used to signify the height and greatness of the thing expressed, as King of kings and Lord of lords denotes the highest King and the most absolute Lord. But, though this be expressed in most general and comprehensive terms, yet it must not be taken in the utmost latitude, as if there were nothing at all of solid and real good extant. It is enough, if we understand the words in a sense restrained to the subject matter whereof he here treats. For the wise man himself exempts the fear and service of God (Ecc 12:13) from that vanity under which he had concluded all other things. When, therefore, he pronounceth all to be vanity, it must be meant of all worldly and earthly things; for he speaks only of these. For these things, though they make a fair and gaudy show, yet it is all but show and appearance. It sparkles with ten thousand glories: not that they are so in themselves; but only they seem so to us through the false light, by which we look upon them. If we come to grasp it, like a thin film, it breaks, and leaves nothing but wind and disappointment in our hands. The subject which I have propounded to discourse of is this vanity of the world, and of all things here below. Whence is it that we are become so degenerate, that we, who have immortal and heaven-born souls, should stake them down to these perishing enjoyments?
I. I shall premise these two or three things:–
1. There is nothing in the world vain in respect of its natural being. Whatsoever God hath made is, in its kind, good (Gen 1:31). And therefore Solomon must not be here so interpreted, as if he disparaged the works of God in pronouncing them all vanity. If we regard the wonderful artifice and wisdom that shines forth in the frame of nature, we cannot have so unworthy a thought, either of the world itself, or of God who made it.
2. There is nothing vain in respect of God the Creator. He makes His ends out of all; for they all glorify Him according to their several ranks and orders; and to rational and considerate men are most evident demonstrations of His infinite Being, wisdom, and power.
3. All the vanity that is in worldly things is only in respect of the sin and folly of man. For those things are said to be vain which neither do nor can perform what we expect from them. Our great expectation is happiness; and our great folly is, that we think to obtain it by the enjoyments of this world. They are all of them leaky and broken cisterns, and cannot hold this living water. This is it which makes them charged with vanity. There are some things, as St. Austin and the schools from him do well distinguish, which must be only enjoyed, other things that must be only used. To enjoy, is to cleave to an object by love, for its own sake; and this belongs only to God. What we use, we refer to the obtaining of what we desire to enjoy; and this belongs to the creatures. So that we ought to use the creatures that we may arrive at the Creator. We may serve ourselves of them, but we must alone enjoy Him. Now that which makes the whole world become vanity is when we break this order of use and fruition; when we set up any particular created good as our end and happiness, which ought only to be used as a means to attain it.
II. It remains, therefore, to display before you this vanity of the world in some more remarkable particulars.
1. The vanity of the world appears in this, that all its glory and splendour depends merely upon opinion and fancy. What were gold and silver, had not mens fancy stamped upon them an excellency far beyond their natural usefulness? This great idol of the world was of no value among those barbarous nations, where abundance made it vile. They preferred glass and beads before it; and made that their treasure which we make our scorn. Should the whole world conspire together to depose gold and silver from that sovereignty they have usurped over us, they might for ever lie hid in the bowels of the earth ere their true usefulness would entice any to the pains and hazard of digging them out into the light. Indeed, the whole use of what we so much dote upon is merely fantastical; and, to make ourselves needy, we have invented an artificial kind of riches; which are no more necessary to the service of sober nature than jewels and bracelets were to that plane-tree which Xerxes so ridiculously adorned. These precious trifles, when they are hung about us, make no more either to the warmth or defence of the body than, if they were hung upon a tree, they could make its leaves more verdant, or its shade more refreshing. Doth any man lie the softer because his bed-posts are gilt? Doth his meat and drink relish the better, because served up in gold? Is his house more convenient, because better carved or painted? It is nothing but conceit that makes the difference between the richest and the meanest, if both enjoy necessaries: for what are all their superfluous riches, but a load that mens covetousness lays upon them? Thy lands, thy houses, and fair estate are but pictures of things. What are gold and silver but diversified earth, hard and shining clay? Think, O worldling! when thou castest thy greedy eyes upon thy riches, think, Here are bags that only fancy hath filled with treasure, which else were filled with dirt. Here are trifles that only fancy hath called jewels, which else were no better than common pebbles. And shall I lay the foundation of my content and happiness upon a fancy; a thing more light and wavering than the very air? Nay, consider, that a distempered fancy can easily alter a mans condition, and put what shape it pleaseth upon it. If a black and sullen melancholy seizeth the spirits, it will make him complain of poverty in the midst of his abundance; of pain and sickness in the midst of his health and strength. Again, if the fancy be more merrily perverted, straight they are nothing less than kings or emperors in their own conceit. A straw is as majestic as a sceptre. If then there be so great a power in fancy, how vain must all those things be which you pursue with eagerness and impatience! since a vain fancy, without them, can give you as much satisfaction as if you enjoyed them all; and a vain fancy can, on the other hand, in the greatest abundance of them, make your lives as wearisome and vexatious as if you enjoyed nothing.
2. The vanity of the world appears in its deceitfulness and treachery. It is not only vanity, but a lying vanity; and betrays both our hopes and our souls.
(1) It betrays our hopes, and leaves us nothing but disappointment, when it promiseth satisfaction and happiness.
(2) It betrays the soul to guilt and eternal condemnation: for, usually, the world entangles it in strong, though secret and insensible snares; and insinuates into the heart that love of itself which is inconsistent with the love of God. The world is the devils factor, and drives on the designs of hell. And, because of the subserviency of worldly enjoyments to mens lusts, it is almost as impossible a thing to moderate our affections towards them, or to bound our appetites and desires, as it is to assuage the thirst of a dropsy by drinking, or to keep that fire from increasing into which we are still casting new fuel.
3. As all things in the world are lying vanities, so are they all vexatious–uncertain comforts, but most certain crosses.
(1) There is a great deal of turmoil and trouble in getting them. Nothing can be acquired without it.
(2) Whether they get them or no, yet still they are disappointed in their hopes. The truth is, the world is much better in show than substance; and those very things we admire before we enjoy them, yet afterward we find much less in them than we expected.
(3) They are all vexation while we enjoy them.
(4) They are all vexatious, as in their enjoyment, so especially in their loss.
4. The vanity of the world appears in this, that a little cross will embitter great comforts. One dead fly is enough to corrupt a whole box of the worlds most fragrant ointment. The least cross accident is enough to discompose all our delights. And, besides, we are apt to slide off from the smoother part of our lives, as flies from glass, and to stick only on the rougher passages.
5. The longer we enjoy any worldly thing, the more flat and insipid doth it grow. We are soon at the bottom, and find nothing but dregs there.
6. All the pleasure of the world is nothing else but a tedious repetition of the same things. Our life consists in a round of actions; and what can be duller than still to be doing the same things over and over again?
7. The vanity of the world appears in this, that it can stand us in no stead then when we have the greatest need of support and comfort. Now in each of these the world shows itself to be exceeding vain and useless.
(1) The world appears to be vain when we are under trouble of conscience.
(2) The world is a vain and useless thing at the hour of death.
8. All things in the world are vain, because they are unsuitable. True, indeed, they are suited to the necessities of the body, and serve to feed and clothe that; but he is a beast, or worse, that reckons himself provided for, when only his bodily wants are supplied. Have we not all of us precious and immortal souls capable and desirous of happiness? Do not these crave to be satisfied? There is a threefold unsuitableness between worldly things and the soul.
(1) The soul is spiritual: these are drossy and material. And what then hath a spiritual soul to do with clods of earth or acres of land; with barns full of corn, or bags full of gold? These are too thick and gross to correspond with its refined nature.
(2) The soul is immortal; but all worldly things are perishing, and wear out in the using.
(3) The necessities of the soul are altogether of another kind than those which worldly things are able to supply: and therefore they are wholly unsuitable. Natural things may well serve for natural wants: food will satisfy hunger, and raiment fence off the injuries of the weather, and riches will procure both; but the souls necessities are spiritual, and these no natural thing can reach. It wants a price to redeem it: nothing can do this but the precious blood of Christ. It wants pardon and forgiveness: nothing can grant it but the free and abundant mercy of God. It wants sanctification and holiness, comfort and assurance: nothing can effect these but the Holy Ghost. Here all worldly things fall short.
9. The vanity of the world appears in its inconstancy and fickleness. Gods providence administers all things here below in perpetual vicissitudes. It is in vain, therefore, to expect happiness from what is so uncertain. All the comforts of it are but like fading flowers, that, while we are looking on them and smelling to them, die and wither in our hands. Is it pleasures we seek? These must vary; for where there is not an intermission, it is not pleasure, but a glut and surfeit. And hence it is that they who are used to hardships taste more sweetness in some ordinary pleasures than those, who are accustomed to a voluptuous life, do in all their exquisite and invented delights. Do you pursue honour and applause in the world? This hangs upon the wavering tongues of the multitude. Is it riches you desire? These, too, are uncertain (1Ti 6:17). Uncertain they are in getting; and uncertain in keeping, when got. All our treasures are like quicksilver, which strangely slips between our fingers when we think we hold it fastest.
10. The vanity of the world appears in this, that it is altogether unsatisfactory. That must needs be vain which, when we enjoy it in its greatest abundance, can give us no real nor solid content. Such an empty thing is the whole world. Now, the unsatisfactoriness of the world may be clearly evinced by these two things.
(1) In that the highest condition we can attain unto cannot free us from cares and crosses.
(2) The world appears to be unsatisfactory, in that, be our condition what it will, yet still we desire change. And the reason of this unsatisfactoriness in worldly things is, because none of them are so good as the soul is. The soul, next to angels, is the very top and cream of the whole creation: other things are but dregs and lees compared to it. Now that which is our happiness must be better than ourselves; for it must perfect us. But these things being far worse and inferior, the soul, in cleaving to them, is secretly conscious that it abaseth and disparageth itself; and therefore cannot find true satisfaction. Nothing can fill the soul but that which eminently contains in it all good.
III. But, whatever our observations are, the uses we may make of them are these.
1. It should teach us to admire and adore the good providence of God to His children in so ordering it, that the world should be thus vain, and deal so ill with those who serve it. For, if it were not so infamous and deceitful as it is; if it did not frustrate and disappoint our hopes, and pay us with vexation when it promiseth fruition and content, what thinkest thou, O Christian, would be the end of this? would any one think of God, or remember heaven and the life to come?
2. If the vanity of the world be such, and so great; if it be only an empty bubble; if it be thus unsuitable, uncertain, and unsatisfactory, as I have demonstrated to you, what gross folly then are most men guilty of in setting so high a price upon that which is of no worth nor substance? More particularly–
(1) Is it not extreme folly to lavish our precious affections upon vile and vain objects?
(2) If the world be thus vain, what folly is it to lay out our most serious cares and contrivances upon it!
(3) If the world be thus vain, what extreme and prodigious folly is it to take as much pains to secure the poor and perishing concernments of it as would suffice to secure heaven and eternal glory, were they laid out that way!
(4) If the things of this world be so vain, what inexcusable folly is it to part with the peace or the purity of our consciences for them!
(5) What desperate folly is it to purchase a vain world with the loss of our precious souls!
3. If the world be thus vain and empty, why then should we pride ourselves in or prize ourselves by any poor enjoyments of it?
4. If the world and all the enjoyments of it be thus vain, this should fortify us against the fear of death; which can deprive us of nothing but what is both vain and vexatious.
5. If the world be so vain and empty, we may learn to be well contented with our present state and condition, whatsoever it be. (E. Hopkins, D. D.)
Vanity of vanities
This is the key-note of the book. The word vanity means a breath of wind, and thus it comes to mean something airy, fictitious, and unsubstantial. As the expression, holy of holies conveys the meaning of that which is holy beyond every other thing, so this word in the sense of emptiness beyond comparison is applied by the writer to the course of nature and to the work of man. Again and again he takes excursions into the natural world, and again and again he returns to the old refrain, Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. The writer of these words felt that the order of the world was out of joint. But language like this has been more often used by those who have had bitter experience of life. Human nature is wont to turn round upon itself, and when it has drunk out the cup of indulgence will express disgust of gratifications which have ceased to please. Vanity of vanities was the speech of the great English cardinal as he lay dying and reflected that he had given the best years of his life for the present without care for the future. This was the temper of the language ascribed to Prince Louis XIV. of France when death was near at hand, and his life of pleasantry was closing. Vanity of vanities! And something like this may be heard in more than one London household at this time of the year at the close of the season. Three or four months of fatigue have been prepared for and submitted to as a military campaign would be prepared for. Time, peace of mind, health, regular hours of prayer, have been sacrificed to the pursuits of some social will-o-the-wisp. To marry this daughter, to secure this introduction, to achieve more distinction than others, have been the objects before the minds of many. And now, when time and money, health and temper have been sacrificed and nothing achieved, we hear in modern language the words of the text from numbers rushing away by express train to bury their disappointment in country villages. Vanity of vanities! This earthly life cannot possibly satisfy a being like man if it be lived apart from God. Apart from God, wisdom leads to disappointment and lands us at death in the sublime despair of philosophy. Apart from God, wealth and all that it can command yields much less satisfaction than intellectual achievement, since it is further removed from the higher and imperishable nature of man. Apart from God, Nature, regarded as matter inter-penetrated by force, presents nothing on which mans inmost being can rest. Here we have only cycles of laws repeating themselves through the ages with a momentum which mocks our intellects. Vanity, emptiness, and disappointment are traced on Nature, on wealth and thought. As a matter of fact man does not find in either real satisfaction. He finds only a wasting fever of the heart, nothing which makes him strong for life, or in the hour of approaching death. The reason is plain. All that belongs to earth has failure in it, and mans life has come under this failure as well as Nature. All we may see is not as it should be. The best of men are conscious of this. The telling of circumstance against him, the tendency downwards of which he is conscious, the precautions which he takes against himself in the shape of rule and law–all these things tell, and tell truly, of some big catastrophe from which human life has suffered in its deepest recesses. Nature, too, with its weird mysteries speaks to the same effect. And here the apostle comes to our aid when he tells us that the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope. He also says, The whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now. Nature has on it this certificate of failure. Besides this, wealth and Nature are finite, so that they must fail to satisfy a being like man. The human soul, itself finite, is made for the Infinite. The soul cannot comprehend the Infinite, but it can apprehend the Infinite. In the inmost source and heart of man God has placed a vast, unfathomable capacity for understanding Himself. Man can think of a Being who has neither beginning of days nor end of years, who inhabits eternity, and is Himself eternal. And as man struggles more and more perfectly to apprehend this Being, to reach Him, to enjoy Him, to possess Him, he feels that the counterpart of all that is deepest and most mysterious in himself is the eternal world, and that he can only really be satisfied with that, and with nothing else or less. Thou hast made us for Thyself, says Augustine, and our heaths are restless until they rest in Thee. Man is like those captives of whom we read who, once having believed a throne to be within their grasp, have never settled down as contented subjects. He is predestined for an unseen magnificence; and therefore when he turns to survey the grandest objects that woo his heart in this earthly life he can exclaim, not indeed in scorn, but in a spirit of religious and strictest accuracy, Vanity of vanities! Once more; all that belongs to created life passes quickly away. All around is vanishing. One generation passeth away and another cometh, so says the Preacher. Man fades away like the grass, so sings the psalmist. The earthly house of our tabernacle shall be dissolved, so adds one apostle. The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, so proclaims another apostle. Yes, all is passing, even the choice furniture of the human mind itself, all but the imperishable. Personality with its moral history in the past survives; all else goes, and is forgotten. And therefore it is because Nature and the outer husks of life do not satisfy that they cannot afford a stay for the imperishable soul of man. Vanity of vanities! he exclaims as he discovers their real character. But to this way of regarding the matter there is an objection. Is it a healthy one? Is it calculated to make man do his duty in that state of life in which it has pleased God to call him? Will it help him to do his duty enthusiastically and thoroughly? Is he not likely to fail, and to make life responsible for the failure? To this I say that human effort is only vanity when it is pursued without reference to God. Mans capacities are given to lead him to God, and all that leads to Him, so far from being vanity, is lasting and substantial. The man who is living for another world is not less alive to his duties here, His heart has followed his treasure; his citizenship is already in heaven; he looks at the things which are not seen: he lives as a stranger and pilgrim: he is but a soldier on campaign duty. All that comes in his way is precious, as enabling him to conquer the enemy and to reach his home. (Canon Liddon.)
The vanity of earthly things
These are the words of a wise and a bold preacher. He was wise in seeing that which men in general did not see; and he was bold in speaking so plainly that which was contrary to the general opinion.
