Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 3:19
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity.
19. that which befalleth the sons of men ] More accurately, chance are the sons of men; chance is the beast; one chance is to both of them. The thought is emphasized by the threefold iteration of the depressing word. As so often throughout the book, we have an echo, almost a verbal translation, of a Greek saying. So Solon had said to Crsus in a discourse which breathes the very spirit of Ecclesiastes (Herod. i. 32), (“man is altogether a chance”).
as the one dieth, so dieth the other ] The words are not without a partial parallel in the more devotional literature of Israel. The writer of Psalms 49 had given utterance to the thought “man that is in honour is like the beasts that perish.” With him, however, this was affirmed only of those that “trust in their wealth,” the triumphant, self-indulgent evildoers, and it was balanced by the belief that “God would redeem” his soul “from the power of the grave.” Here the same thought is generalised in the tones of a half cynical despair, all the more striking if we assume that the belief in immortality, as afterwards developed in the creed of Pharisaism, was at the time gaining a more definite form among the writer’s countrymen. It may be traceable either to the reaction against the germs of Pharisaism which was afterwards represented by the Sadducees, or, as seems more probable from the general tone and character of the book, to the influence of the Greek thought, such as was embodied in the teaching of Epicurus and Pyrrho, with which the writer had come in contact.
yea, they have all one breath ] The word is the same as the “spirit” of verse Ecc 3:19, and seems deliberately chosen with reference to the record of Gen 2:7. The writer asks, What after all was that “breath of life?” Was there not a like “breath of life” in every beast of the field? It is significant that this is the only passage in the Old Testament in which the word is used definitely for the living principle of brutes, though we find it in Gen 6:17; Gen 7:15; Gen 7:22; Psa 104:30 for the life which is common both to them and man. Commonly, as in Job 12:10; Job 32:8, it is contrasted with the “soul” which represents their lower life.
a man hath no preeminence above a beast ] This then was the conclusion to which the thinker was led by the materialism which he had imbibed from his Greek or Sadducean teachers. Put aside the belief in the prolongation of existence after death, that what has been begun here may be completed, and what has gone wrong here may be set right, and man is but a more highly organised animal, the “cunningest of Nature’s clocks” (to use Huxley’s phrase), and the high words which men speak as to his greatness are found hollow. They too are “vanity.” He differs from the brutes around him only, or chiefly, in having, what they have not, the burden of unsatisfied desires, the longing after an eternity which after all is denied him.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ecc 3:19-21
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts.
Man and beast
It is difficult to determine the exact object of Ecclesiastes in instituting this comparison: partly because the Hebrew is capable, in one or two places, of different translations; and partly because it is possible to take very different views of the connection between the two things which Ecclesiastes had said in his heart. One view which may be taken of this connection is that Ecclesiastes, having recorded his conviction that the righteous God will yet judge between the righteous and the wicked, goes on to record how he had speculated as to the reason why God does not always execute this judgment here and now. It had occurred to him that the reason of this might be to prove or test men, and to show them that, in and of themselves, they were liable to degenerate into a mere animal life. There is for man both probation and self-revelation in the fact that God does not visit all wickedness with immediate and manifest punishment. If a man thrusts his hand into the fire it is at once burnt: the suffering follows immediately on the action, and the man is not likely to do the same thing again. Now, if all violations of the moral law were followed likewise by such immediate and manifest consequences, there might be a test of human prudence, but there would scarcely be any test of human virtue. If, for example, every man who should commit an act of dishonesty were–at once and without fail–to be stricken with paralysis, there would be no more virtue in honesty than there is now in keeping ones hand out of the fire. But the fact that God often postpones the manifest punishment of iniquity, and allows wicked men sometimes even to trample upon the righteous with apparent impunity, affords a test of moral character, and leaves room for the exercise of virtues which are the result, not of mere prudence, but of an actual allegiance to God and righteousness. And this kind of probation, to which men are subjected, becomes an instrument of self-revelation. Men see how much of the animal there is in their nature. The spirit of man, indeed, goeth upward at death; and the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth: but who knoweth the exact difference between