I. The vanity of earthly things. All is vanity; that is, all things are so in themselves, when not used aright, when not employed to Gods glory, or to the benefit of those around us, or in reference to our future and everlasting welfare. We may proceed to a practical illustration and use of this declaration.
1. Let us suppose the case of riches, as being the main object of a mans desire, and the acquirement of them the great business of his life. Nay, let us suppose him to succeed–to acquire great wealth–to establish his house. But if this man be without religion, what is it all more than vanity? It is possible that all this time he may never have thought about his soul; his soul which is more valuable than all the world. To what purpose will it be when his end shall come? What will his wealth do for him in the day of account? Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days, and what is it? It is vanity, a vapour, emptiness! And what is to become of his wealth? He must leave it unto the man that shall be after him; and who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?
2. As to human learning. It is true that learning, and ingenuity, and wit may be made very subservient to many important purposes; but if it be apart from true religion, what doth it profit? Let us suppose a man to be stored with all science, and philosophy, with the knowledge of all history, and of every art. But if he have not the knowledge of Christ; if, withal, he is sensual not having the spirit, what matters it? We have seen men endowed with extraordinary talents, great in research, quick in understanding, penetrating in intellect, rich in all the stores of recondite wisdom, versed in history, and as far as we can judge, possessing all knowledge; but where is the meekness of the Christian? where is docility, gentleness, and love?
3. As to the pleasures of life. Let a man have all the pleasure arising from intercourse with polished society, from rational conversation, from good and instructive books, from travelling at home and abroad, from various domestic recreations, according to his own peculiar turn of mind; yet, what does all this profit if he be destitute of true religion; if he be living to himself rather than to God? But we say, what will all this avail, if its votary or possessor be destitute of true religion here, and miserable and undone in another world!
4. We might go on to consider eminence of station, and elevated rank, and reputation, and extensive power, and commanding influence, and all beside that men are accustomed to seek after, and which they make so many sacrifices to obtain; and what are they all apart from true religion? Vanity of vanities. Suppose a man to have gained all The reputation and dignity in the world, what will it avail if he be destitute of the one thing needful, if he have not Sought the honour that cometh from God?
II. What is our chief good?
1. I would direct your attention to those true riches, the unsearchable riches of Christ.
2. I would recommend to you that heavenly wisdom by which you will be made wise unto salvation, which will teach you to discharge your social duties aright, and which will conduct you in safety through all the difficulties of life.
3. I would allure you to those pleasures which are for evermore.
4. I would lead you to that honour and praise which cometh from God, and which fadeth not away. (J. Maude.)
The trial of vanity
This book begins with, All is Vanity, and ends with, Fear God, and keep His commandments. From that to this should be every mans pilgrimage in this world; we begin at vanity, and never know perfectly that we are vain, until we repent with Solomon. Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. As though he were exceeding glad, that after so many dangers through the route of vanity, yet God let him see the haven of rest. The whole narration doth show that Solomon wrote this book after his fall. When he had the experience of vanities, and seen the folly of the world, what evil comes of pleasure, and what fruit groweth of sin, he was bold to say, Vanity of vanities, etc.; which he avoucheth with such a protestation, as though he would justify it against many adversaries; for all the world is in love with that which he calls vanity. To testify his hearty conversion unto Cod, he calls himself a preacher, in the witness of his unfeigned repentance; as if God had said unto him, Thou being converted, convert thy brethren, and be a preacher, as thou art a king. So when we are converted, we should become preachers unto others, and show some fruits of our calling, as Solomon left this book for a monument to all ages of his conversion. Thus having found as it were the mine, now let us dig for the treasure, Vanity of vanities, etc. This is Solomons conclusion: when he had gone through the whole world, and tried all things, like a spy sent into a strange country, as if he were now come home from his pilgrimage, they gather about him to inquire what he hath heard and seen abroad, and what he thinks of the world, and these things which are so loved among men, like a man in admiration of that which he had seen, and not able to express particularly one after another, he contracts his news into a word. You ask me what I have seen, and what I have heard, Vanity, saith Solomon. And what else? Vanity of vanities. And what else? All is vanity. This is the history of my voyage: I have seen nothing but vanity over the world. So the further he did go, the more vanity he did see, and the nearer he looked the greater it seemed, till at last he could see nothing but vanity. So his drift is to show that mans happiness is not in these things which we count of, but in those which we defer. His reason is, they are all vanity; his proof is because there is no stability in them, nor contentation of mind; his conclusion is therefore, Contemn the world, and look up to heaven from whence ye came, and whither ye shall go. This is the scope which Solomon aims at, as though we did all seek happiness, but we go a wrong way unto it; therefore he sounds a retreat, showing that if we hold on our course, and go forwards as we have begun, we shall not find happiness, but great misery, because we go by vanity. Now Solomon, full of wisdom, and schooled with experience, is licensed to give his sentence of the whole world. This is no reproach to the things, but shame to him which so abused them, that all things should be called vanity for him. If he did not things vainly, nothing should be vain in the world; whereas now, by abuse, we may see sometimes as great vanity in the best things as in the worst. For are not many vain in their knowledge, vain in their policies, vain in their learning, as others are vain in their ignorance? A spiritual eye doth see some vanity or other in everything, as appeareth betwixt Christ and His disciples at Jerusalem (Luk 21:6; Mat 24:1). They gazed upon the building of the temple as a brave thing, and would have Christ to behold it with them; but He did see that it was but vanity, and therefore said, Are these the things that ye look upon? As if He should say, How vain are you to gaze upon this! If Christ thought the beauty of His temple a vain thing, and not worth the sight, which yet was beautified and built by His own prescription, how should Solomon express all the vanity of the world, to which all men have added more and more since the beginning I Therefore when Solomon beheld such a plurality, and tot quot of vanities, like surges coming one upon another in plaits and folds, he spake as though he would show us vanity hatching vanities: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. The first saying doth pass without let; but the last rubs and sinks not into the hearts of men so easily as it is spoken. Methinks I hear some men dispute for Baal, and bid Solomon stay before he comes to all is vanity. It may be that sin is vanity, and pleasure is vanity; but shall we condemn all for sin and pleasure? What say you to beauty, which is natures dowry, and cheereth the eye, as sweet meat doth the taste? Beauty is like a fair picture; take away the colour, and there is nothing left. Beauty indeed is both a colour and a temptation, the colour fadeth and the temptation snareth. But what say you to riches, which make men lords over the rest, and allow them to go brave, and lie soft, and fare daintily, and have what they list? Riches are like painted grapes, which look as though they would satisfy a man, but do not slake his hunger, nor quench his thirst. Riches indeed do make a man covet more, and get envy, and keep the mind in care. You shall hear them say oftentimes, It is a vain world, a wicked world, a naughty world, yet they will not forsake it, to die; like dastard soldiers, who rail against the enemy, but dare not fight against him. All is vanity; but this is vanity of vanities, that men will follow that which they condemn. Oh that here were a full end or conclusion of vanities; but.behold a greater vanity is behind; for our religion is vanity, like the Scribes and Pharisees, having a bare show of holiness, and scarce that. What then? Turn away mine eyes, and my ears and my heart too, from vanity. Try and prove thou no longer, for Solomon hath proved for thee; it is better to believe him than try with him. (H. Smith.)
The folly of Solomon
This is the substance of this great mans last estimate of life. You read it, and, as you read, you watch the writer trying to fight down the black shadows as they rise. Here and there too, all through his sermon, he will say a noble thing on the right side; as if the old power of piety was strong enough yet to burn through, and force its way to the parchment. But, when the best is said and done, the result is a belief in a God who exacts more than He gives, and punishes more readily than He blesses. And so it is that this woeful estimate of life has made this book by far the most difficult to understand in the whole range of the Scriptures. The statements in it are as positive as any other. Solomon is as clear when he says, Man has no pre-eminence over a beast, as John is when he says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God. So it comes to pass, that, if you take this book as it stands, and undertake to believe it, the result is very sad. It chills all piety, paralyzes all effort, hushes all prayer. If there is grief in wisdom, had I not better be a fool? It cannot be denied, again, that the book is but the vocal utterance of many a silent sermon in many a lonely heart. It was this, no doubt, that made it the text-book of Voltaire and the bosom friend of Frederick the Great. Its monotones of despair are echoed out of a thousand experiences. When a friend wished a great English statesman a happy new year, Happy! he said; it had need be happier than the last, for in that I never knew one happy day. When an English lawyer, whose life had seemed to be one long range of success, mounted the last step in his profession, he wrote, I in a few weeks shall retire to dear Eneombe, as a shore resting-place between vexation and the grave. When one said to the great Rothschild, You must be a happy man, he replied, I sleep with pistols under my pillow. The most brilliant man of the world in the eighteenth century said, I have enjoyed all the pleasures of life, and I do not regret their loss; I have been behind the scenes, and seen the coarse pulleys and ropes and tallow-candles. And the most brilliant poet of the last generation said, The lapse of ages changes all but man, who ever has been, and will be, an unlucky rascal. Now, then, for all this, I have but one answer. I cannot believe it. In the deepest meaning of the truth and the life, this assertion that all is vanity is utterly untrue. God never meant life to be vanity; and life is not vanity. And that we are right and all such men wrong can be proven, I think, outside our own experience, on several different counts.
1. For, first of all, this Solomon is not the right man to testify. When he said this of life, he was in no condition Co tell the truth about it, and he did not tell the truth. Universal testimony makes this sermon the fruit of his old age. If his book was the work of Solomons old age, the face of itself supplies the first reason why we have such a sermon; for the man who wrote this sermon, and the youth who offered that noble prayer at the dedication of the temple, are not the same man. The young king knelt down in the bloom of his youth, when the fountains of life were pure and clean; when through and through his soul great floods of power and grace rose to springtide every day; when the processions of nature and providence, the numbers of the poet, the wisdom of the sage, the labours of the reformer, and the sacrifices of the patriot, were steeped for him in their rarest beauty, endowed with their loftiest meaning, and filled with their uttermost power. But that old king in the palace, writing his sermon, is weary and worn; and, worst of all, the clear fountains of his nature are changed to puddles; the fresh, strong life has been squandered away; the delicate, divine perception blunted, clogged, and at last smothered to death. Can we wonder that such a man should write all is vanity, when he had come Co be the vanity he wrote? Believe me, we cannot form the true estimate when the life is ruined. What he said when he was his best self, before his ruin, was true; and the estimate he made, when he was a lower man, was as much out of true as the man was.
2. Then there was an error in this mans method of testing life, that I suspect to be at the root of much of the weariness that is still felt; and that is, the man does not seem to have tried to be happy, in making others happy, in bringing one gleam more of gladness, or one pulse more of life, into any soul save his own. In the sad days recorded here, nature, books, men, women, were worth to him just what they could do for him. He gave up the present sense of God in the soul; the high uses of worship; the inspiration hidden in great books; the deep blessedness of being father, husband, friend, teacher, patriot, and reformer; buried himself in his harem; turned a deaf ear to all the pleadings of his better angel; and, when he had come to this, who can wonder that all was vanity?
3. But now I must state the reason, that to me is greatest of all, why I know all is not vanity. A thousand years after this sad sermon was written, there was born of the same great line another little Child. He had no royal training, no waiting sceptre, no kingly palace, but the tender nurture of a noble mother, and, from the first, a wonderful nearness to God,–and that was all. He grew up in a country town that had become a proverb of worthlessness. The good He knew, and the bad He knew, as I suppose it was never known before. The human heart was laid bare before Him down to its deepest recesses. None ever felt, as He did, the curse of sin, or had such a perfect loyalty and love for holiness. Nature, Providence, Heaven, and Hell were actual presences, solid certainties to His deep, true sight. Listen while I try the ring of a few sentences from each of them. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, cries the first preacher. Blessed are the poor, blessed are the mourners, blessed are the quiet, blessed are the hungry for the right, blessed are the giving and forgiving, blessed are the pure-hearted, blessed are the peace-makers, and blessed are the sufferers for the right, cries the second. Be not righteous overmuch, cries the first. Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect, cries the second. That which befalleth a beast, befalleth a man, cries the first. The very hairs of your head are numbered, cries the second. There is no knowledge, nor wisdom, nor device in the grave, cries the first. I go to prepare a place for you; and I will come again, and take you to Myself, that where I am there ye may be also, cries the second. This last preacher tested life also. Whatever can be done to prove all is vanity, was done to Him. Giving out blessing, getting back cursing. Surely, if over man would write Vanity of vanities over life, this was the man to do it. God was to Him the Father. The future life was more of a reality than the present. He saw resurgam written over every grave, and could see past sorrow and pain, the perfect end, and say, Of all that My Father has given Me, I have lost nothing: He will raise it up at the last day. Then, if I cannot see heaven of myself, let me look at it through His eyes. If earth grows empty and worthless to me, let me believe in what it was to Him, and be sure that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; so, holding fast by faith in Him, I may come at last to a faith in earth, and heaven, and life, and the life to come, and all that is most indispensable to the soul. If I cannot pray because I see no reason, then that bonded figure on Olivet is my reason. If I cannot distinguish between fate and providence, let me rejoice that He can, and that my blindness can make no difference to His blessing. (R. Collyer.)
All is vanity
I. In what sense we are to understand that all is vanity, The Preacher is not speaking of religious practices, or of any actions immediately commanded of God, or directly referred to Him; but of such employments as we pursue by choice, and such works as we perform in hopes of a recompense in the present life; such as flatter the imagination with pleasing scenes, and probable increase of temporal felicity; of this he determines that all is vanity, and every hour confirms his determination. The event of all human endeavours is uncertain. He that plants may gather no fruit; he that sows may reap no harvest. Even the most simple operations are liable to miscarriage, from causes which we cannot foresee; and if we could foresee them, cannot prevents. The rain and the wind he cannot command; the caterpillar he cannot destroy, and the locust he cannot drive away. But these effects, which require only the concurrence of natural causes, though they depend little upon human power, are yet made by Providence regular and certain, in comparison with those extensive and complicated undertakings, which must be brought to pass by the agency of man, and which require the union of many understandings, and the co-operations of many hands. The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which have failed, and hopes that have been disappointed. To find examples of disappointment and uncertainty, we need not raise our thoughts to the interests of nations, nor follow the warrior to the field, or the statesman to the council. The little transactions of private families are entangled with perplexities; and the hourly occurrences of common life are filling the world with discontent and complaint. The labours of man are not only uncertain, but imperfect. If we perform what we designed, we yet do not obtain what we expected.
II. How far the conviction that all is vanity ought to influence the conduct of life. Human actions may be distinguished into various classes. Some are actions of duty, which can never be vain, because God will reward them. Yet these actions, considered as terminating in this world, will often produce vexation. There are likewise actions of necessity; these are often vain and vexatious; but such is the order of the world, that they cannot be omitted. He that will eat bread must plough and sow. What then is the influence which the conviction of this unwelcome truth ought to have upon our conduct? It ought to teach us humility, patience, and diffidence. The consideration of the vanity of all human purposes and projects, deeply impressed upon the mind, necessarily produces that diffidence in all worldly good, which is necessary to the regulation of our passions, and the security of our innocence. He does not rashly treat another with contempt who doubts the duration of his own superiority: he will not refuse assistance to the distressed who supposes that he may quickly need it himself. He will not fix his fond hopes upon things which he knows to be vanity, but will enjoy this world as one who knows that he does not possess it.
III. What consequences the serious and religious mind may draw from the position, that all is vanity. When the present state of man is considered, when an estimate is made of his hopes, his pleasures, and his possessions; when his hopes appear to be deceitful, his labours ineffectual, his pleasures unsatisfactory, and his possessions fugitive, it is natural to wish for an abiding city, for a state more constant and permanent, of which the objects may be more proportioned to our wishes, and the enjoyments to our capacities; and from this wish it is reasonable to infer that such a state is designed for us by that Infinite Wisdom, which, as it does nothing in vain, has not created minds with comprehensions never to be filled. (John Taylor, LL. D.)
Is all vanity
How are we to regard this utterance as to the vanity of all things, the profitless character of human labour, the wearisome monotony of the world? Must we indorse it, because we find it here in the Bible? Or, must we, on the other hand, condemn it and denounce it, as if it contained no truth whatever? I submit that we need do neither. We may believe that Ecclesiastes had been taught by his own experience some valuable lessons as to the practical conduct of life, and that he was able to give some very wise counsel to those younger than himself; and yet we may also believe that this wisdom was dearly bought, and that his outlook on the world, when he became a sadder and a wiser man, was largely coloured by his own past conduct. A man who outgrows his sins and follies may not always outgrow, in this world, all their consequences. A penitent profligate may be able to give us very sound advice; but it does not follow that his estimate of human affairs is altogether accurate and healthful. We are not bound to indorse the view which regards all things under the sun as simply presenting the aspect of a vain and wearisome monotony; but we may learn wisdom from the fact that even the outlook of a religious man may be coloured by a long course of previous irreligion and worldliness. Whilst, however, we are not bound to indorse this melancholy estimate of Ecclesiastes, and whilst we may regard it as coloured and exaggerated by the weariness begotten of his former life, we need not denounce or condemn it as if it were simply the utterance of a morose pessimism or a sated worldliness. There is an element of profound truth in this estimate of the things seen and temporal. A Christian apostle tells us that the creature was made subject to vanity, and to the bondage of corruption. Another Christian apostle reminds us that the world passeth away and the lust thereof–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Thomas a Kempis, in his Imitation of Christ, tells us that all is vanity, except to love God and to serve Him only. One of our own novelists, in his Vanity Fair, has torn aside the mask which hides from view the hollowness of that glitter and show which are so apt to fascinate the inexperienced. Few thoughtful men reach even middle life–not to speak of old age–without being at times oppressed by the thought of lifes sameness, or without being at times impressed with a sense of the unsubstantial and unsatisfying nature of earthly things. Human life may vary from age to age in some of its details; but, in its great broad features, it is unchanging. Birth, death, work, rest, health, sickness, pain, pleasure, hope, fear, loss, gain, friendship, love, marriage, parenthood, bereavement, virtue, vice, temptation, remorse–these things were all familiar to the generations that have gone before us; they are familiar to us; they will be familiar to those who are coming after us. And, as to the transient, uncertain, perishable, and unsatisfying nature of mere earthly happiness–of happiness due to mere earthly pleasures, pursuits, and consideration this has been the trite theme of all the ages. Looking at human life apart from God and immortality–looking at the things seen and temporal apart from the things unseen and eternal–we perceive that there is a profound element of truth in the utterance, All is vanity. Lastly here, we must not forget that this book was written at least two thousand years ago. Since Ecclesiastes meditated on the problems of human life, one really new thing has been seen. The Sun of Righteousness has risen upon the world with healing in His wings. (T. C. Finlayson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. Vanity of vanities] As the words are an exclamation, it would be better to translate, O vanity of vanities! Emptiness of emptinesses. True, substantial good is not to be found in any thing liable to change and corruption.
The author referred to in the introduction begins his paraphrase thus: –
“O vain deluding world! whose largest gifts
Thine emptiness betray, like painted clouds,
Or watery bubbles: as the vapour flies,
Dispersed by lightest blast, so fleet thy joys,
And leave no trace behind. This serious truth
The royal preacher loud proclaims, convinced
By sad experience; with a sigh repeats
The mournful theme, that nothing here below
Can solid comfort yield: ’tis all a scene.
Of vanity, beyond the power of words
To express, or thought conceive. Let every man
Survey himself, then ask, what fruit remains
Of all his fond pursuits? What has he gain’d,
By toiling thus for more than nature’s wants
Require? Why thus with endless projects rack’d
His heated brain, and to the labouring mind,
Repose denied? Why such expense of time,
That steals away so fast, and ne’er looks back?
Could man his wish obtain, how short the space
For his enjoyment! No less transient here
The time of his duration, than the things
Thus anxiously pursued. For, as the mind,
In search of bliss, fix’d on no solid point,
For ever fluctuates; so our little frames,
In which we glory, haste to their decline,
Nor permanence can find. The human race
Drop like autumnal leaves, by spring revived:
One generation from the stage of life
Withdraws, another comes, and thus makes room
For that which follows. Mightiest realms decay,
Sink by degrees; and lo! new form’d estates
Rise from their ruins. Even the earth itself,
Sole object of our hopes and fears,
Shall have its period, though to man unknown.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Vanity of vanities; not only vain, but vanity in the abstract, which notes extreme vanity, especially where the word is thus doubled; as a king of kings is the chief of kings, and a servant of servants is the vilest of servants, and a song of songs is a most excellent song.
Saith the Preacher, upon deep consideration and long experience, and by Divine inspiration. This verse contains the general proposition, which he intends particularly to demonstrate in the whole following book.
All, all worldly things, and all mens designs, and studies, and works about them, is vanity; not in themselves, for so they are Gods creatures, and therefore good and really useful in their kinds; but in reference to men, and to that happiness which men seek and confidently expect to find in them. So they are unquestionably vain, because they are not what they seem to be, and perform not what they promise, content and satisfaction, but instead of that are commonly the causes or occasions of innumerable cares, and fears, and sorrows, and mischiefs; and because they are altogether unsuitable to the noble mind or soul of man, both in nature or quality, and in duration, as being unstable and perishing things. And this vanity of them is here repeated again and again; partly, because it was most deeply fixed and perpetually present in Solomons thoughts; partly, to show the unquestionable certainty and vast importance of this truth; and partly, that he might more thoroughly awaken the dull and stupid minds of men to the consideration of it, and might wean mens hearts from those things upon which he knew they excessively doted.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. The theme proposed of thefirst part of his discourse.
Vanity of vanitiesHebraismfor the most utter vanity. So “holy of holies” (Ex26:33); “servant of servants” (Ge9:25). The repetition increases the force.
allHebrew, “theall”; all without exception, namely, earthly things.
vanitynot inthemselves, for God maketh nothing in vain (1Ti 4:4;1Ti 4:5), but vain when put inthe place of God and made the end, instead of the means(Psa 39:5; Psa 39:6;Psa 62:9; Mat 6:33);vain, also, because of the “vanity” to which they are”subjected” by the fall (Ro8:20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher,…. This is the preacher’s text; the theme and subject he after enlarges upon, and proves by an induction of particulars; it is the sum of the whole book;
vanity of vanities, all [is] vanity; most extremely vain, exceedingly so, the height of vanity: this is repeated, both for the confirmation of it, men being hard of belief of it; and to show how much the preacher was affected with it himself, and to affect others with the same. The Targum reads, “vanity of vanities [in] this world”; which is right as to the sense of the passage; for though the world, and all things in it, were made by God, and are very good; yet, in comparison of him, are less than nothing, and vanity; and especially as become subject to it through sin, a curse being brought upon the earth by it; and all the creatures made for the use of men liable to be abused, and are abused, through luxury, intemperance, and cruelty; and the whole world usurped by Satan, as the god of it. Nor is there anything in it, and put it all together, that can give satisfaction and contentment; and all is fickle, fluid, transitory, and vanishing, and in a short time will come to an end: the riches of the world afford no real happiness, having no substance in them, and being of no long continuance; nor can a man procure happiness for himself or others, or avert wrath to come, and secure from it; and especially these are vanity, when compared with the true riches, the riches of grace and glory, which are solid, substantial, satisfying, and are for ever: the honours of this world are empty things, last a very short time; and are nothing in comparison of the honour that comes from God, and all the saints have, in the enjoyment of grace here, and glory hereafter: the sinful pleasures of life are imaginary things, short lived ones; and not to be mentioned with spiritual pleasures, enjoyed in the house of God, under the word and ordinances; and especially with those pleasures, for evermore, at the right hand of God. Natural wisdom and knowledge, the best thing in the world; yet much of it is only in opinion; a great deal of it false; and none saving, and of any worth, in comparison of the knowledge of Christ, and of God in Christ; all the forms of religion and external righteousness, where there is not the true fear and grace of God, are all vain and empty things. Man, the principal creature in the world, is “vain man”; that is his proper character in nature and religion, destitute of grace: every than is vain, nay, vanity itself; high and low, rich and poor, learned or unlearned; nay, man at his best estate, as worldly and natural, is so; as even Adam was in his state of innocence, being fickle and mutable, and hence he fell, Ps 39:5; and especially his fallen posterity, whose bodies are tenements of clay; their beauty vain and deceitful; their circumstances changeable; their minds empty of all that is good; their thoughts and imaginations vain; their words, and works, and actions, and their whole life and conversation; they are not at all to be trusted in for help, by themselves or others. The Targum is,
“when Solomon, king of Israel, saw, by the spirit of prophecy, that the kingdom of Rehoboam his son would be divided with Jeroboam, the son of Nebat; and that Jerusalem, and the house of the sanctuary, would be destroyed, and the people of the children of Israel would be carried captive; he said, by his word, Vanity of vanities in this world, vanity of vanities; all that I and my father David have laboured for, all is vanity!”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The book begins artistically with an opening section of the nature of a preamble. The ground-tone of the whole book at once sounds in Ecc 1:2, which commences this section, “O vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth, O vanity of vanities! All is vain.” As at Isa 40:1 ( vid., l.c.) it is a question whether by “saith” is meant a future or a present utterance of God, so here and at Ecc 12:8 whether “saith” designates the expression of Koheleth as belonging to history or as presently given forth. The language admits both interpretations, as e.g., “saith,” with God as the subject, 2Sa 23:3, is meant historically, and in Isa 49:5 of the present time. We understand “saith” here, as e.g., Isa 36:4, “Thus saith … the king of Assyria,” of something said now, not of something said previously, since it is those presently living to whom the Solomon redivivus, and through him the author of this book, preaches the vanity of all earthly things. The old translators take “vanity of vanities” in the nominative, as if it were the predicate; but the repetition of the expression shows that it is an exclamation = O vanitatem vanitatum . The abbreviated connecting form of is here not punctuated , after the form ( ) and the like, but , after the manner of the Aram. ground-form ; cf. Ewald, 32 b. Jerome read differently: In Hebraeo pro vanitate vanitatum ABAL ABALIM scriptum est, quod exceptis lxx interpretibus omnes similiter transtulerunt sive . Hevel primarily signifies a breath, and still bears this meaning in post-bibl. Heb., e.g., Schabbath 119 b: “The world exists merely for the sake of the breath of school-children” (who are the hope of the future). Breath, as the contrast of that which is firm and enduring, is the figure of that which has no support, no continuance. Regarding the superlative expression, “Vanity of vanities,” vid., the Son 1:1. “Vanity of vanities” is the non plus ultra of vanity, – vanity in the highest degree. The double exclamation is followed by a statement which shows it to be the result of experience. “All is vain” – the whole (of the things, namely, which present themselves to us here below for our consideration and use) is vanity.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
KEY TO ECCLESIASTES
Verse 2 responds to the question of verse 3 with the answer, “vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (under the sun), which means utter futility or uselessness. The substance of this answer is repeated in Ecclesiastes 37 times.
Verse 3 asks the question pondered throughout Ecclesiastes: What profit is there in man’s labors “under the sun,” or what benefits result when God’s will is ignored and life is lived under the sun, according to human desire and reasoning? Life, “under the sun,” is considered 29 times in Ecclesiastes.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Ecc. 1:2. Vanity.] The Hebrew word is Hebel (Abel) the name given to one of the sons of Adam. The subjection of the whole creation to vanity was soon observed and felt.
Ecc. 1:5. And hasteth.] The verb signifies to hanker after, to be eager for. There is a joyous eagerness appearing in the daily course of the sun. The expression corresponds to Psa. 19:5 : He rejoiceth as a strong man (a hero) to run a race.
Ecc. 1:13. To seek and search out.] In the sense of to try, or thoroughly to test. The Preacher sought that knowledge which is attained by investigation, as distinguished from that which is arrived at by preconceived opinion, or taken upon trust. By Wisdom.] In the Book of Proverbs, this word is equivalent to piety; but in Ecclesiastes it signifies science or sagacity.
Ecc. 1:15. Made straight.] The exact force of the Hebrew verb is to come into position. The meaning is, there is a seeming imperfection in the world; man cannot bend the stubborn system of things to what he regards as his own idea of the best.
Ecc. 1:17. To know madness and folly.] His aim was to discover the worth of wisdom by its deviation from folly. For this purpose it was necessary to have a knowledge of both. Hieronymus says, contrariis contraria intelliguntur, opposite things are understood by opposite.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Ecc. 1:2-11
THE LOWEST POSSIBLE ESTIMATE OF HUMAN LIFE A RESULT OF THE DENIAL OF THE SOULS SUPREME HOPE
Apart from God and immortality, human life, in all its departments and issues, must be regarded as a failure. All is vanity. We have:
I. The failure of all Human Labours. What profit hath a man of all his labour? It cannot be denied that work and industry have their uses and rewardsthey are necessary to the very existence of society. But they yield no lasting profit for manthey do not put him in possession of the chief good. Why do they fail to secure this result?
1. Because they do not employ the whole capacity of man. In many departments of industry, work is but a dull and weary round. The same course of things goes on from day to day, without variation. After the first difficulty of learning his task is over, a man works mechanically. Even in those labours requiring great intellectual skill and culture, some of the higher powers of the soul are left unemployed and unsatisfied. The Reason which apprehends eternal truth, and the Conscience which is sensitive to eternal law, may be dormant in the midst of great mental activity. A man may be engaged in the highest earthly work, and yet the sublimest powers of his nature may lie unused.
2. They are only accepted as a sad necessity of his position. Man does not labour because he delights in it; but because he is forced to join in the struggle for subsistence. Human labour is weariness and toil. Even the nobler exertions of the intellect exhaust the powers. The necessity for labour is a bitter draught for man.
3. They yield no lasting good. Some kinds of labour are for the supply of necessities, and some for ornaments to beautify and adorn life. The necessities recur again, and a fresh demand is made. The glories of this life soon clog the sensethey cease to pleasethere is no felt satisfaction. The fairest scenes soon fade and languish in our eye. All earthly pleasures lack the quality of permanence. The darkness of the shadow of death takes the fairest colours out of life.
II. The failure of the Individual Life. One generation passeth away, &c. If we deny mans supreme hope of being with his God for ever, the highest account we can give of life isthat the race is immortal, but the individual perishes. Humanity survives, but the separate souls which have composed it, which have lived and worked here, are gone for ever. They have come from forgetfulness, and sink thither again. The only constant remainders of all this glory and activity are the earth and manthe type preserved, the individual lost. This rapid extinction of the individual life, as compared with the permanence of the scene on which it is manifested, appears:
1. From the uses of History. For what purpose is history, but to give us an account of past generations? It is necessary because they are gone. Their voices are hushed, and their thoughts and deeds can only reach us through literature, which embalms the past. History is written that the deeds of men may not altogether fail of renown.
2. From our own observation of Human Life. We see the world around us in fixed and constant outline, and the busy multitudes upon it. But the separate individuals composing these drop away, one by one, out of our sight. He changes their countenance, and sends them away. Compared with the ever-during world, the life of man here is but a sudden flash in the darkness of eternal night. This is a melancholy view of life.
(1.) It makes the final cause of mans existence an inscrutable mystery. If this life be all, we askwhy was such a creature made with capacities which the world itself cannot satisfy? Why should man be endowed with marvellous powers which have no room for expansion here? If there be no immortality, surely man was made in vain.
(2.) Abates the value of every fact in the universe. Our own existence is the fact of the greatest importance to us. What is it to us that even God Himself exists, and that His works will ever furnish a sublime theme for contemplation, if we ourselves sink into eternal oblivion?
(3.) That dead matter has a longer range of existence than human life, is a crushing humiliation for the soul.
III. The failure of Mans Hope of Progress. If God and the prospect of a future life be shut out, all hope for any real progress for the race is but a delusion.
1. Nature does not indicate such progress. There is everywhere movement, activity and change; but no tendency of things to a higher state. All move in one regular, unvarying round. There is no onward march to the distant goal of perfection. Thus, water appears as vapour in the clouds, as liquid in the river; then it runs into the sea, and is raised to vapour again. It is driven in this endless round from age to age. The winds are lashed around their fixed circles. Even every separate particle of air performs its little journey, to and fro, by an invariable law. Even where there is apparent progress, there is no real advance. Life itself only passes from growth to decay.
2. Our experience of Human Life does not indicate it. The same classes of events constantly recur. History repeats itself. Given the facts of sinevil propensities, and the forces of temptation, and it is not difficult to predict human conduct. As the underlying facts of depravity are pretty constant, it follows that one age is but the repetition of another. There is nothing absolutely new, even in mental effort. The grandest utterances of genius are but the expression of the inarticulate aspirations, or dumb agonies felt by myriads of minds and hearts long before.