the two? The difference of destination does not make itself manifest to the senses. To all outward appearance the dissolution of the man and of the beast is exactly the same kind of thing; the human being does not appear to have any pre-eminence in this respect over the mere animal. Now, all these circumstances and appearances put men to the proof; they test men as to whether they will allow themselves to sink down into a mare animal, selfish life, or whether they will follow those Divine inspirations which link them to God, beckon them to righteousness, and point them to immortality. But there is another and very different view which may be taken of the passage. According to this view, Ecclesiastes is here recording a mood of materialistic scepticism through which he had passed. The two things which he had said in his heart were like the two voices of Tennysons poem–voices conflicting with one another for the mastery, and plunging the soul for a time into doubt and perplexity (verse 21, R.V.). Supposing this, then, to be the real drift of the passage before us, we surely need not be surprised that Ecclesiastes, in presence of the problems of life, should have passed through some such mood of materialistic scepticism. But it would seem that Ecclesiastes did not remain permanently in this sceptical attitude. We may regard him as here telling his readers what he had said in his heart about man and beast: he is not necessarily endorsing it at the time when he writes this book. On the contrary, it would appear from other passages that he was now clinging to the assurance that God would yet judge between righteous and wicked men, and that the spirit of man does not perish at death. Now, if Ecclesiastes could thus, with the light he had, arrive at the final conviction that the human spirit survives the dissolution of the body, surely we, in the fuller light of the Christian revelation, may well overcome the chilling doubts which may sometimes creep in upon our souls. Events, indeed, sometimes occur in the providence of God, which utterly baffle our understanding, and which seem almost to deal with men as if they were mere animals. Catastrophes happen, in which men seem to be taken as if they were fishes of the sea. The most brilliant thinker suddenly meets with a blow on the head which robs him, for a time, of all power of thought. Such things as these may stagger us. But we recover faith when we look to Jesus Christ as the Light of the World, and the Revealer of the Father. He who gave His Son to die for us, and who has led us to trust in His own fatherly love will not let us go down into nothingness. He who died for us and rose again has shown Himself to be the conqueror of death; and, because He lives, we shall live also. Glorying in His character and cross, and receiving into our hearts somewhat of His own spirit, we become conscious of thoughts, motives, and aspirations which raise us above our mere animal nature and contain within themselves the earnest of immortality. (T. C. Finlayson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts] From the present comparison of great men to beasts, the author takes occasion to enforce the subject by mentioning the state of mankind in general, with respect to the mortality of their bodies; and then, by an easy transition, touches in the next verse on the point which is of such infinite consequence to religion.
As the one dieth, so dieth the other] Animal life is the same both in the man and in the beast.
They have all one breath] They respire in the same way; and when they cease to respire, animal life becomes extinct.
Befalleth beasts – This is wanting in six of Kennicott’s and De Rossi’s MSS.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Befalleth beasts; they are subject to the same diseases, pains, and casualties.
So dieth the other; as certainly, and no less painfully.
One breath; one breath of life, which is in their nostrils; one and the same living soul, by which the beasts perform the same vital and animal operations. For he speaks not here of mans rational and immortal spirit, nor of the future life.
A man hath no pre-eminence above a beast, in respect of the present life and sensible things. Nay, the beasts have quicker senses than men, and therefore enjoy more pleasure in those things, and that with less dangers and mischief, than men do.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. Literally, “For thesons of men (Adam) are a mere chance, as also the beast is amere chance.” These words can only be the sentiments of theskeptical oppressors. God’s delay in judgment gives scope for the”manifestation” of their infidelity (Ecc 8:11;Psa 55:19; 2Pe 3:3;2Pe 3:4). They are “brutebeasts,” morally (Ecc 3:18;Jdg 1:10); and they end bymaintaining that man, physically, has no pre-eminence over the beast,both alike being “fortuities.” Probably this was thelanguage of Solomon himself in his apostasy. He answers it in Ec3:21. If Ecc 3:19; Ecc 3:20be his words, they express only that as regards liabilityto death, excluding the future judgment, as the skepticoppressors do, man is on a level with the beast. Life is “vanity,”if regarded independently of religion. But Ec3:21 points out the vast difference between them in respect tothe future destiny; also (Ec 3:17)beasts have no “judgment” to come.