3. There is no real progress, notwithstanding the activity of human invention and discovery. The mind of man will exert itself to fight with his hard conditions. But all his power does not avail to rend the iron bonds of his destiny. Thus, progress in medical science may restore health for a time, but cannot finally turn aside the common fate of death. The dominion of man over nature may be enlarged by his inventions, and his enjoyments multiplied; but the sad and severe facts of our existence still remain. Man by his genius has done much to conquer the wild forces of nature, yet by these he is often vanquished. He has assayed to conquer the winds and the ocean, but tempests and shipwrecks remind him that his sovereignty over nature is not complete. No human power or talent can banish the curse, and restore Paradise.
IV. The Failure of Mans Hope for Fame. There is no remembrance of former things, &c. It is natural to cherish a desire to be remembered. We cannot resign ourselves to the thought that our names and deeds shall quickly be lost in forgetfulness. Hence the restless pursuit of fame. But even this poor consolation is denied us. If we have no hope of living with God hereafter, there is no earthly immortality of any kind for us.
1. The best men are soon forgotten. The wise, the good, and the great of past ages pleased and blessed their generation, and lived for awhile in the memory of posterity; but in the course of revolving years, they have entirely faded out of remembrance. No skill or goodness can preserve the majority of mankind from oblivion.
2. The worlds greatest benefactors are unknown. This is true of the inventors of the most useful artsof those who have devised principles of action which have changed the currents of a nations historytheir names are unknown. Those are not the greatest names that survive in history. The men whose thoughts were the deep foundations for changes and events are hidden in forgetfulness. Even the names of the authors of several of the sacred books are unknown.
3. The roll of fame cannot be practically enlarged. The human memory is not infinite. As new names are added to the roll of fame, other names must vanish from it. We can have no consolation from any hope of fame. Let us seek to be dear to the remembrance of God.
OPPOSITE IDEAS OF LIFE: THE MATERIALISTIC AND THE SPIRITUAL. Ecc. 1:2-11, contrasted with 1Jn. 2:17, Joh. 1:51, Jas. 1:25, Heb. 11:4.
There are two very opposite ideas of human lifeMaterialism propounds the one, Spiritual Christianity the other. Let us contrast these two ideas.
I. The one idea represents life as a transient appearance, the other as a permanent reality. Solomon says, speaking out the philosophy of Materialism, One generation passeth away, &c. All is Vanitya mere pageant, an empty show. A whole generation is but a troop of pilgrims pursuing their journey from dust to dust. They soon reach their destination and disappear: but the earth, the old road over which they trod their way, abideth for ever. To-day I walk through the bustling thoroughfare of a commercial city. Merchants, artizans, the rich, the poor, &c., rush by me. Thirty years hence, a greater throng, it may be, will rush through these streets; but they are not the same men, women, boys and girls. In the view of the Materialist
Lifes but a walking shadowa poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more.
In sublime contrast with this is the teaching of the New Testament: He that doeth the will of God, abideth for ever. He that believeth on Me shall never die. It is true that the earth is a thoroughfare for generations; but it is not the whole journey of man. All who have ever trod this earth are living, thinking, conscious still.
II. The one idea represents life as an Endless Routine, the other as Constant Progress. The sun also ariseth, &c. Solomon saw the sun, the wind, the rivers moving in an invariable circle, returning ever to the point whence they set out. He compares this to human lifea mere endless routine. It is true that nature moves in a circlethat the motion of all organic life is from dust to dust. This is, says the Materialist, but a figure of mans moral history; there is no progress, it is an eternal round. Place against this the idea of Spiritual Christianity: Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, &c. Souls do not revolve in such fixed cycles. Their destiny is not to roll, but to rise. The true path of the soul is like Jacobs ladder, from glory to glory.
III. The one idea represents life as Unsatisfying Labouriousness, the other as Blessed Activity. All things are full of labour. In every part of nature, hard work is going on. It is especially so in human life. There is labour of the brain as well as of the muscle. Materialists say that this labour is necessarily unsatisfying. This is true to him. Labour, if not inspired by the right spirit, fails to yield true satisfaction. On the other hand, Christianity teaches that labour need not be unsatisfying. A good man is blessed in his deed. Labour inspired with the spirit of love to God will be eversatisfying.
IV. The one idea represents life as Doomed to Oblivion, the other as Imperishably Remarkable. There is no remembrance of former things &c. Men and their doings are speedily lost in forgetfulness. Time wipes out the names of famous men from the most durable marblemoulders the metal, stone, parchment and paper on which they were inscribed. Such is the gloomy idea of Materialism, and it is partly true. Posterity soon forgets the greatest of its ancestors. Yet they are remembered by their friends, and their God. No soul can be forgotten. The good man being dead, yet speaketh.
Christianity teaches that man will ever live in the memory of those who love him. The genuine disciple of Christ has his name written in an imperishable bookthe Lambs Book of Life [Homilist].
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecc. 1:2. The duty of teaching, in the imperishable pages of Revelation, the emptiness of earthly glory was not laid upon one who had never tasted it, and who would naturally feel a sense of disgust at what he could not reach. It was Israels most magnificent king, whose name was the equivalent for earthly grandeur and state, who was commissioned to preach this lesson to the Church.
This description cannot be applied to God, for He is self-existent, and of infinite glory; nor can it be applied to the whole existence of those who are partakers of the Divine nature. All that is not Godnot with Himnot like Himis vanity.
That the word vanity should most properly describe the state of the world is no reflection on the Creator. Sin has invested the whole scene of man with this terrible property. The creature was made subject to vanity.
We have two opposite conditions described in the Bible, God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. All is vanity. But the fall of man has intervened. The fall of the highest involved a corresponding reduction all along the scale of nature.
The present state of things is not eternalit is only one of transition. It was not the beginning, and will not be the end of Gods ways. The Gospel has for its object the regeneration of Society. The second head of humanity will make all things new. Death, the master-stroke and crowning power of vanity, will be destroyed; the children of God will be delivered from the burden and vanity of earthly existence. This is the hope in which we are saved. (Rom. 8:24.)
We must feel our emptiness before we can partake of the Divine fulness. To dwell in our true homewhich is Godis the souls refuge from the vanity of life.
The souls true good springs from another order of things than the present. It can only be secured to us by the kingdom of heaven.
A true sense of the vanity of life shows us our need of God and immortality.
1. It saves us from the false pursuit of happiness.
2. It reconciles us to the loss of the world.
3. It teaches us to prepare for a higher destiny. There is a better and an enduring substance. Men are taught by the vanity of life their need of heaven.
There are different ways of meeting this painful fact of human life:
1. The Stoical. We may harden our hearts, and look down upon the ills of life with the lofty bearing of a severe philosophy.
2. The Epicurean. We may strive to drown all painful feeling in a reckless devotion to pleasure. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
3. The Christian. He projects the Divine glory within him upon the outward world, and regards this life as but one step in the path of eternal progress.
The thinkers of all ages, whether within or without the area of revealed truth, have felt the present disordered condition of the world. This feeling has sometimes led to atheism, and sometimes to some desperate or vague hope. Lucretius could see no hand of Eternal Wisdom in the plan of creationnothing but a disordered and confused mixture. Man has always felt that Paradise is not here.
Christ will restore Paradise, and usher in a new creation in which will be nothing vain. He will be mindful of that world where He was entertained so long, and which was the nurse of His humanity.
What the Spirit of God meaneth by vanity, the Spirit of God can best tell us; who doth Himself explain it, when the Prophet Jeremiah acknowledgeth, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit (Jer. 16:19). The vanity, then, whereof the preacher speaketh, is the lying promises of contentment which worldly things make, and the no profit which is made of them. Vanity of vanities, that is, the vanity of them is even more than vanity: and as if he would say more, but could not, he saith the same again: and lest he should not have said all, yet he addeth, All is vanity [Jermin].
This verse, if they who are great in this world were wise, they would write on all their walls and garments, in their common meeting places, in their private houses, on their doors, in their entries, and above all in their consciences, so that they might always see it before their eyes, always consider it in their minds [St. Chrysostom].
Ecc. 1:3. Human labour has some present profit and advantage, it trains the physical, and intellectual powers, gives sustenance, comfort and adornment of life. It prevents man from being vanquished by the powers of nature. But without a divine principle in the soul, and a high aim, the profit it brings vanishes with the departing breath. It wants the stamps of immortality. Lifes labour will not be in vain for those who live for ever in Gods sight.
The curse inflicted upon us signifies something more than the necessity for work. It is labourall that is painful and distressing in work. In the future world, there will be work in the sense of the highest activity; but, They rest from their labours.
If a man has no hope of heaven, where is the profit of all his earthly labour?
1. In any true satisfaction with it. In looking back upon all his labour, a man must discover that it is far from being perfect. He has to lament mistakes, and movements foolish and unprofitable.
2. In true enjoyment. Man, even in the most favourable conditions, has but few days of rapturepainful thought and anxiety damp his pleasures.
3. In the issues of it. When all is done, and he looks into the future, nothing remains but a dreary blank.
He alone has lasting gain who works for a world higher than this.
He who does not find God loses all the labour of his life.
This fruitlessness of mans labour he doth restrict only to things under the sun, that is, of an earthly and temporary concernment, on which man spends his time and pains which should be employed about things above the sun, or of a heavenly and eternal concernment, which are of a higher rise and nature, and so are expressed by things above. Nothing can be esteemed the true profit of a mans labour of body and spirit, but that only which will abide, and continue with him; and therefore, his profit cannot in reason be thought to consist in earthly pleasures which are momentary (Job. 20:5), nor in riches which take wings (Pro. 23:5), nor in worldly glory which descends not after him (Psa. 49:17), but is only to be found in fellowship with Christ, which may be in some measure continued with him along the course of his pilgrimage here, and shall never be interrupted hereafter [Nisbet].
The sun is the master-workman of the world, labouring continually, and labouring under his great Master, God, to minister unto the inferior creatures of the world, as the Hebrew name of it (Shamesh, i.e. to minister or serve), doth notify unto us. Under this master-workman are all other labourers; he calls them up to their labour; he oversees their labour; he appoints unto them their time of ceasing from labour. But although we labour under him, yet unless the end of our labour be for something above him, it will not profit us; unless as he calls us to labour, so we call upon God for a blessing on our labour, we shall have no comfort in it [Jermin].
This speech of Solomons is the speech of every soul, when being spoiled of those things which are here, she goeth to that life which is hoped for [Gregory Nyssenus].
Ecc. 1:4. Every object in the material world, by its persistence, preaches to us the brevity of our life. We stand upon our own monuments; the earth is the great tomb of man.
Generations entering life bring with them powers and capabilities; going hence they take away with them character.
How little possession we have of the present world! We cannot carry hence its wealth or glory. But we can bear away the pearl of great price.
God does not give to man an earthly immortality. The individual man passes away, and the wastes of death are repaired by fresh life. This arrangement serves:
1. To abate human pride. No man can glory, or boast himself against God, when he remembers that he has no power over his own life.
2. To curtail human experience and knowledge. There is not time to learn all the lessons of the ages, and to search out all what could be known here.
3. To cast the soul upon God. He remains when generations pass away.
The whole company of men and women upon the face of the earth are in a continual motion towards death and eternity: whatever they be doing, their course that way is never interrupted. And therefore as every man in particular should look upon himself as being shortly to bid farewell to all his earthly contentments, never to meet with them again, that thereby his heart may be weaned from delighting in them as his portion, that he may be moved to seek after that which will abide with him when he is gone out of the world. He may thus have true comfort, considering that neither his sufferings in the world can be long, nor his combat with his spiritual enemies, nor shall he be long holden from the possession of his blessedness [Nisbet].
The earth the Time-Residence of Man.
1. It is ready furnished. God has prepared it by His power and wisdom. The generations of the past have prepared it by their genius and skill. We enter into the heritage of those who have gone before, are rich with the spoils of time.
2. It is a place of moral education. We are here to be trained for a superior life.
3. It may be made the first stage in eternal progress. God always begins with the lower, and imperfect stagesdarkness before light,chaos before order,First that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual.
The passing away of generations does not interfere with their relations to God. He is God of nature, but much more of man. He will not suffer His own image to be effaced by death. The generations who pass away still live before Him. Thus the dominion of God over intelligent creatures is ever enlarging.
The earth remains:
1. As the scene of moral trial for successive generations.
2. As the scene of depravity, and of redemptive power.
3. As the scene of restored Paradise.
The melancholy sadness which touches the heart, when reflecting upon the rapid flight of the generations of men, appears in the earlier poetry. Thus Homer:
The race of man is like the race of leaves:
Of leaves, one generation by the wind
Is scattered on the earth; another soon,
In springs luxuriant verdure, bursts to light.
So with our race; these flourish, those decay.
[LORD DERBYS TRANSLATION.]
Ecc. 1:5. The sun cannot break away from the line of his course in the heavens, nor can man by all his boasted skill get rid of his sad inheritance of sin, want, weakness, and death. All human beings are driven through this sad and weary round.
The course of the sun an emblem of human life.
1. The rising sun is an emblem of the freshness and eagerness of youth. The youth is longing to enter into the serious business of lifeEager to run the race his fathers ran.
2. The suns course in the heavens is an emblem of the untried day for man. Whether the day will be clear or dark is uncertain. What will he become? is a question we may ask tremblingly of every child.
3. The setting sun is an emblem of the manner of our departure from the world. We may sink down in the terrible gloom of sin, or our evening sky may be pure.
This frailty of man is illustrated by the sun, who keeps a constant, orderly, and swift motion toward the place of his rising and setting; and he is said to haste toward (or pant after, as the word signifies) the Orient, or place of his rising, because, however, his motion be no less swift toward the Occident, or place of his setting; yet his rising is most desired and remarked by men. But as for man, when he has once gone down to death, he shall rise no more to the enjoyment of his earthly contentments, and therefore these are not to be sought after as his chief happiness [Nisbet].
The reign of law is a theme for grateful and admiring contemplation; yet, it must be confessed, that this endless uniformity of nature has a depressing influence on the human heart. Nature preaches no doctrine of a sublime progressshe seems to forbid the soul to rise into a freer element.
Ecc. 1:6. The wind appears to be a wild and irregular power, yet it is under the control of law. The most furious storms run their cycles in obedience to the eternal conditions laid upon them by the Creator. So human history may seem to be but a succession of events without order or plan, but there is a Supreme Governor over all.
Our eye cannot trace or follow the wandering courses of the wind,nor can we trace the ways of God through human history.
We have here the vanity of man compared to the wind; and though that may be conceived to be of all things most vain, most light; yet here mans vanity is shown to be greater. And whereas Job saith, O, remember that my life is wind; the Preacher saith, that it is more vain than wind. For though the wind pass on speedily, and pass away quickly, though most inconstantly it pass from place to place, and every way turneth itself, which our translation hath whirleth about continually, yet it returneth still, and going from the world, it cometh back to the earth again. But it is not so with man; and that which Job speaketh of himself, is true of every man, when a few years are come, I shall go the way whence I shall not return.The passing breath of mans life hath no return. But though man being gone from his natural life cannot return, yet being gone from his spiritual life, he may and should return. And like the wind, having wandered here and there, and whirled about continually in the giddy mazes of iniquity, it were good that he would return according to his circuits, and go back to God by the contrary courses of amendment. We are to return:
1. From a foolish mirth.
2. From an unprofitable sadness.
3. From a vain ostentation.
4. From a hidden pride. For these being the vanities of the world, from these we must return in order that we might go to God, and come to happiness [Jermin].
Ecc. 1:7. The river, as it runs into the sea, is an illustration of human life. It rises in obscurity, and after a longer or shorter course, falls into the great ocean. Some rivers are insignificant, others run through many countries, and give names to towns along their banks. But all have one common destiny. Such is the life of manobscure in its beginning, of greater or less renown in its progress, and in its close disappearing in the great ocean of eternity.
When a river is kept within its banks, it carries life and fertility far and wide: but when it overflows its banks, spreads destruction. So human life, when it leaves the channels of truth and right, only spreads evil and sorrow.
God preserves the balance of the powers of nature, appointing all things by weight and measure. Shall He not be as careful and exact in His moral government of man?
The rivers run toward the sea, and yet the sea is never full, because the waters are drawn up thence into vapours and clouds to distil down upon the earth, to water it, and fill the rivers again. But as for frail man, he is carried away as with a flood, and never returns again to the enjoyment of his earthly pleasures [Nisbet].
Saint Gregory in a moral sense applieth this verse unto preachers, who having studied and meditated of heavenly things, do then send them forth for the watering of the Lords fields; and when they have done so, do then return to study and meditation again. Because unless they do this, an inward ignorance will dry up the outward words of their preaching [Jermin].