breathvitality.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts,…. Aben Ezra says this verse is according to the thoughts of the children of men that are not wise; but rather the wise man says what he does according to his own thoughts, and proceeds to prove the likeness and equality of men and beasts;
even one thing befalleth them; the same events belong to one as to another; the same diseases and disasters, calamities and distresses: Noah’s flood carried away one as well as another; they both perished in it; several of the plagues of Egypt were inflicted on both; and both are beholden to God for their health, preservation, and safety; see Ge 7:21;
as the one dieth, so dieth the other; the Targum compares a wicked man and an unclean beast together, in the former clause; and paraphrases this after this manner,
“as an unclean beast dies, so dies he who is not turned to repentance before his death:”
he dies unclean in his sins, stupid, senseless; no more thoughtful of his future state, and of what will become of his precious and immortal soul, than a beast that has none; see Ps 49:14; perhaps unjust judges, persecuting tyrants, may particularly be regarded: who, though princes, shall not only die like men, but even like beasts, Ps 82:7;
yea, they have all one breath; the same vital breath, or breath of life, which is in the nostrils of the one as of the other; they breathe and draw in the same air, and have the same animal and vegetative life, and equally liable to lose it, Ge 2:7;
so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: he has reason and speech, which a beast has not; which gives him a preference to them, did he make a right use of them; but, as an animal, he has no preeminence, being liable to the same accidents, and to death itself: the Targum excepts the house of the grave, man being usually buried when he dies, but a beast is not: yea, in some things a beast has the preeminence of a man; at least some have, in strength, agility, quickness of the senses, c.
for all [is] vanity all the gratifications of the senses; all riches, honours, pleasures, power, and authority, especially when abused.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“For the children of men are a chance, and the beast a chance, and they both have once chance: as the death of the one, so that death of the other, and they have all one breath; and there is no advantage to a man over a beast, for all is vain.” If in both instances the word is pointed (lxx), the three-membered sentence would then have the form of an emblematical proverb (as e.g., Pro 25:25): “For as the chance of men, so ( vav of comparison) the chance of the beast; they have both one chance.” with segol cannot possibly be the connecting form (Luzz.), for in cases such as , Isa 3:24, the relation of the words is appositional, not genitival. This form , thus found three times, is vindicated by the Targ. (also the Venet.) and by Mss.; Joseph Kimchi remarks that “all three have segol, and are thus forms of the absolutus .” The author means that men, like beasts, are in their existence and in their death influenced accidentally, i.e., not of necessity, and are wholly conditioned, not by their own individual energy, but by a power from without – are dependent beings, as Solon (Herod. i. 32) says to Croesus: “Man is altogether ,” i.e., the sport of accident. The first two sentences mean exclusively neither that men (apart from God) are, like beasts, the birth of a blind accident (Hitz.), nor that they are placed under the same law of transitoriness (Elst.); but of men, in the totality of their being, and doing, and suffering, it is first said that they are accidental beings; then, that which separates them from this, that they all, men like beasts, are finally exposed to one, i.e., to the same fate. As is the death of one, so is the death of the other; and they all have one breath, i.e., men and beasts alike die, for this breath of life ( , which constitutes a beast – as well as a man a ) departs from the body (Psa 104:29). In … (as at Ecc 6:5; Exo 14:20, and frequently), (mas. as genus potius) is separately referred to men and beasts. With the Mishnic = bibl. (cf. Maaser Sheni, v. 2), the here used has manifestly nothing to do. The noun , which in the Book of Proverbs (Pro 14:23; Pro 21:5, not elsewhere) occurs in the sense of profit, gain, is here in the Book of Koheleth found as a synon. of , “preference,” advantage which is exclusively peculiar to it. From this, that men and beasts fall under the same law of death, the author concludes that there is no preference of a man to a beast; he doubtless means that in respect of the end man has no superiority; but he expresses himself thus generally because, as the matter presented itself to him, all-absorbing death annulled every distinction. He looks only to the present time, without encumbering himself with the historical account of the matter found in the beginning of the Tra; and he adheres to the external phenomenon, without thinking, with the Psalmist in Ps 49, that although death is common to man with the beast, yet all men do not therefore die as the beast does. That the beast dies because it must, but that in the midst of this necessity of nature man can maintain his freedom, is for him out of view. , the , which at last falls to man as well as to the beast, throws its long dark shadows across his mind, and wholly shrouds it.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
CRITICAL NOTES.
Ecc. 3:22. For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?] Man cannot tell what God will do in the future with all his earthly circumstanceshow far, in the great future, they will be modified or destroyed. Hence riches, &c., must have many elements of uncertainty. Therefore enjoy the present.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Ecc. 3:19-22
THE DOUBT OF IMMORTALITY
There are times when the most assured truths are questioned. The Royal Preacher assumes the sceptic, and allows the appearances of things to cast on him the dismal shadow of doubt.
I. This doubt may arise from the identity of the outward conditions both of man and the lower animals. In the features of their physical existence, they are so much alike that one may be tempted to predict for them a common fatetotal extinction at death.
1. They appear to be both alike under the dominion of chance. (Ecc. 3:19.) Befallethi.e., they are mere chance, in the sense of being subject to it. They have not the free determination of their own lot. We apply the term chance to describe those occurrences whose causes are obscure. Those things upon which life mostly depends are wholly out of the power alike of men and beasts. They both appear to be the sport of innumerable chances.
2. Both are informed by the same principle of life. (Ecc. 3:19.) One breath. In the essential qualities of physical life, our nature can boast no pre-eminence. The beasts, like ourselves, are supported by the products of the earth, and draw the vital air. They follow the same analogy of physical construction. They are liable to disease, danger, and accident.
3. They have both the same origin and destiny. As far as outward appearance is concerned, no difference can be detected in the two extremes of their existence. They all come from the dust, and return to the dust again.
II. This doubt is strengthened by our complete ignorance of a future life. (Ecc. 3:21.) We may, indeed, speak of the spirit of man going upward, and the spirit of the beast going downward, yet the difference is too subtle to be easily discerned. Who knoweth? In the absence of any certain information, who can make a positive assertion?
1. We have no experience of a superior life for man. Knowledge does increase through ages, but humanity has gathered no experience of any life beyond this world. No one has returned from the other shores of life to tell the mysterious secret. The eternal silence of the grave strengthens doubt.
2. Human reason is powerless to give us any assurance of such a life. Reason may give us probable grounds for believing that there may be such a destiny for man, but it cannot give us a certainty. We may reason ourselves, almost with equal facility, into a belief for or against immortality. And in the similarity of the fates both of men and beasts, it is hard to discover the difference. There are times when the sense of immortality is not strong.
3. Some have accepted materialism as a doctrine. The blank ignorance of man upon the subject, together with appearances, have led them to adopt the dismal creed of hopeless extinction in the grave. Consider the wail of despair which marks some of the ancient poetry. St. Paul tells us the heathen had no hope. The very existence of doubt implies that there is some evidence on the other side of the question.
III. This doubt ought not to interfere with the enjoyment of the present. In the darkest seasons of doubt, there are some manifest duties. Whatever be our fate when life is ended, some clear path lies before us now. Man can enjoy his portion.
1. The present life affords scope for such enjoyment. No one thought, however tremendous or awful it may be, can ever be present to the mind. The short tenure of existence here, the dread certainty of death, does not prevent mankind from enjoying the present world.
2. No other arrangement will be made for man in this life. (Ecc. 3:22.) That is his portion; when he has once departed from life, he cannot enjoy it again. Each life is a measured portion once for all.
3. We are unable either to command or to look into the future. A man cannot tell what shall be after him, even in his own immediate circle. He cannot shape the future according to his own views or wishes. It is vain for a man to trouble himself much regarding that over which he can have no command, and which is hopelessly concealed from him.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecc. 3:19. If one questioned the eyes and judgment without listening to the Word of God, human life would appear to be governed by mere chance to such an extent that men would seem to be, as it were, like a great ant-hill, and like ants to be crushed. But the revelation of the Divine Word must be placed in contrast with this appearance [Melanchthon].
In building up the science of material things we learn to correct appearancesthe reports of senseby the convictions of reason. So the dark and melancholy appearances of life around us must be corrected by the light of faith.
On this, the human side of life, all is seeming confusion, as if chance and accident held dominion. He who looks no further has sufficient occasion for doubt and denial. We cannot see life clearly unless we see it in Gods light.
The anatomist can only examine the structure of the organs of physical life. The immortal creature cannot be investigated by the scalpel.
The sense discovers, both in man and beast, the same wave of life beating to and fro. He who only regards the physical part of our nature may believe, without difficulty, that the same dark fate is reserved for both.
Ecc. 3:20. The lowly origin and destiny of the material part of our nature should bea motive for humilitya rebuke to arrogancea reason for seeking the imperishable.
It is but one place, there be no upper and lower places in death; but how different soever the places of men may be while they lived, when they die, they are all in the same place; yea, beasts are in the same place with the wisest, the richest, and the greatest men. And there indeed is their journeys end [Jermin].
All that live are borne onwards by an irresistible decree, from dust to dust.
The degradation to which our physical nature must come when life is ended is a sore trial to faith. It seems as if we lose existence then. Faith, in seeking to grasp eternal life, has, after all, to leap a precipice.
Ecc. 3:21. Mans superior destiny in the great future, is a truth not unattainable, yet still difficult to be known. It has been hid from many, and by others has been obscured by sensuality, and devotion to this present world.