Let us comprehend that we can only then be happy and make others happy, when, as nature unconsciously obeys natural laws, we obey with clear consciousness the commands of virtue and the laws of nature for the spirit-world [Wohlfarth].
Ecc. 1:8. There is no pause in the battle of life. Man must wage a continual warfare against want and death, or else be vanquished.
There is a sense of languor and weariness in all human effort. Nothing goes on with lively vigour, but everywhere the spurand the whip are required. The earth will not yield her fruit to man with ease and profusionit must be wrested by hard labour.
Labour is not an unmixed evil. The good Providence of God has mitigated the curse, and made it full of blessing. Labour has stimulated invention, and developed the powers of man. Nature offers opposition to him; hence the plough and the ship. He is born ignorant; hence the school, where he labours to conquer that condition. Labour has served to modify the virulence of depravity. How much worse would human nature be, were the necessity for labour done away with? The bonds of toil have done much to restrain the fierce passions of men.
To the pious soul, labour only tends to sweeten the prospect of heaven. Rest will be delightful after toil.
Language breaks down under the task of representing the greatness and extent of the labours of men. No one mind can understand every department of human industry. Words fail fully to represent the present worldhow much more the activity and glory of the invisible kingdom!
The abundance of phenomena which presses on eye, ear, and the remaining senses, is endless; there are always objects which the eye must see, does see, and brings to him who would gladly close his labours [Hitzig].
The issues of mens labours are unsatisfactory. When the utmost is done, the eye and ear desire more. The void, produced in the soul by the fall, cannot be filled up by wealth, worldly glory, or even by the superior treasures of the intellect. No mere idea, or vague sense of some mysterious power, but the Living God alone is the satisfying portion. A nature capable of being filled with all the fulness of God must be discontented with any other portion.
The souls powers of inner vision and hearing are satisfied when God appears.
Such is the curse which the Lord hath put upon all earthly things sought after as mans best portion, that his unsatisfaction after attainment of them is no less than it was in the pursuit; but rather still growing, as thirst doth in some distempered persons, by drinking. Till lost man close with God, reconciling Himself to him in Christ, and hear the joyful sound of His Spirit speaking pardon and peace through the promises, had he never so great plenty of sensible delights (in themselves never so ravishing), this may still be truly said of him, the eye is not satisfied, &c. [Nisbet].
It is a great mercy, always to receive for the supplying of our want, and never to want the need of receiving [Jermin].
The immortal essence of the soul can by no means repose in the empty creature; it seeks ever farther, and will ever have more; it is a fire that burns without ceasing, and would gladly seize all things [Berleb. Bible].
Ecc. 1:9. If we understand these words of the things themselves, and of the works of God, they would not be true. For God is every day doing what is new; but we do nothing new, because the old Adam is in all. Our ancestors abused things just as we abuse them Alexander and Csar had the same disposition; so had all Kaisars and Kings; so have we. As they could never be satisfied, so never can we; they were wicked; so are we [Luther].
The study of history affords no hope that man, by any power of his own, can rise above the vanity of his condition. Human life of to-day contains no element which past generations did not possessthere is nothing fresh. As the old was bad, it is an evil that there is nothing new.
With advanced civilization there is a multiplying of the enjoyments of life, and a refinement of pleasure. But this does not bring us nearer to complete satisfactionto the chief good. New appliances for comfort only generate new wants, and what was at first a luxury, becomes a necessity. We may add new links to the golden chain of pleasure, but only to increase the power of it to bind us faster.
We cannot be altered from below, but only from above. Behold I make all things new, is the regenerating word for man. The new creation begins where vanity begunwith man. When he is created anew in Christ, all things will be new.
The delights of novelty are only prepared for man in Christ. He alone can give us material for new songs. Our life here is a weary rounda depressing sameness, but heaven is eternal progression in light and love.
Our longing for something new is a proof that religion is necessary to bring true rest to our soul. Man expresses the voice of nature, which seems to be restless and uneasy in its present bonds, and to yearn for perfection.
Even in the things of the material world which surrounds us, there is an element of life, a yearning of what is bound, which, like that of the Memnon statue, unconsciously sends forth symphony, when the ray touches it from above [Schubert].
1. There is no new earthly delight to be found out by men, besides one of these three idols, pleasure, profit, and honour, which the men of this world have always, since the beginning, been worshipping.
2. Nor is any new course to be found out for attaining these, the like whereof for substance, and no less effectual for the end, hath not been essayed before.
3. Nor any new success of these courses to be expected, but the same disappointment and vexation their fathers had found to deter their children from idolatrous courses (Jer. 16:19) [Nisbet].
In order to the solid satisfaction of mans soul, there must be a newness, either of the kind of the delights which he enjoys, or of the relish and sweetness he finds in them; which is only to be had in things spiritual and heavenly, in fellowship with God, and tasting how gracious He is; which is no less fresh, sweet, and new, even after many tastes of it, than it was at first. Yea, the oftener any taste spiritual comforts, the sweeter and newer they are; but the most desirable of earthly delights, the more they are enjoyed, the more they are loathed. So that they become old in a moment, and sooner than they can be called new [Nisbet].
Ecc. 1:10. Men suddenly rejoice in some boasted discovery for healing the hurt of humanity. See, this is new! But the old wounds still remain. The true Healer of man is Divine, and comes from above.
Panting after this illusion of novelty is a sign of secret dissatisfaction. It robs us of that quietness which is the only solace of our life.
Politicians trace the evils of society to bad laws, and by reforming legislation endeavour to increase social happiness. But no alteration of outward circumstances can restore the soul to true happiness and peace. When the light of life shines within, all things become transfigured by that light.
To be acquainted with the history of past events, especially that which is recorded in Scripture, is of singular use to the people of God to guard them against offence, fretting, or being discouraged at the apprehended newness of their trials, or temptations; and to draw their hearts from following those sinful courses, which others have in their experience proved to end in so much vexation. And while we are taken up with any earthly delight as new, we prove ourselves to be unacquainted with things that have been before, and like children brought from the country to some great city, and there ravished with every trifle as new, which experienced persons are not affected with [Nisbet.]
Ecc. 1:11. The vast mass of human deeds are buried in oblivion. History gives but a scanty outline of what has been. One Csar lives, a thousand are forgot.
Even literature fails to preserve some from forgetfulness and neglect. Libraries are often the cemeteries of departed reputation. The books which are never disturbed in their dusty beds speak eloquently of the failure of many to secure a lasting fame, though they were above the average of humanity.
The world soon forgets even those who have blest it with good words and deeds. Nothing can save us from the fate of oblivion but a place in the infinite memory of God. The good, in whatever world, are in Gods sightever in His remembrance. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee.
It is some kind of preservation of things that are not, that they are not forgotten; and because this might seem to mitigate the vanity of worldly things the Preacher showeth that there is no remembrance of things, neither of former things, nor of things present when they shall be gone, neither of things which shall be. So that as Hugo de Sancto Victore speaketh: Not only their presence by perishing is taken away, but their memory also by oblivion is blotted out. Wherefore let this check the great minds of some, who think to do some great thing by which they will be remembered, and let it make them to seek after righteousness; for it is the memory of the righteous that is blessed [Jermin].
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH. Ecc. 1:12-18
SPECULATIVE WISDOM APPLIED TO THE FACTS OF EXISTENCE
I. The exercise of it is Divinely appointed for all. God hath given this sore travail to the sons of men. We are not left to choose whether or not we will think upon the mysteries of nature, of human life, and destiny. We are bound to exercise thought and investigation.
1. By the nature of the powers of the human mind. We cannot be content with a passive, indifferent gaze upon the world around us, and the scene of man. We are constituted by our Creator speculative beings. In the pauses of the worlds labour, a sense of the harmony of nature is forced upon us, we feel ourselves in the presence of some mysterious Power. Man is conscious of wants and cravings which belong not to the body. He has pains and pleasures in which the physical part of his nature does not share. The mind is ever groping for some solvent idea that will adjust the discrepancies that appear in this life. Man cannot rest in merely seeking the satisfaction of his bodily wants, and in studying the system of nature only as it affects these. He must speculate upon nature, himself, society.
2. By the necessities of our present position. Man must maintain his sovereignty over nature, must bear undisputed sway over the wildest animals, and win spoils and tribute from the mine, the forest, the ocean, and the air. Without thought and the power of contrivance, he must soon cease to be lord of this lower world; for in all other respects, the brute creation would be his superiors. Man holds his position by the power of reason. He is forced to reflect upon the facts of his mysterious existence, as it touches, at one extremity, all that is vile and base; and on the other, all that is noble and divine. Hence the religious instinct in man, which no culture, or refinement, or boasted supremacy of reason, can ever destroy.
3. No superiority of outward condition can discharge us from the necessity of this exercise. I was king. High social position, and profusion of earthly splendour cannot shut out thought and reflection on the system of nature, and the painful mystery of life. Pleasure, and a lofty feeling of importance cannot wholly occupy the mind. Pale and anxious thought can break through the charmed circle of kingly dignity.
II. The Issues of it are Unsatisfactory. Mere human knowledge and speculation upon the mysteries of life, yield no results of permanent value.
1. They do not satisfy the intellect. However wide the empire of science may expand, the mind will pant after the undiscovered regions beyond. The vain pursuit, without the help of revelation, of the ultimate truth concerning nature, man, and God, must ever keep the mind unsatisfied.
2. They do not satisfy the heart. The heart has infinite longings beyond the power of expression, and a faculty of vague prophecy of some glory beyond the experience of this life. It cannot be satisfied by human speculation or science; it must meet the loving heart above. It longs to know of a love which is powerful, and a power which is kind. The investigation of matter, force, of the vast machinery of nature, were we conscious of no loving heart above, would be painful. Knowledge and speculation, which must end with death, have poor comfort and hopeless issue. We can have no true consolation unless we feel that there is life above and on before.
3. They are powerless to improve the condition of which we complain. The vanity to which creation is subject cannot be removed by our wisdom, ingenuity of contrivance, or of speculation.
(1.) Man cannot alter the system of things in accordance with his own ideal of the best. That which is crooked cannot be made straight, i.e., brought into position. In the arrangements of the world there are, apparently, imperfections. We can imagine a kinder, less destructive, and more peaceful system of things. While pain, suffering, death, and decay remain, this life cannot be the ideal best. But we have no power to alter the frame and disposition of nature, nor the hard conditions of our life. There are mysteries, anomalies, and crooked things in human life; but we cannot bring them to an ideal perfection.
(2.) Man cannot supply fatal defects. That which is wanting, &c. Mere human wisdom sighs in vain for that which would restore the lost harmonies of creation, but it will not be supplied. The lost and forgotten spell of power is only supplied to the new man in Christ, who lives in a new creation.
III. The Divine Purpose in it has a moral significance for Man. To be exercised therewith. The intention of God hereby is to afflict mans mind, and to humble him.
1. His pride of power is humbled, so that he might feel his need of redemption. When a man feels that his own strength is of no avail, then he has a motive for depending on the strength of God. He wants a strong deliverer. The boast of power is but empty and vain when a man feels that there is no one to save him from death.
2. His vain presumption of wisdom is humbled. God allows man to try the strength and capacity of his mind in the application of his speculative wisdom to life; gives him difficult problems, as a severe discipline, so that his reason might be humbled. This exercise is a pain and a perplexity. Pain and suffering have a tendency to throw the mind back upon itself, and to force us to seek relief in another.
IV. The Difficulty is only increased by Superior Powers of Investigation. In much wisdom is much grief, &c. An increase of human knowledge and power of speculation does not banish the painful impression the scene of life makes upon the mind.
1. Some subjects of investigation are painful in themselves. History is chiefly a record of oppressionwrongcrueltywar. The history of the conflict of opinion reveals base passionspride of intellectgreat mental labour, ending at last in some pitiful and controverted conclusion. We feel that, after all, human wisdom has done little to settle the great questionsthe mystery of life, and the ultimate destiny of man. Even Ecclesiastical History is a fearful record of ambition, strife, and corruption of the truth. The more knowledge of this kind, the more material for melancholy reflection.
2. The results of our investigations fail to satisfy the whole of our nature. Science only gives us facts and laws, not a personal God. The study of mankind intensifies our pityour suspicion; or awakens envyaspirations in us that will never be satisfied. Our studies of nature and of man, as far as they are guided by human wisdom alone, only tend to make us sad. They leave the deepest yearnings of the soul unsatisfiedwe still cry out for the Living God.
3. There is an oppressive sense of imperfection when we have done our best. The increase of knowledge only convinces us of our hopeless ignorance; the infinite unknown rises up before us to humble our pride. The more deep and extensive our study, the more it is seen how one subject is closely related to another, till we are forced to despair of surveying the whole scene of truth, even from the loftiest elevation of the mind. If there be not an Infinite Intelligence, the whole universe cannot be comprehended by any one mind. The little knowledge, which is all the wisest can attain to, is humblinga sorrowful portion.
4. Mere human knowledge, as far as the individual is concerned, is of brief duration. Art is long; life is short. If this life be all, our own wisdom must soon perish. Why trouble ourselves, if life is so soon to end for ever, to gather stores of knowledge, only to increase the tenderness of our nature to all painful impression?
Who would put forth one billow from the shore,
If the great sea beDeath?
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecc. 1:12. The Royal Preacher had full opportunity for a practical acquaintance with the theme of his discourse. He tried the world at its best; and if it had any solid joys, he could have discovered them.
High social position, and the activities of public life, are favourable to large and correct views of human things. A practical man is able to form juster views than a recluse. Theories of human nature, shaped by lonely meditation, away from the busy activities and strifes of men, are often dispersed by the stern facts of life. The true instructor of the Church mingles with men.
In Jerusalemthe home of Divine Revelation. Solomon had the advantage of studying the inspired records. He possessed a national history in which the hand of God could be plainly traced. He was the representative of God in a political system where Divine laws ruled national lifethe first outline of that Kingdom of God which a greater than Solomon came to establish.
The true preacher arises from the midst of the Church. He has Divine facts. He enters into the possession of the rich heritage of the past.
He had not yet put off his royal robes, he had not yet laid aside his crown; and yet, considering the vain uncertainty, and speedy passing away of worldly greatness, he rather affirmeth himself to have been than to be. I was King [Jermin].
The eminency of a mans place and employment, whether ecclesiastical or civil, as also the dignity and privileges of the people over whom he hath charge, should be so far from making him slack and negligent in pains for bettering his giftsas if his measure of these were sufficient already, seeing he is so employedthat on the contrary, the consideration thereof should stir him up to the greater pains and diligence, that he may grow in abilities for the more faithful and successful discharge of his employment; for the consideration of Solomons office in the Church and State of Israel may be looked upon, as here mentioned by him, as a special motive to that exceeding great diligence afterwards described [Nisbet].
Ecc. 1:13. In all real study, the heart must be engaged as well as the headthere must be desire as well as power.
Love is always ready to explore its object.
We must not be content simply with a knowledge of the facts of human history. We should study the principles underlying them, and their tendenciestheir bearing upon the purposes of God here, and hereafter.
The most precious things of truth lie not on the surface, before the careless eye. They are hidden in the depths, and greatly embedded, and can only be gained by laborious toil. The best teachers can but tell us where to dig for the precious ore: the labour which puts us in possession of it must be our own.
God is educating the human race by forcing upon everyone the painful problems of lifeby the discipline of sorrow and humilityalso, by means of punishment.
Even the inspired teachers of the Church had necessity for laborious study and thought. The Church should value the products of long and careful meditation.
To search out concerning all things that are done under heaven. This involves
1. The study of moral helplessness. The facts of evil, in human conduct, must be admitted. Unaided by a Divine power, man cannot lift his own burdenhe must lie crushed by the load. 2 The study of a severe moral conflict. The grace of God is in the world opposing sin, and modifying the facts of depravity. As a resultant of these forces, this world is neither a Paradise nor a Hell.
3. The study of great possibilities for the future. The consequences of human conduct are projected beyond the world. The great harvests of thought and action only ripen in eternity. Man, in his degradation, still has powers capable of God, and of all the improvements of eternity.
He who came to us from above the sun can alone redeem us from all the evils under it.
There is nothing which God hath made, or doth, neither anything which He ordereth, or permitteth to be done, but it deserveth mans serious thoughts, as that from whence he may learn something for his profit. The study of the creatures will proclaim to him the glorious properties of his Maker. The study of human affairs may teach him what is for the advantage of his worldly estate, yea, even the greatest miscarriages in the world may afford him either matter of caution to beware of the like, or of praise that men are restrained from miscarrying further, or of comfort that God is bringing good out of it. The children of God may lay out their wit sometimes in considering what happiness the creatures and human endeavours about them can yield, still putting the same in the balance with what is to be had in communion with the Lord, so that comparing Christ, the true Apple-tree, with the trees of the wood, His fruit may be the sweeter to their taste; and comparing the excellent knowledge of Him with what may be known and enjoyed of other things, these other things may become dross and dung in their esteem [Nisbet].
Behold here the royal student, and see the matter, the method, the manner, the diligence of his studying.
1. The matter is all things that are done under heaven, as the ethics of the manners of men, the civil histories of the deeds of men, the natural history of the works of God.
2. The method of his study we have, in that it is said, by wisdom, for that is the only right method of well seeking anything. Method is the wise part of study, but an unwise method is a methodical folly.
3. The manner of his studying we have in that he sought and searched. He sought things unknown, and searched deep things.
4. The diligence of his studying we have in that he gave his heart unto it. He went about it not only with a willingness, but with a love which locked him up, and held him hard unto it [Jermin].
Ecc. 1:14. If men had only disappointment of their hopes to look for, while they neglect the new and living way to felicity, and seek happiness in vain and sinful courses, their misery were the less. But besides this, they shall find the issue of their course to be an eating up and gnawing away of their spirit, and that they have been feeding upon the wind, while delighting in things earthly as their best portion. Such is the signification of the original words All is Vanity and Vexation or gnawing away of the spirit, or feeding upon the wind [Nisbet].
The most diligent study of human life only reaches the miserable conclusion, that All is Vanity. Yet, an exercise yielding no satisfactory results in the looked-for direction, may be salutary. God often educates the human race by failure. Amidst the wreck of our earthly hopes, we are ready to grasp the hand stretched out to save, and to draw us to the shores of life.
Worldly things do not feed our souls, but rather the hunger of our souls [St. Bernard].
The Vanity, etc., may be referred unto his seeing and knowing, the knowledge of man being such as is full of vanity and unquietness,unquiet in the getting; unquiet being gotten, lest forgetfulness should lose it again; and vain where it is greatest, because it is far from the perfect discovery of anything. For this world, and the things in it, are a book of that largeness and greatness, that none is able to read it over [Jermin].
Ecc. 1:15. Mere earthly wisdom and skill fail to bend the perverse direction of human things into the true position. Sin has produced this deformity. In the world above, there is nothing crooked: all is exactregularbeautiful.
Men have tried several expedients to lessen the evils of life, and to perfect society,the dominion of armswise governmenteducationthe supremacy of the churchthe assertion of the social principle. But none of these can bring about a state of things in which all will go on smoothly. In the best ordered conditions of society, there must be imperfections which man can never remedy. Our only hope for the world is the answer to the prayer, Thy Kingdom come.
Even when our souls are renewed by grace, the evils of life remain. Grace does not straighten the natural crookedness of things. The body is dead, because of sin. All the worlds glory leads to the grave, and death is the sum of all vanity.
Whatever is wanting to make the world and man perfect, we cannot supply from hence. The true remedy for our fatal defects is not a philosophy, but a revelation.
When the perfect world is displayed to the inner vision, we are reconciled to the irregularites of the present.
With man in this life, the quid est is far below the quid opostet.
The present state is a discipline in Christian toleration. We must acknowledge imperfection, and be content to endure, and to wait for the glory of the perfect world.
1. Before men get grace to choose Christ for their portion, and so to be made new creatures, there is nothing but crookedness, and contrariety in their nature and actions to what is truly good and right in the sight of God.
(1.) Their understanding is crooked, so that it cannot discern things spiritual; and hath upon it strong impressions contrary to the truth.
(2.) Their will is crooked in regard of its averseness both from passive and active obedience to their Maker.
(3.) Their affections are crooked in so far as they loathe and weary of what God approves and commands. They love and delight in what He abhors; whence it is that every step of their walk is a turning aside to their crooked ways.
2. There are not a few things wanting to fallen man considered in his natural estate. He is spiritually destitute. He wants lifehealthfoodraimenta sight and feeling of his wants, and the desire to have them supplied. Yea, he wants the art of numbering out his wants to Him that can supply them.
3. The rectifying of this crookedness of mans nature and actions, and the supplying of his spiritual wants, is a work that surpasseth the power of the creatures, and requireth a creating, infinite power for the doing of it. Only the infinite virtue of Christs death can crucify the old man, and make the sinner a new creature; which is to make straight that which is crooked. Only he whose understanding is infinite, who numbers the stars, and hath in Himself all fulness, knows the number of our wants, and can supply them all [Nisbet].
Ecc. 1:16. It is salutary, at times, to enter the secret chambers of our own heart, to speak freely there, and thus be our own audience. We should know what lies within ourselveswhat is the extent of our power. If we would avoid the ruin of our spiritual fortunes, we must learn to take reckoning with ourselves.
The more we commune with our own hearts, the more cause have we for humility; for the best discover imperfections. Yet, as we discover in ourselves powers and capabilities which make religion possible, this duty should serve to inspire hope. The Divine hand has something to lay hold of in man.
The very names of the early kings, who had been before Solomon in Jerusalem (such as Melchizedek), show that they had higher purposes and aims than the other kings of the earth.
Each one should enlarge his original capacity. The gifts of God must be improved by our own industry, or their energy and value will grow less.
A great estate without wisdom does not add to the true dignity of the owner. Wisdom and knowledge are necessary even to extend the uses of riches, and to increase the enjoyments of life. Riches without culture and study only increase the temptation to coarse pleasures.
The experience of wisdom and knowledge is better than wisdom itself, for the habits and principles acquired by long and careful meditation are of greater value than the mere facts of knowledge.
The treasures of the mind become the more endeared by long possession.
The Lords people should not satisfy themselves with the simple notional knowledge of the truth, unless they have also the experimental knowledge thereof, which consists in our discerning evidently the things we know in the causes thereof, and by their effects upon ourselves or others. The more outward advantages and accommodations men have for acquiring knowledge, and the greater inward qualifications, the more should their heart be set upon enriching themselves therewith; otherwise the Lord will challenge them sadly for abusing His gifts contrary to the end for which He gave them [Nisbet].
Ecc. 1:17. To attain a true knowledge of man, it is necessary to study all the facts of his nature and condition, and not to make a selection of the most pleasant and favourable. Goodness and truth are not only to be investigated in themselves, but also in their counterparts, evilerrorand confusion.
Man does not originate the objects which his science investigates. The specimens are selected by nature. We must accept the facts of human life, however painful the study of them may be.
The knowledge of the worlds madness and folly teaches a man to value true wisdom. The knowledge of disease is necessary to discover the means for the preservation of health.
A close examination of human effort will discover that many actions reputed wise must be charged with folly.
We must study the madness and folly of the world only in order that we might hate and avoid them. Men survey, and lay down in the map, the features of barren and inhospitable countries where they never intend to dwell. They construct charts, which, though they mark the positions of safe anchorage and secure havens, yet, for the most part, indicate the dangers which are to be avoided by the mariner. The rocks and shoals, and sandbanks of life must be studied.
And that he might the better know wisdom, he laboured not only to know it in itself, but to know it also by conparing it with madness and folly, that the foulness of the one might set out the beauty and clearness of the other. And first he sought to know wisdom, that knowing madness and folly, he might as well hate, as know them [Jermin].
Astronomers determine the distance of a heavenly body by observing the different directions it bears when viewed from two positions widely apart. So the observation of man from the extremes of moral conduct (wisdom and folly) is necessary to our complete understanding of his real position in the moral universe.
Ecc. 1:18. This is true.
1. Of the knowledge of nature. As we increase our knowledge of the facts and laws of the universe, our ignorance becomes more and more apparent. There is an ever-deepening sense that the mystery of the ultimate facts of nature retires into closer seclusion, and becomes altogether unsearchable by us. As the sphere of light enlarges, so does the circumscribing sphere of darkness.
2. Of our knowledge of mankind. One result of an extensive study of human nature is, that we have less faith in it as we grow older. Our suspicion increases. The sins and follies of men fill the righteous soul with grief.
3. Of the knowledge of ourselves. The study of our own heart and life gives us reasons for humility and grief. The stronger the light by which we observe ourselves, the more will evils and deformities be revealed.
4. Of our knowledge of the Heavenly World. The more we learn of the nature of that world, the more we have reason to blame ourselves that it has so little effect upon us.
The increase of human knowledge renders the soul more sensitive to influencesincreases the power of feeling pain and distresscomplicates grief.
Wisdom reveals defects, dispels illusions, and destroys the contentment and fancied security of ignorance. The laughter of fools is loud, for wisdom would chastise the fervour of their joy. The failure of our highest faculties to give us true happiness casts us at the feet of God, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life.
Every increase of the Godly sorrow of the righteous has comfort in the bosom of it, and always joy at the back of it [Nisbet].
All human wisdom labours, and has care and sorrow for its reward; the further wisdom looks, the greater is the labyrinth in which it loses itself. It is with reason as to the eyes with a magnifying glass, when the most delicate skin becomes disgusting, the most luscious dish a mess of worms, and the finest work of art a mere botch. We see the impossibility of removing all inequalities of human society, and we see in it an overwhelming number of faults and failings; yea, the weakness of our senses and judgment leads us to find faults in beauties, because we examine all things only fragmentarily [Harman].
In respect of the contemplation of truth, knowledge causeth delight; but in respect of the things known, it causeth sorrow. Now if they be good things which are known, then the sorrow is from the great labour which a man must take to attain the knowledge of them; and from the little perfection of knowledge to which his great pains hath brought him. If they be evil things which are known, then his sorrow is that he is subject to them [Jermin].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
B. THESIS: THE VANITY OF ALL EARTHLY THINGS Ecc. 1:2
TEXT 1:2
2
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 1:2
5.
How many times is there a reference to vanity in this verse?
6.
What does the Preacher include in his category of vain things?
7.
List some popular meanings and some dictionary meanings given to the term vanity.
PARAPHRASE 1:2
Empty and transitory, sighs the Preacher, Everything is fleeting as a vapor and unfulfilling!
COMMENT 1:2
Ecc. 1:2 The Preachers first declaration, All is vanity, is not one of despair but one which simply states the truth concerning the nature of his world and everything in it. The Lord has cursed the earth (Gen. 5:29) as a result of Adams sin. Therefore, Paul writes, For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope. The fact that the earth and all that it contains has felt the curse of death, is in harmony with the message of the Bible. Study Gen. 3:17-19; Psa. 39:5-6; Gen. 5:29; Heb. 1:10-12 and Jas. 1:10-11; Jas. 4:13-17.
We often ascribe the idea of vainness of false pride to the term vanity, but this is not the meaning to be given the term as it is interwoven throughout the Preachers message. It is evident that it conveys the idea of a short life, as the proper noun Abel comes from the same Hebrew word that is here translated vanity. The Hebrew term hebel is used thirty-seven times in Ecclesiastes.[5] Such extensive application of one idea, discussed in each chapter except the tenth, demands a thorough understanding of its use.
[5] Ernest W. Hengstenberg, A Commentary on Ecclesiastes (Rochester, Wn.: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 1960), p, 46.
The term is rich in meaning and usage as it appears over and over again in the book. No one term could possibly convey the meaning of each situation. The New English Bible has replaced the word vanity with emptiness, while the Anchor Bible replaces vanity with vapor. Listed here are terms which serve as synonyms or corresponding ideas. They are: vanity, futile, empty, meaningless, fleeting, pointless, incomprehensible, breath, vapor, unfulfilling, striving after wind, short-lived, Abel, transitory, temporary, sublunary, under the sun, under heaven and upon the earth.
Many lessons in the book are based on the conclusion that All is vanity. It is vital, therefore, that one see the numerous possibilities contained in the word vanity. When all of life and its hopes are qualified by sublunary restrictions and limitations, when everything a man has to remember, enjoy today, and look forward to, is limited to and qualified by experience in this life only, then one begins to sense the impact of the term. The term vanity, therefore, is applicable to everything that falls beneath the curse of sin. When man sinned, he began the process of death. As noted in Gen. 3:17-19, the process was passed on to mans world. Therefore, the All of Solomons declaration is comprehensive enough to include both man and his world. There is a genuine pity associated with this truth. As the Apostle Paul has said, If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most to be pitied (1Co. 15:19). Or again, If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (1Co. 15:32).
At the beginning of the book, we are confronted with the most basic question man can possibly ask: Is this life, in its toil, pleasures, possessions, challenges, and ambitions all there is to living, or is there a Word from God to give hope to man in the midst of his activities? It is in the face of this question that the Preacher embarks on his quest.
It is with deep gratitude to God that we study Ecclesiastes with the wisdom of His final revelation. On numerous occasions Jesus pointed to the transitory nature of man and his world and always directed his hearers to a higher calling. It was indeed Solomon that Jesus had in mind, clothed in all his glory, when he drove home the lesson that . . . not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions (Luk. 12:15). It is in the light of this truth that he challenges us, But seek for His kingdom, and these things shall be added to you. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, and unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your hearts be also (Luk. 12:31-34).
Solomons use of vanity does not convey the idea of fatalism because God is always present in the sense that He is the acknowledged Creator of this world (Ecc. 12:1), and in His providence He controls the ultimate outcome of all events.
FACT QUESTIONS 1:2
9.
What should be included in the term All in the statement All is vanity?
10.
Since the proper noun Abel is derived from the Hebrew term for vanity, what meaning should be ascribed to Abel?
11.
How often does the term vanity appear in Ecclesiastes?
12.
List some of the possible ways the Hebrew term hebel could be translated.
13.
According to Pauls reasoning in 1Co. 15:19, what would cause man most to be pitied?
14.
What did Jesus say concerning earthly possessions? Cf. Luk. 12:15
15.
Fatalism is the teaching that the world is controlled by fate. Why can we rule fatalism out as a possible interpretation to the book of Ecclesiastes?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(2) Vanity of vanities.This verse strikes the key-note of the whole work. In using this expression we mean to indicate the opinion that the unity of the book is rather that of a musical composition than of a philosophical treatise. A leading theme is given out and followed for a time. Episodes are introduced, not perhaps logically connected with the original subject, but treated in harmony with it, and leading back to the original theme which is never lost sight of, and with which the composition comes to a close (Ecc. 12:8).
The word translated vanity (which occurs thirty-seven times in this book, and only thirty-three times in all the rest of the Old Testament) in its primary meaning denotes breath or vapour, and is so translated here in some of the Greek versions (comp. Jas. 4:4); so in Isa. 57:13. It is the same word as the proper name Abel, on which see Note on Gen. 4:2. It is frequently applied in Scripture to the follies of heathenism (Jer. 14:22, &c), and also to the whole estate of men (Psa. 39:5-6; Psa. 62:9; Psa. 144:4). The translation vanity is that of the LXX. We may reasonably believe that St. Paul (Rom. 8:20) had this key-note of Ecclesiastes in his mind.
Vanity of vanities is a common Hebrew superlative, as in the phrases Heaven of heavens, Song of songs, Holy of holies, Lamentation of lamentations (Mic. 2:4, margin).
Saith the Preacher.Heb., said. The Hebrew constantly employs the preterite when English usage requires the present or perfect. In the case of a message the point of time contemplated in Hebrew is that of the giving, not the delivery, of the message. So Thus said Benhadad, Thus said the Lord (1Ki. 20:2; 1Ki. 20:5; 1Ki. 20:13 and passim) are rightly translated by the present in our version. In the present case this formula is one which might conceivably be employed if the words of Kohleth were written down by himself; yet it certainly rather suggests that we have here these words as written down by another.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Vanity of vanities This utterance, like a prelude, gives the solemn keynote of the book. As we proceed, we shall see that it means, not that the works of God or the callings of men are unreal and delusive, but that the struggle to satisfy the heart in worldly things is vain. By repetition the writer makes his thought conspicuous and impressive, like a proposition in science which he goes on to prove.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Opening Statement Ecc 1:2-4 serves as an opening statement upon which the rest of the book of Ecclesiastes is built. In other words, the Preacher offers his opening statement and builds his arguments from it, reaching his conclusion in Ecc 12:13. The Preacher realizes that God has set this earth upon a course of mortal decay because of human depravity; and man, whose spirit is immortal, should fear God as a means of overcoming the vanity imposed upon him in this earth-life.
Ecc 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
Ecc 1:2
Comments – The phrase “vanity of vanities” literally, “breath of breaths.” We know that breath, or wind, is fleeting. This phrase means, “utterless, meaningless or useless,” or “a most useless thing.” Breath is transitory and impermanent as the wind. This phrase opens and closes the book of Ecclesiastes (Ecc 12:8). After taking the entire book to support this statement, he ends his case by making the same statement.
Ecc 12:8, “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.”
Bob Nichols says the word “vanity,” when used within the context of Ecclesiastes, refers to the things pertaining to this earthly life, which will someday pass away. [23] It does not mean that things in this life are not necessary or unimportant, but the Preacher is weighing them in light of the importance of eternal matters. The older we get, the better insight we have into the vanities of this life and our eternal destiny. We see children busying themselves with play and clinging to toys and things that are of little worth. Of course, play is an important aspect of a child’s social development. But the things they pursue are not true treasures. Even as adults, a wise man sees this same vain activity in the lives of people around him. The Preacher will conclude that the only true importance in this life is to fear God and to keep His commandments.
[23] Bob Nichols, “Sermon,” Calvary Cathedral International, Fort Worth, Texas.
Ecc 1:3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
Ecc 1:3
Word Study on “labour” Strong says the Hebrew word “labour” ( ) (H5999) means, “toil, wearing effort,” thus, “worry, whether of body or mind.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 55 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “labour 25, mischief 9, misery 3, travail 3, trouble 3, sorrow 2, grievance 1, grievousness 1, iniquity 1, miserable 1, pain 1, painful 1, perverseness 1, toil 1, wearisome 1, wickedness 1.” Strong says it comes from the primitive root ( ) (H5998), which means, “to toil, to work severely and with irksomeness.”
Comments – The Hebrew word “labour” ( ) (H5999) is used twenty-two (22) in the book of Ecclesiastes of fifty-five (55) uses in the Old Testament, thus becoming a key word that reveals the theme of the book. As we look at the book of beginnings, the book of Genesis, we find that labour and travail were placed upon mankind under the curse as a way of judging him. God said to Adam, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” In the book of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher re-evaluates the results of the curse of our labour and travail, saying, “I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.” (Ecc 3:10) God uses labour and travail to discipline us so that we will look to Him each day in the midst of our daily travail.
Ecc 1:3 “which he taketh under the sun” – Comments – The phrase “under the sun” in the book of Ecclesiastes basically means, “in this life.” We know that the word “vanity” is used also in the previous verse (Ecc 1:2) to refer to the temporal affairs of this life when compared to the importance of eternal matters. It is the sun that causes man to age so quickly and thus, to be mortal. We see later in Ecc 12:1-8 a discussion on the brevity of this life that is lived under the sun. The rising and setting of the sun is used to measure our mortal life.
In addition, no other aspect of nature brings more stress and travail upon the laboring man that the sun beating down upon his sweaty brow. The sun brings more stress upon the physical body than any other aspect of nature.
Ecc 1:4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
Ecc 1:4
“but the earth abideth for ever” Comments – Although this present heavens and earth will pass away in order to make way for the new in eternity, it seems to abide forever in that it outlasts each generation of mankind. Thus, relatively speaking, this earth “abides forever.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Ecc 1:2-3. Vanity of vanities Vanity of vanities, according to the Hebrew idiom, signifies, the greatest vanity. The original word hebel, signifies, properly, steam or vapour, and is used to denote any thing which is transient and empty, in apparition to what is solid, substantial, and permanent. These verses contain the first proposition, “That no labour or trouble of men,” &c. The proofs of which we here subjoin analytically:
Ecc 1:2-3. I. Proposition.
Ecc 1:4 to Ecc 11:1 st Proof. The course of nature.
Ecc 1:12, &c. 2nd Proof. Men’s occupations.
Ecc 1:16-18. 1st Head. Wisdom or philosophy.
Ecc 2:1-2 nd Head. Pleasure. 3.-10. Both jointly.
Ecc 2:11. General conclusion of the 2nd proof.
A review of the 2nd proof, with special conclusions relating to every particular therein mentioned; viz.
Ecc 2:12-17. 1. Wisdom.
Ecc 2:18-23. 2. Riches.
Ecc 2:24-26. 3. Pleasure.
Ecc 3:1, &c. 3rd Proof. Inconstancy of men’s will.
Ecc 3:9. Conclusion of the 3rd proof.
A review of the 2nd and 3rd proofs, considered jointly with special observations and corollaries.
Ecc 3:10 to Ecc 11:1 st Observation. God is inculpable.
Ecc 3:12-15. 2nd Observation. God by his constant Providence and unerring wisdom governs the world.
Ecc 3:16-17. 1st Corollary. God shall redress all grievances.
Ecc 3:18-21. 2nd Corollary. God must be exalted, and man humbled.
Ecc 3:22. 3rd Corollary. God alloweth men to enjoy the present.
Ecc 4:1. 4th Proof. Men’s neglect of proper opportunities evidenced in several instances; viz.
Ecc 4:1 to Ecc 3:1. Oppression.
Ecc 4:4. 2.Envy.
Ecc 4:5 to Ecc 6:3. Idleness.
Ecc 4:7 to Ecc 12:4. Avarice.
Ecc 4:13-16. 5. Misapplication of esteem and regard.
Ecc 5:1-9. N.B. Chap. Ecc 5:1-9 is a digression containing several admonitions, in order to prevent any misconstruction of the foregoing remarks.
Ecc 5:10 to Ecc 12:6. Expensive living.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 827
THE VANITY OF THE CREATURE
Ecc 1:2. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
IF experience entitles a man to credit, and gives weight to his testimony, we derive great advantage as to the credibility of the inspired writings: for respecting much of which the Prophets and Apostles wrote, they could say, What mine eyes have seen, mine ears have heard, and my hands have handled of the word of life, that same declare I unto you. And if this be an advantage in reference to the excellency of religion, it may well be regarded as of some importance in reference also to the vanity of all earthly pursuits. That there should have been a man possessed of such abundant means of gratification as Solomon was, and so ardent in the pursuit of it in every possible line, and at the same time so faithful in declaring his own experience in relation to it all, must be considered as an advantage to all subsequent generations, who should hear and receive his testimony respecting the things which he had so fully tried, and so invariably proved to be vanity itself. The words before us express a conviction that admitted not of doubt, and a decision that left no room for controversy. The Preacher who uttered them was inspired of God, at the same time that he recorded what, from personal knowledge, he was qualified to declare. And in considering his testimony, I shall,
I.
Confirm it
The things of which he spake were, all that the world contains; its grosser and more common pursuits of pleasure, riches, and honour, as also its more refined attainments of wisdom and knowledge. And all of them, without exception, are vanity;
1.
In their acquisition
[It is not without great labour and toil that earthly distinctions are obtained. The merchant, the warrior, the philosopher will bear record, that in their respective pursuits they have endured much fatigue, and many disappointments; insomuch that to one whose taste was different from theirs, they would appear to have paid too dear a price for all that they have gained.]
2.
In their use
[Suppose that the labours of any person have been crowned with success; What, after all, has he gained? He thought he was following something substantial: but, to his mortification, he finds that he has grasped a shadow. He has hewn out cisterns for himself, indeed, with great labour; but he finds, after all, that they are broken cisterns, which can hold no water. At the first moment, whilst the charm of novelty is upon them, the various objects we have attained afford a pleasing gratification to the mind: but scarcely have they been enjoyed a few days, before they lose their sweetness, and descend into the common routine of earthly comforts. The man who rolls in wealth, and he who is dignified with high-sounding titles, is soon brought to a level with his inferiors in point of actual enjoyment: and even he who has acquired knowledge, finds, that, in having increased knowledge, he has also increased sorrow [Note: ver. 18.]; because of the envy which his eminence has excited, and the uncertainty of much which he thinks he has attained.]
3.
In their continuance
[What is there of which a man may not be despoiled? Pleasure may, in a very little time, be turned into pain: honour may speedily be blasted by some unforeseen event: riches make themselves wings, and fly away: and through disease or accident, even reason itself, with all its highest attainments, may sink into more than infantine weakness and infirmity. But grant to these things all that the most sanguine imagination can impute, how soon do they vanish away! Even life itself is but as a hand-breadth, or as a shadow that declineth: and the moment that death comes, all our thoughts perish, and we go out of the world as naked and as destitute as we came into it.]
4.
In their issue
[Here it is that the vanity of earthly things pre-eminently appears. For in what respect can they advance our eternal happiness? Would to God that they did not so generally and so fatally obstruct it! Truly, neither riches nor honours can profit us in the day of wrath. With our holy and heavenly Judge there is no respect of persons. The rich and the poor will be dealt with according to one equal law: only the rich, and the great, and the learned, will be called to a more severe account in proportion to the influence they possessed, and the advantages they neglected to improve.]
But as the testimony is unquestionably strong, I shall,
II.
Qualify it
Beyond all doubt, the Scriptures generally contain the same language: Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity [Note: Psa 62:9.]. But stronger still is the language of the Psalmist in another place, where he says, Verily every man, at his best estate, is altogether vanity [Note: Psa 39:5.]. Consider how strong and how unqualified these expressions are, and you will not expect me to say much in mitigation of them. Yet I must say, that the vanity of the creature, though the same in itself, is differently felt,
1.
According to our mode of acting in reference to it
[If we give ourselves up to creature comforts, we shall be dreadfully disappointed But if we enjoy them in subserviency to God, and in subordination to higher pursuits, we shall not find them so empty as may be imagined. For God has given to his people all things richly to enjoy: and provided only we enjoy God in them, they are both a legitimate and an abundant spring of pure delight. For, whilst we derive from them the happiness which they are calculated to impart, we taste not the bitterness which is infused into the cup of the mere worldling. Our enjoyments are elevated and sanctified; our pains, moderated and changed into an occasion of praise and thanksgiving. Only let them be sought in their proper place, and they are comforts in the way to heaven, though they can never stand to us in the place of heaven.]
2.
According to the degree in which we blend religion with it
[Religion raises us above the creature altogether. If we have much of this world, we shall have a high enjoyment of it, because we shall make it the means of benefiting our fellow-creatures, and of honouring our God. If, on the other hand, we have little of this world, we shall still be happy: because, in having God for our portion, we can lack nothing. There are but two lessons for the Christian to learn: the one is, to enjoy God in every thing; the other is, to enjoy every thing in God. The one ennobles the rich; the other elevates the poor: and all who have learned these lessons are, and must be, happy.
Whilst, therefore, I grant the general position, that the creature is vanity, I must say, that the experience of its vanity, depends altogether on our undue pursuit of it and expectations from it. Let us only take it in the manner that God approves, and for the ends for which he has sent it, and we shall still find it, like Jacobs ladder, unsubstantial indeed it itself, but still a medium of communication between heaven and earth; a medium of Gods descent to us, and of our ascent to him.]
But, in our consideration of this testimony, let us further,
III.
Improve it
Much, very much, may it teach us. We may learn from it to be,
1.
Moderate in our expectations
[If we will foolishly look for that in the creature which God never designed to be put into it, we may well expect disappointment. Even in Paradise it was not intended to stand in the place of God, or to be to us any source of solid satisfaction: how much less, then, can it be so, when sin has infused a curse into it: agreeably to what is written, Cursed is the ground for thy sake. Let us estimate it aright, and expect from it no more than God has ordained it to impart: and we shall prove but little of its emptiness, whilst we have a rich and becoming enjoyment of it. The direction of St. Paul is that which comes immediately to the point, and exactly suits the present occasion: The time is short. It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none: and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoice not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it. For the fashion of this world passeth away [Note: 1Co 7:29-31.]. Only use the creature in this way, and you will find it no injury to your souls.]
2.
Patient in our trials
[Trials of different kinds must come: for the whole creation has, through the sin of man, become subject to vanity. But, in our present state, this is in reality a benefit; for, if it were not so, we should be ready to take up our rest in this world, instead of seeking that which remaineth for us in the world to come. Troubles serve to bring us nigh to God for the supports and consolations which we stand in need of. And shall we complain of that which brings us near to him, and proves an occasion of richer communications from him? No, verily: we should taste love, and love only, in our diversified afflictions; and look to God as sending them for our profit, that by means of them we may be made partakers of his holiness, and meet for his glory.]
3.
Diligent in our pursuit of better things
[In heavenly things there are no drawbacks, except those which are caused by our own defects in seeking after them. There is no vanity in love to God, or love to man: and the more we labour after them, and delight ourselves in them, the happier we shall be. Could we but give ourselves wholly to these things, we should find in them a very heaven upon earth. To every one of you, then, I would recommend that prayer of David, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way [Note: Psa 119:37.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
This may be considered as the one text of Solomon’s whole discourse. He takes this for his subject; and all that follows is in confirmation of it. And Reader! I beseech you, as you pass along, to mark with me the opposite to this vanity, which is found in Christ. You will discover, in exact proportion, that as all Solomon advanceth in his subject, so the proof of the vanity of everything out of Christ, tends in confirmation of it, and the contrast will be of the durable riches and righteousness found in Christ.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
XXVI
THE PROLOGUE AND THREE METHODS APPLIED
Ecc 1:2-5:9
“Vanity of vanities” (Ecc 1:2 ) is a Hebraism and means the most utter vanity. Compare “Holy of holies” and “Servant of servants” (Gen 9:25 ). This does not mean that all things are vanity in themselves, but that they are all vanity when put in the place of God, or made the chief end of life instead of a means to an end.
The meaning and purpose of the question in Ecc 1:3 is to inquire as to the profit of all labor and worry which we see about us as touching the chief good, but does not mean that labor is not profitable in its proper place. (Cf. Gen 2:15 ; Gen 3:19 ; Pro 14:23 ).
There is a beautiful parallel to Ecc 1:4 in modern literature, viz: “The Brook” by Tennyson. The stanza that sounds so much like this is as follows: And out again I curve and flow To join the brimming river, For men may come and men may go, But I go on forever.
The sun, wind, and rivers in their endless courses (Ecc 1:5-7 ) are illustrations of the meaning of the text from the material world. The monotony of all this is expressed in Ecc 1:8 , thus: “All things are full of weariness; man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”
The meaning of Ecc 1:9-10 is that there is no new source of happiness (the subject in question) which can be devised, the same round of pleasures, cares, business, and study being repeated over and over again; that in the nature of things, there is no new thing which might give us hope of attaining that satisfaction that hitherto things have not afforded.
Ecc 1:11 is an explanation of Ecc 1:9-10 and means that some things are thought to be new which are not really so because of the imperfect records of the past. This seems to hedge against the objection that there are many inventions and discoveries unknown to former ages by showing that the records do not preserve all these inventions for the present generation and therefore they are only thought to be new. The methods applied in this search for the chief good are wisdom, pleasure, great works, riches, and a golden mean. The author claims for himself in Ecc 1:12-17 that he was king over Israel in Jerusalem and that he had applied himself in search of all that was done under heaven, to find that it was a sore travail which God had permitted the sons of men to be exercised with; that he had seen all the works done under the sun and found them all vanity and a striving after wind; that he had found many crooked things and many things wanting; that he had attained to greater wisdom than all others before him in Jerusalem and had applied it to know madness and folly, to find this, too, to be a striving after wind. The final result of it all is given in Ecc 1:18 , thus: “For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”
The experiment described in Ecc 2:1-3 is the test of worldly pleasure, with the result that it, too, was vanity. Then in Ecc 2:4-11 he gives his experience in the pursuit of great works; he built houses, planted vineyards) made gardens and parks, planted trees, made pools of water, bought servants of all kinds, gathered silver and gold, provided a great orchestra for his entertainment, in fact, had everything his eyes desired and tried to find in them joy and comfort, but upon due reflection, he found this, too, a striving after the wind and to no profit under the sun.
In Ecc 2:12-17 we have his comparison between wisdom and folly, with the result that wisdom far excels folly or pleasure, yet the same thing happens to the fool and to the wise man, viz: both die and are forgotten. So he was made to hate life because his work was grievous and a striving after wind. There is ground for the hatred of labor because he must die and leave it to another (Ecc 2:18-23 ). The reference in Ecc 2:19 is to Rehoboam; Solomon evidently suspected his course. Therefore, the conclusion of Ecc 2:24 is that there is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink) and to make his soul enjoy his labor, but the thought (Ecc 2:24-25 f) that it is all from God and that it is all subject to God’s disposal, knocks it over.
In Ecc 3:1-5:9 we have the elements that limit:
I. The Divine Elements are,
1. The law of opportunes (Ecc 3:1-8 )
2. The eternity in our hearts (Ecc 3:9-11 a)
3. The finiteness of man’s nature (Ecc 3:11 b)
4. The laws of God are infrangible (Ecc 3:14 )
II. The Human Elements are,
1. Iniquity in the place of justice (Ecc 3:16 )
2. The oppression of the poor (Ecc 4:1 )
3. Labor and skill actuated only by rivalry with the neighbor (Ecc 4:4 )
4. The elements of weakness in human worship (Ecc 5:1-7 )
On the law of opportunes, will say that we have to work under this law all the days of our lives. Things must be done in their time or they are a failure.
“God hath put eternity in our hearts” (Ecc 3:11 ) is a great text. This means -that money and worldly things cannot satisfy the yearning of the human heart, which is for eternal things. Therefore, the conclusion in Ecc 3:12 is the same as in Ecc 2:24 , but the God thought knocks it over (Ecc 3:13 ): “Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.”
Ecc 3:14-15 mean that the laws of God are infrangible, i.e., cannot be broken with impunity, and that whoever breaks the laws of the divine limitations him will God break.
It is an awful observation the author cites in Ecc 3:16 . The observation is that iniquity was in the place of justice; that unjust men in court block the way of the righteous if they appeal to them. This is like the parable of the widow and unjust judge. A modification of this thought is found in the divine element, that God will judge the righteous and the wicked (Ecc 3:17 ).
A serious question arises in Ecc 3:18-21 . This is not a proposition but a heart question: Is there a distinction between man and beast? Bunyan represents Pilgrim in this condition when he had advanced far into his pilgrimage: a darkness on either side of the road; here evil spirits would whisper to him and so impress him that he would question as to whether he did not originate the thought himself. Spurgeon found himself in this condition once. The sin of Solomon doubtless was the cause of his questioning; even so it is with us. The conclusion of Ecc 3:22 is a most natural one. If man dies like a beast and that is the end of all for him, then he can do no better than to make the most of this life.
The author records an observation in Ecc 4:1 and a question which arose therefrom. The oppression of the poor and the question arising was a temporary one, as to whether it would not be better to be dead or never to have been born (Ecc 4:2-3 ). following that is an observation with respect to labor and a question which arose from it. The observation was that a man’s labor and skill were actuated only by rivalry with hia neighbor (Ecc 4:4 ) and the question arising from it is this: Is it not better then, just to be a sluggard? (Ecc 4:5-6 ).
Then in Ecc 4:8 we have an illustration of a miserly bachelor who is never satisfied with -his acquired wealth, notwithstanding that there is no one to whom he might leave his wealth at death. I once knew a man in Austin who had no relatives and owned a great deal of Austin, yet he would go across the street to his neighbor’s to warm rather than buy coal. Ecc 4:9-12 is a contrast with the condition of the bachelor and is a wonderful gem of literature, expressing the advantages of co-operation. Two are better than one because they can be mutually helpful to each other. This is the foundation principle of all partnerships, whether for business, war or the home. “A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” In Ecc 4:13-16 we have an illustration of the same principle in the vanity of kings in acquiring great dominion to be turned over to an ungrateful son. There is doubtless a reference here to Solomon himself and his son, Rehoboam. Solomon foresaw the coming of Rehoboam and his people who would not rejoice in their heritage.
The elements of weakness in human worship as noted in Ecc 5:1-7 are lack of due consideration which results in the sacrifice of fools and rash vowing and then not paying the pledge. Here I give an observation: often let their mouths go off half-cocked and then when settlement day comes say before the messenger, “It was an error.” This principle applies in all our general work. For many years I was an agent for different phases of denominational work and handled thousands of dollars for the kingdom enterprises. On many occasions in our conventions pledges were made for some kingdom interest and when I took the matter up with the different ones for collection many of them would not even answer my letters. Then these same ones would come into the convention again and make another pledge and refuse again to pay it. This led me to go through my list of pledges when they were first made and write after each one of these the German word, nix. One would be astonished to go over these lists because of the great number on the list with nix after the name and also because certain ones are in the list whom a credulous person would not suspect. This experience of mine led me to emphasize very strongly this passage in later years: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.”
Another observation is recorded in Ecc 5:8-9 . This relates to the matter of injustice so often wrought in governmental affairs, but we are admonished to remember that the One who is over all regards, and that his purpose in human government is to secure equal rights to all, since the earth is for all, and all, including the king, must be fed from the field.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the meaning of “Vanity of vanities,” in Ecc 1:2 ?
2. What is the meaning and purpose of the question in Ecc 1:3 ?
3. What is parallel to Ecc 1:4 in modern literature, and what stanza especially fits the teaching here?
4. What are the illustrations of the meaning of the text from the material world?
5. How is the monotony of all this expressed in Ecc 1:8 ?
6. What is the meaning of Ecc 1:9-10 ?
7. What is the meaning of “no remembrance” in Ecc 1:11 ?
8. What are the methods applied in this search for the chief good?
9. What claims does the author make for himself in Ecc 1:12-17 and what is the result as expressed in Ecc 1:18 ?
10. What experiment described in Ecc 2:1-3 and what is the result?
11. What experiments described in Ecc 2:4-11 and what is the result?
12. What comparison is in Ecc 2:12-17 and what are the results?
13. What is his reasoning in Ecc 2:18-23 and to whom does the author refer in Ecc 2:19 ?
14. What is the conclusion of Ecc 2:24 and what is the knock over in Ecc 2:24-26 ?
15. In Ecc 3:1-5:9 we have the elements that limit. What are they?
16. What can you say of the law of opportunes?
17. What great text is here and what its meaning?
18. What is the conclusion in Ecc 3:12 and what the knock over in Ecc 3:13 ?
19. What is the meaning and application of Ecc 3:14-15 ?
20. What awful observation does the author cite in Ecc 3:16 and what is the modification in Ecc 3:17 ?
21. What question arises in Ecc 3:18-21 , what parallels to this in modern times, and what is the real cause of this questioning by Solomon?
22. What is the conclusion of Ecc 3:22 ?
23. What is the observation in Ecc 4:1 and what question arose there from?
24. What is the observation with respect to labor and what question arose from it?
25. What is the illustration given in Ecc 4:8 , what is the author’s observation illustrating this verse and what is the author’s reasoning of Ecc 4:9-12 ?
26. What is the illustration of Ecc 4:13-16 and who the persons primarily referred to?
27. What are the elements of weakness in human worship and what is the applicant?
28. What is the observation in Ecc 5:8-9 and what is the divine element that helps again?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Ecc 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all [is] vanity.
Ver. 2. Vanity of vanities. ] Or, Most vain vanity: therefore, no happiness here to be had but in the reverential fear of God, Ecc 12:13 and this is the sum of the whole sermon, the result of the discourse, the impartial verdict brought in by one that could best tell; and he tells it over and over, that men might the sooner believe him, without putting themselves to the fruitless pains of trying any further conclusions. Sin hath hurled confusion over the world, and brought a vanity on the creature. This our first parents found, and therefore named their second son Abel, or vanity. David comes after and confirms it, Psa 144:4 “Adam is as Abel,” a or, “Man is like to vanity.” There is an allusion in the original to their two names: yea, all-Adam is all-Abel, b when he is best underlaid – so the Hebrew hath it c – “Every man at his best estate,” when he is settled upon his best bottom, “is altogether vanity: surely, Selah.” It is so, it is so; you may seal to it. Psa 39:5 But who, alas! hath believed our report? These outward things are so near to us, and so natural to us, that although we can say, nay swear, with the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities,” a heap, a nest of vanities, – It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer, yet, when gone apart, we close with them; albeit, we know they are naught and will come to naught. 1Co 2:6 Neither will it ever be otherwise with us, till, with Fulgentius, we have found, after much trial, the vanity of all earthly triumph; d till, with Gilimer, King of Vandals, led in triumph by Belisarius, we cry out, as here, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”; e till, with Charles V, Emperor of Germany (whom of all men the world judged most happy), we cry out with detestation to all our honours, pleasures, trophies, riches, f Abite hinc, abite longe, Get you hence, let me hear no more of you.
a Adam is Abel’s mate.
b Omnis Adam est totus Abel.
c Nitsub, fundatus, constitutus.
d Fulgentius triumphos Romanos ludosve cum spectarit appellavit vanitatem.
e Procop., lib. ii., de bello Vand.
f Philip. Morn.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Vanity of vanities. Figure of speech Polyptoton. Note also the Figure of speech Epanadiplosis (App-6), by which Ecc 1:2 begins and ends with the same word. These Figures are used for the greatest emphasis, and denote utter vanity.
all = the whole, or “the sum total”. Not everything in the universe, but all the human labours of Ecc 1:3, Ecc 1:8.
vanity. Heb habal, used of that which soon vanishes.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Vanity
“Vanity,” in Ecclesiastes, and usually in Scripture, means, not foolish pride, but the emptiness in final result of all life apart from God. It is to be born, to toil, to suffer, to experience some transitory joy, which is as nothing in view of eternity, to leave it all, and to die. See Rom 8:20-22.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Ecc 2:11, Ecc 2:15, Ecc 2:17, Ecc 2:19, Ecc 2:21, Ecc 2:23, Ecc 2:26, Ecc 3:19, Ecc 4:4, Ecc 4:8, Ecc 4:16, Ecc 5:10, Ecc 6:11, Ecc 11:8, Ecc 11:10, Ecc 12:8, Psa 39:5, Psa 39:6, Psa 62:9, Psa 62:10, Psa 144:4, Rom 8:20
Reciprocal: Gen 3:17 – cursed Est 5:13 – Yet all this Psa 78:33 – years Psa 119:96 – I have seen Pro 23:5 – that which Pro 30:8 – Remove Ecc 6:9 – this Ecc 7:27 – saith Jer 2:13 – broken cisterns Act 25:23 – with 1Ti 2:7 – a preacher
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Ecc 1:2. Vanity, &c. Not only vain, but vanity in the abstract, which denotes extreme vanity. Saith the Preacher Upon deep consideration and long experience, and by divine inspiration. This verse contains the general proposition, which he intends particularly to demonstrate in the following book. All All worldly things; is vanity Not in themselves, for they are Gods creatures, and therefore good in their kinds, but in reference to that happiness which men seek and expect to find in them. So they are unquestionably vain, because they are not what they seem to be, and perform not what they promise, but, instead of that, are the occasions of innumerable cares, and fears, and sorrows, and mischiefs. Nay, they are not only vanity, but vanity of vanities, the vainest vanity, vanity in the highest degree. And this is redoubled, because the thing is certain, beyond all possibility of dispute.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 1:2-11 may be called an introduction to the book; it also presents the writers conclusions. He has surveyed life from many angles and decided that all human effort is fruitless and unavailing, or as he puts it, vanity. This is his key-word (the Hebrew means vapour, breath, and so nothingness): it occurs forty times.Vanity of vanities is the Heb. way of saying utmost vanity. Man toils under the sun, i.e. upon the earth, but reaps no gain; like players on a stage the ever-changing generations come and go, while the earth, mans scene of toil, abides. As with man so with nature; sun, winds (north and south, cf. Ca. Ecc 4:16), streams, all pursue a dreary round of endless repetition and accomplish nothing, e.g. the sea is never filled. The whole creation groans and travails but makes no ascent, and its futile activities so react on man that his faculties, e.g. seeing and hearing, enter on equally profitless and unsatisfying orbits. Everything moves in monotonous and steady cycles, there is no novelty in life (cf. Ecc 3:15), but men do not perceive the repetition because each generation is ignorant of the experiences of preceding generationsthere is no remembrance (cf. Ecc 9:5).
Ecc 1:5. hasteth: lit. panteth. The idea is that of the chariot of the sun drawn by panting steeds. 2Ki 23:11 shows that the Hebrews as well as Greeks and Romans had this notion.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
1:2 {b} Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all [is] vanity.
(b) He condemns the opinions of all men who set happiness in anything but in God alone, seeing that in this world all things are as vanity and nothing.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. The theme 1:2
"Solomon has put the key to Ecclesiastes right at the front door: ’Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?’ (Ecc 1:2-3). Just in case we missed it, he put the same key at the back door (Ecc 12:8)." [Note: Warren W. Wiersbe, "Ecclesiastes," in The Bible Exposition Commentary/Wisdom and Poetry, p. 478.]
"Vanity" (Heb. hebel) probably does not mean "meaningless." As Solomon used this word in Ecclesiastes he meant lacking real substance, value, permanence, or significance. [Note: Hebel appears 38 times in Ecclesiastes and only 35 other times elsewhere in the Old Testament. In 13 of these passages the word describes idols.] "Vapor," "breath-like," or "ephemeral" captures the idea (cf. Pro 21:6; Isa 57:13). [Note: See Kathleen A. Farmer, Who Knows What Is Good? A Commentary on the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, pp. 142-46; Graham S. Ogden, Qoheleth, pp. 17-22; and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, p. 219.] One writer favored the words "absurd" or "absurdity." [Note: See Michael V. Fox, "The Meaning of Hebel for Qoheleth," Journal of Biblical Literature 105:3 (September 1986):409-27.]
"It appears to imply here both (1) that which is transitory, and (2) that which is futile. It emphasizes how swiftly earthly things pass away, and how little they offer while one has them (cf. Jas 4:14)." [Note: Laurin, p. 586.]
"You think you have all the dishes washed and from a bedroom or a bathroom there appears, as from a ghost, another dirty glass. And even when all the dishes are washed, it is only a few hours until they demand washing again. So much of our work is cyclical, and so much of it futile." [Note: David A. Hubbard, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, p. 48.]
"All" in the context of what he proceeded to describe refers to all human endeavors (cf. Ecc 1:3). David Hubbard understood it in a slightly different way.
"Hebel stands more for human inability to grasp the meaning of God’s way than for an ultimate emptiness in life. It speaks of human limitation and frustration caused by the vast gap between God’s knowledge and power and our relative ignorance and impotence. The deepest issues of lasting profit, of enlightening wisdom, of ability to change life’s workings, of confidence that we have grasped the highest happiness-all these are beyond our reach in Koheleth’s view." [Note: Ibid., pp. 21-22.]
The phrase "is vanity" is the most popular one in Ecclesiastes (cf. Ecc 1:14; Ecc 2:1; Ecc 2:11; Ecc 2:15; Ecc 2:17; Ecc 2:19; Ecc 2:21; Ecc 2:23; Ecc 2:26; Ecc 3:19; Ecc 4:4; Ecc 4:7-8; Ecc 4:16; Ecc 5:7; Ecc 5:10; Ecc 6:2; Ecc 6:4; Ecc 6:9; Ecc 6:11-12; Ecc 7:6; Ecc 7:15; Ecc 8:10; Ecc 8:14; Ecc 9:9; Ecc 11:8; Ecc 11:10; Ecc 12:8. [Note: See H. Carl Shank, "Qoheleth’s World and Life View as Seen in His Recurring Phrases," Westminster Theological Journal 37 (1974):65-67.] It forms an inclusio with Ecc 12:8 surrounding the evidence that Solomon offered to prove that all is vanity.
This verse contains Solomon’s "big idea" or proposition. It is the point he proceeded to support, prove, and apply in the chapters that follow. Some writers, however, believed there is no logical development in the writer’s thought. [Note: E.g., Svend Holm-Nielsen, "The Book of Ecclesiastes and the Interpretation of It in Jewish and Christian Theology," Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute 10 (1976):48.] Pro 1:7 is such a statement in that book. This is the first hint that Solomon’s viewpoint includes "exclusively the world we can observe, and that our observation point is at ground level." [Note: Derek Kidner, The Message of Ecclesiastes: A Time to Mourn, and a Time to Dance, p. 23. See also Edwin M. Good, "The Unfilled Sea: Style and Meaning in Ecclesiastes 1:2-11," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien, pp. 59-73.]
"Because it apparently contradicts other portions of Scripture and presents a pessimistic outlook on life, in a mood of existential despair, many have viewed Ecclesiastes as running counter to the rest of Scripture or have concluded that is [sic] presents only man’s reasoning apart from divine revelation." [Note: Roy B. Zuck, "A Theology of the Wisdom Books and the Song of Songs," in A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, p. 243. This essay also contains studies of the doctrines of God (pp. 246-47) and man (pp. 248-51) in Ecclesiastes. See also idem, "God and Man in Ecclesiastes," Bibliotheca Sacra 148:589 (January-March 1991):46-56, which is an adaptation of the former essay.]
". . . it is no exaggeration to say that there may be less agreement about the interpretation of Koheleth than there is about any other biblical book, even the Revelation of John!" [Note: Hubbard, p. 23.]