The common eye cannot trace human existence beyond the last scene of all. The image of Gods immortality stamped upon man cannot be discerned on this side of life, yet faith gets a glimpse thereof as reflected in the mirror of Gods word.
The philosophers were much turmoiled and very busy in seeking after the nature of the soul. Tertullian describes them as in a wood, wherein if they saw any light of truth, it is only glimpses of it through the thick trees of ignorance and errors; and wherein if any shall seek for the truth, he shall seek it in a wood. Surely there is no better manifester of the soul than He who is the Maker of it, and that is God Himself [Jermin].
Can anything be more marvellous or startling, unless we were used to it, than that we should have a race of beings about us whom we do but see, and as little know their state, or can describe their interests or their destiny, as we can tell the inhabitants of the sun and moon? We have more real knowledge about the angels than about the brutes. They have apparently passions, habits, and a certain accountableness, but all is mystery about them. We do not know whether they can sin or not, whether they are under punishment, whether they are to live after this life Is it not plain to our senses that there is a world inferior to us in the scale of beings, with which we are connected without understanding what it is? [J. H. Newman.]
Ecc. 3:22. Only the moment that we live in life is our possession. Every hour lived sinks irrevocably into the sea of the past; the future is uncertain. Therefore is he a fool who lets the present slip by unused, wastes it in vain amusement, or grieves with useless lamentations [Wohlfarth].
It is our duty to do the best with that which lies to hand, and not consume ourselves with vain longings after an ideal state. We must accept the conditions of our earthly existence as a fact, and we ought to lighten their burden by the spirit of joy.
With a firm conviction of the duty which the present demands, the tasks of life, though in themselves grievous, may be set to the music of the soul.
No second lease of life will be granted us. We should therefore act well in the present, so that we might await with confidence the mysterious crown of eternity.
The future is all uncertain. We cannot forecast history; or, to come closer home, that smaller portion of it interwoven with our own life and labours. Yet we may be assured that if we are good and true, the future hides nothing in it that can vanquish or distress us.
Within the vague and solemn mystery which rounds our little life here, there is yet some room for cheerfulness, contentment, and hope.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(19) That which befalleth.The word translated event in Ecc. 2:13 (where see Note).
Breath.The same word as spirit (Ecc. 3:21; Gen. 7:15; Psa. 104:30).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. That which befalleth men befalleth beasts Hebrew, very forcibly, Man is a chance, and a beast is a chance, and the same chance is upon them both. Both have a perishable body and a flickering breath. The identity of man and beast in their slender hold upon life, and the irreparable nature of their death, is here very strongly put.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity.
Ver. 19. For that which befalleth the sons of men. ] As hunger, thirst, heat, cold, diseases, aches, and other ill accidents.
As the one dieth.
Yea, they have all one breath.
So that a man hath no pre-eminence.
“ Nos aper auditu praecellit, aranea tactu,
Vultur odoratu, lynx visu, simia gustu. ”
a Labentem texit pietas.
that which befalleth. See note on “event”, Ecc 2:14; and App-76.
one thing: i.e. death.
one breath = one spirit. Hebrew. ruach. App-9. Compare Gen 2:7 with Gen 1:20, Gen 1:21, Gen 1:24, Gen 1:30; and App-13.
no preeminence, &c. Compare Psa 49:12, Psa 49:20; Psa 146:4.
that which: Ecc 2:16, Psa 49:12, Psa 49:20, Psa 92:6, Psa 92:7
as the: 2Sa 14:14, Job 14:10-12, Psa 104:29
for: Ecc 2:20-23, Psa 39:5, Psa 39:6, Psa 89:47, Psa 89:48
Reciprocal: Job 14:12 – So man Ecc 1:2 – General Ecc 5:10 – this Ecc 6:11 – General 1Co 15:55 – is thy victory
Ecc 3:19. For that which befalleth, &c. They are subject to the same diseases, pains, and casualties. So dieth the other As certainly, and no less painfully. They have all one breath One breath of life, which is in their nostrils; by which the beasts perform the same animal functions. For he speaks not here of mans rational and immortal spirit, nor of the future life. So that a man hath no pre-eminence, &c. In respect of the present life.
3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing {i} befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity.
(i) Man is not able by his reason and judgment to put differences between man and beast, as concerning those things to which both are subject: for the eye cannot judge any otherwise of a man being dead than of a beast, which is dead: yet by the word of God and faith we easily know the diversity as in Ecc 3:21.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes