Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 5:9
Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king [himself] is served by the field.
9. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all ] The verse is difficult and has been very variously interpreted. The most satisfactory renderings follow: But the profit of a land every way is a king for the field under tillage, or, as some take the words, a king devoted to the field. In either case the main sense is the same. The writer contrasts the misery of the Oriental government of his time with the condition of Judah under the model kings who gave themselves chiefly to the development of the resources of the country by agriculture, such e.g. as Uzziah who “loved husbandry” (2Ch 26:10). This gives, it is obvious, a much better sense than the rendering that “the king is served by the field” or “is subject to the field,” i.e. dependent on it. Assuming the Alexandrian origin of the book, we may perhaps see in the maxim a gentle hint to the Ptolemy of the time being to improve his agricultural administration and to foster the growing export-trade in corn.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The king himself is served by the field – Rather, the king is subject to the field, i. e., is dependent on its cultivation. The higher ranks, if they oppress the lower, lose thereby their own means of subsistence.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. The profit of the earth is for all] The earth, if properly cultivated, is capable of producing food for every living creature; and without cultivation none has a right to expect bread.
The king himself is served by the field.] Without the field he cannot have supplies for his own house; and, unless agriculture flourish, the necessary expenses of the state cannot be defrayed. Thus, God joins the head and feet together; for while the peasant is protected by the king as executor of the laws, the king himself is dependent on the peasant; as the wealth of the nation is the fruit of the labourer’s toil.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The profit of the earth, the fruits procured from the earth by the skill and labour of the husbandman, is for all; are necessary and beneficial to all men whatsoever. The wise man, after some interruption, returns to his former subject, to discourse of the vanity of great riches, one argument or evidence whereof he seems to mention in this verse, to wit, that the poor labourer enjoyeth the fruits of the earth as well as the greatest monarch, and that the richest man in the world depends as much upon them as the poorest.
Is served by the field; is supported by the fruits of the field; or, as many others render it, serves or is a servant to the field, depends upon it, is obliged to see that his fields be tilled and dressed, that he may have subsistence for himself, and for his servants and subjects.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. “The profit (produce) ofthe earth is (ordained) for (the common good of) all: even the kinghimself is served by (the fruits of) the field” (2Ch26:10). Therefore the common Lord of all, high and low, willpunish at last those who rob the “poor” of their share init (Pro 22:22; Pro 22:23;Amo 8:4-7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Moreover, the profit of the earth is for all,…. Or, “the excellency of the earth in” or “above all things [is] this” y; that God most high rules over all the earth, and is higher than the kings of it, and all oppressors in it; or in all respects there is a preference, a superior excellency in the country as opposed to the city, especially in this, that there are not so many tumults, riots, and oppressions there; though this is mostly understood of the preference and superior excellency of agriculture, or tillage of the earth. So the Targum,
“the excellency of the praise of tilling the earth is above all things:”
and to the same purpose Jarchi and Aben Ezra; and the profit arising from it is enjoyed by all; it is for all, even the beasts of the field have grass from hence, as well as man has bread corn, and all other necessaries;
the king [himself] is served by the field; his table is served with bread corn, and flesh, and wine, and fruits of various sorts, the produce of the earth, which spring from it, or are nourished by it; were it not for husbandry the king himself and his family could not subsist; and therefore it becomes kings to encourage it, and not oppress those who are employed in it: or “the king [is a] servant to the field” z; some kings have addicted themselves to husbandry, and been great lovers of it, as Uzziah was, 2Ch 26:10; and some of the Chinese emperors, as their histories a show; and the kings of Persia b: Vulcan, in the shield of Achilles, represented the reapers, gatherers, and binders of sheaves at work in the field, and a king standing among the sheaves with a sceptre in his hand, looking on with great pleasure, while a dinner is prepared by his orders for the workmen c; many of the Roman generals, and high officers, were called from the plough, particularly Cincinnatus d; and these encouraged husbandry in their subjects, as well as took care of their own farms. There is another sense of the words given, besides many more;
“and the most excellent Lord of the earth (that is, the most high God) is the King of every field that is tilled; (that is, the King of the whole habitable world;) or the King Messiah, Lord of his field, the church, and who is the most eminent in all the earth e.”
The Midrash interprets it of the holy blessed God.
y “et praestantia terrae in omnibus ipsa”, Montanus; “porro excellentia terrae prae omnibus est”, Vatablus; “et praecellentia terrae in omnibus est”, Gejerus. z “rex agro sit servus”, Montanus, Piscator, Gejerus; “rex agro servit”, Mercerus, so some in Drusius. a Vid. Martin. Sinic. Histor. l. 2. p. 36. & l. 4. p. 92. & l. 3. p. 287. b Xenophon. Oeconom. p. 482. c Homer. Iliad. 18. v. 550-558. d Flor. Hist. Roman. l. 1. c. 11. e So Schmidt Rambachius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The author, on the other hand, now praises the patriarchal form of government based on agriculture, whose king takes pride, not in bloody conquests and tyrannical caprice, but in the peaceful promotion of the welfare of his people: “But the advantage of a country consists always in a king given to the arable land.” What impossibilities have been found here, even by the most recent expositors! Ewald, Heiligst., Elster, Zckl. translate: rex agro factus = terrae praefectus ; but, in the language of this book, not but is the expression used for “to make a king.” Gesen., Win., de Wette, Knobel, Vaih. translate: rex qui colitur a terra ( civibus ). But could a country, in the sense of its population in subjection to the king, be more inappropriately designated than by ? Besides, certainly gains the meaning of colere where God is the object; but with a human ruler as the object it means servire and nothing more, and
(Note: Thus pointed rightly in J., with Sheva quiesc. and Dagesh in Beth; vid., Kimchi in Michlol 63 a, and under .)
can mean nothing else than “ dienstbar gemacht ” made subject to, not “honoured.” Along with this signification, related denom. to , , referred from its primary signification to , the open fields (from , to go out in length and breadth), may also, after the phrase , signify cultivated, wrought, tilled; and while the phrase “made subject to” must be certainly held as possible (Rashi, Aben Ezra, and others assume it without hesitation), but is without example, the Niph. occurs, e.g., at Eze 36:9, in the latter signification, of the mountains of Israel: “ye shall be tilled.” Under Ecc 5:8, Hitzig, and with him Stuart and Zckler, makes the misleading remark that the Chethb is , and that it is = , according to which the explanation is then given: the protection and security which an earthly ruler secures is, notwithstanding this, not to be disparaged. But is Chethb , for which the Ker substitutes ; is Chethb without Ker ; and that is thus a modification of the text, and that, too, an objectionable one, since , in the sense of “in all this,” is unheard of. The Ker seeks, without any necessity, to make the pred. and subj. like one another in gender; without necessity, for may also be neut.: the advantage of a land is this, viz., what follows. And how is to be understood is seen from Ezr 10:17, where it is to be explained: And they prepared
(Note: That may mean “to be ready with anything,” Keil erroneously points to Gen 44:12; and Philippi, St. Const. p. 49, thinks that vakol anashim can be taken together in the sense of vakol haanashim .)
the sum of the men, i.e., the list of the men, of such as had married strange wives; cf. 1Ch 7:5. Accordingly here means, as the author generally uses mostly in the impersonal sense of omnia : in omnibus , in all things = by all means; or: in universum , in general. Were the words accentuated , the adject. connection of would thereby be shown; according to which the lxx and Theod. translate ; Symm., with the Syr., : “a king for the cultivated land,” i.e., one who regards this as a chief object. Luzz. thus indeed accentuates; but the best established accentuation is . This separation of from can only be intended to denote that is to be referred not to it, but to , according to which the Targ. paraphrases. The meaning remains the same: a king subject (who has become a servus ) to the cultivated land, rex agro addictus , as Dathe, Rosenm., and others translate, is a still more distinct expression of that which “a king for the well-cultivated field” would denote: an agriculture-king, – one who is addicted, not to wars, lawsuits, and sovereign stubbornness in his opinions, but who delights in the peaceful advancement of the prosperity of his country, and especially takes a lively interest in husbandry and the cultivation of the land. The order of the words in Ecc 5:8 is like that at Ecc 9:2; cf. Isa 8:22; Isa 22:2. The author thus praises, in contrast to a despotic state, a patriarchal kingdom based on agriculture.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Vanity of Riches. | |
9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field. 10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. 11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? 12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. 13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. 14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. 15 As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. 16 And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind? 17 All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
Solomon had shown the vanity of pleasure, gaiety, and fine works, of honour, power, and royal dignity; and there is many a covetous worldling that will agree with him, and speak as slightly as he does of these things; but money, he thinks, is a substantial thing, and if he can but have enough of that he is happy. This is the mistake which Solomon attacks, and attempts to rectify, in these verses; he shows that there is as much vanity in great riches, and the lust of the eye about them, as there is in the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life, and a man can make himself no more happy by hoarding an estate than by spending it.
I. He grants that the products of the earth, for the support and comfort of human life, are valuable things (v. 9): The profit of the earth is for all. Man’s body, being made of the earth, thence has its maintenance (Job xxviii. 5); and that it has so, and that a barren land is not made his dwelling (as he has deserved for being rebellious, Ps. lxviii. 6), is an instance of God’s great bounty to him. There is profit to be got out of the earth, and it is for all; all need it; it is appointed for all; there is enough for all. It is not only for all men, but for all the inferior creatures; the same ground brings grass for the cattle that brings herbs for the service of men. Israel had bread from heaven, angels’ food, but (which is a humbling consideration) the earth is our storehouse and the beasts are fellow-commoners with us. The king himself is served of the field, and would be ill served, would be quite starved, without its products. This puts a great honour upon the husbandman’s calling, that it is the most necessary of all to the support of man’s life. The many have the benefit of it; the mighty cannot live without it; it is for all; it is for the king himself. Those that have an abundance of the fruits of the earth must remember they are for all, and therefore must look upon themselves but as stewards of their abundance, out of which they must give to those that need. Dainty meats and soft clothing are only for some, but the fruit of the earth is for all. And even those that suck the abundance of the seas (Deut. xxxiii. 19) cannot be without the fruit of the earth, while those that have a competency of the fruit of the earth may despise the abundance of the seas.
II. He maintains that the riches that are more than these, that are for hoarding, not for use, are vain things, and will not make a man easy or happy. That which our Saviour has said (Luke xii. 15), that a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses, is what Solomon here undertakes to prove by various arguments.
1. The more men have the more they would have, v. 10. A man may have but a little silver and be satisfied with it, may know when he has enough and covet no more. Godliness, with contentment, is great gain. I have enough, says Jacob; I have all, and abound, says St. Paul: but, (1.) He that loves silver, and sets his heart upon it, will never think he has enough, but enlarges his desire as hell (Hab. ii. 5), lays house to house and field to field (Isa. v. 8), and, like the daughters of the horse-leech, still cries, Give, give. Natural desires are at rest when that which is desired is obtained, but corrupt desires are insatiable. Nature is content with little, grace with less, but lust with nothing. (2.) He that has silver in abundance, and has it increasing ever so fast upon him, yet does not find that it yields any solid satisfaction to his soul. There are bodily desires which silver itself will not satisfy; if a man be hungry, ingots of silver will do no more to satisfy his hunger than clods of clay. Much less will worldly abundance satisfy spiritual desires; he that has ever so much silver covets more, not only of that, but of something else, something of another nature. Those that make themselves drudges to the world are spending their labour for that which satisfies not (Isa. lv. 2), which fills the belly, but will never fill the soul, Ezek. vii. 19.
2. The more men have the more occasion they have for it, and the more they have to do with it, so that it is as broad as it is long: When goods increase, they are increased that eat them, v. 11. The more meat the more mouths. Does the estate thrive? And does not the family at the same time grow more numerous and the children grow up to need more? The more men have the better house they must keep, the more servants they must employ, the more guests they must entertain, the more they must give to the poor, and the more they will have hanging on them, for where the carcase is the eagles will be. What we have more than food and raiment we have for others; and then what good is there to the owners themselves, but the pleasure of beholding it with their eyes? And a poor pleasure it is. An empty speculation is all the difference between the owners and the sharers; the owner sees that as his own which those about him enjoy as much of the real benefit of as he; only he has the satisfaction of doing good to others, which indeed is a satisfaction to one who believes what Christ said, that it is more blessed to give than to receive; but to a covetous man, who thinks all lost that goes beside himself, it is a constant vexation to see others eat of his increase.
3. The more men have the more care they have about it, which perplexes them and disturbs their repose, v. 12. Refreshing sleep is as much the support and comfort of this life as food is. Now, (1.) Those commonly sleep best that work hard and have but what they work for: The sleep of the labouring man is sweet, not only because he has tired himself with his labour, which makes his sleep the more welcome to him and makes him sleep soundly, but because he has little to fill his head with care about and so break his sleep. His sleep is sweet, though he eat but little and have but little to eat, for his weariness rocks him asleep; and, though he eat much, yet he can sleep well, for his labour gets him a good digestion. The sleep of the diligent Christian, and his long sleep, is sweet; for, having spent himself and his time in the service of God, he can cheerfully return to God and repose in him as his rest. (2.) Those that have every thing else often fail to secure a good night’s sleep. Either their eyes are held waking or their sleeps are unquiet and do not refresh them; and it is their abundance that breaks their sleep and disturbs it, both the abundance of their care (as the rich man’s who, when his ground brought forth plentifully, thought within himself, What shall I do? Luke xii. 17) and the abundance of what they eat and drink which overcharges the heart, makes them sick, and so hinders their repose. Ahasuerus, after a banquet of wine, could not sleep; and perhaps consciousness of guilt, both in getting and using what they have, breaks their sleep as much as any thing. But God gives his beloved sleep.
4. The more men have the more danger they are in both of doing mischief and of having mischief done them (v. 13): There is an evil, a sore evil, which Solomon himself had seen under the sun, in this lower world, this theatre of sin and woe–riches left for the owners thereof (who have been industrious to hoard them and keep them safely) to their hurt; they would have been better without them. (1.) Their riches do them hurt, make them proud, secure, and in love with the world, draw away their hearts from God and duty, and make it very difficult for them to enter into the kingdom of heaven, nay, help to shut them out of it. (2.) They do hurt with their riches, which not only put them into a capacity of gratifying their own lusts and living luxuriously, but give them an opportunity of oppressing others and dealing hardly with them. (3.) Often they sustain hurt by their riches. They would not be envied, would not be robbed, if they were not rich. It is the fat beast that is led first to the slaughter. A very rich man (as one observes) has sometimes been excepted out of a general pardon, both as to life and estate, merely on account of his vast and overgrown estate; so riches often take away the life of the owners thereof, Prov. i. 19.
5. The more men have the more they have to lose, and perhaps they may lose it all, v. 14. Those riches that have been laid up with a great deal of pains, and kept with a great deal of care, perish by evil travail, by the very pains and care which they take to secure and increase them. Many a one has ruined his estate by being over-solicitous to advance it and make it more, and has lost all by catching at all. Riches are perishing things, and all our care about them cannot make them otherwise; they make themselves wings and fly away. He that thought he should have made his son a gentleman leaves him a beggar; he begets a son, and brings him up in the prospect of an estate, but, when he dies, leaves it under a charge of debt as much as it is worth, so that there is nothing in his hand. This is a common case; estates that made a great show do not prove what they seemed, but cheat the heir.
6. How much soever men have when they die, they must leave it all behind them (Ecc 5:15; Ecc 5:16): As he came forth of his mother’s womb naked, so shall he return; only as his friends, when he came naked into the world, in pity to him, helped him with swaddling-clothes, so, when he goes out, they help him with grave-clothes, and that is all. See Job 1:21; Psa 49:17. This is urged as a reason why we should be content with such things as we have, 1 Tim. vi. 7. In respect of the body we must go as we came; the dust shall return to the earth as it was. But sad is our case if the soul return as it came, for we were born in sin, and if we die in sin, unsanctified, we had better never have been born; and that seems to be the case of the worldling here spoken of, for he is said to return in all points as he came, as sinful, as miserable, and much more so. This is a sore evil; he thinks it so whose heart is glued to the world, that he shall take nothing of his labour which he may carry away in his hand; his riches will not go with him into another world nor stand him in any stead there. If we labour in religion, the grace and comfort we get by that labour we may carry away in our hearts, and shall be the better for it to eternity; that is meat that endures. But if we labour only for the world, to fill our hands with that, we cannot take that away with us; we are born with our hands griping, but we die with them extended, letting go what we held fast. So that, upon the whole matter, he may well ask, What profit has he that has laboured for the wind? Note, Those that labour for the world labour for the wind, for that which has more sound than substance, which is uncertain, and always shifting its point, unsatisfying, and often hurtful, which we cannot hold fast, and which, if we take up with it as our portion, will no more feed us than the wind, Hos. xii. 1. Men will see that they have laboured for the wind when at death they find the profit of their labour is all gone, gone like the wind, they know not whither.
7. Those that have much, if they set their hearts upon it, have not only uncomfortable deaths, but uncomfortable lives too, v. 17. This covetous worldling, that is so bent upon raising an estate, all his days eats in darkness and much sorrow, and it is his sickness and wrath; he has not only no pleasure of his estate, nor any enjoyment of it himself, for he eats the bread of sorrow (Ps. cxxvii. 2), but a great deal of vexation to see others eat of it. His necessary expenses make him sick, make him fret, and he seems as if he were angry that himself and those about him cannot live without meat. As we read the last clause, it intimates how ill this covetous worldling can bear the common and unavoidable calamities of human life. When he is in health he eats in darkness, always dull with care and fear about what he has; but, if he be sick, he has much sorrow and wrath with his sickness; he is vexed that his sickness takes him off from his business and hinders him in his pursuits of the world, vexed that all his wealth will not give him any ease or relief, but especially terrified with the apprehensions of death (which his diseases are the harbingers of), of leaving this world and the things of it behind him, which he has set his affections upon, and removing to a world he has made no preparation for. He has not any sorrow after a godly sort, does not sorrow to repentance, but he has sorrow and wrath, is angry at the providence of God, angry at his sickness, angry at all about him, fretful and peevish, which doubles his affliction, which a good man lessens and lightens by patience and joy in his sickness.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
(9) Is served by.Or, is servant to. Many eminent interpreters connect this verse with what precedes, and translate, and on the whole the profit of the land is a king devoted to agriculture, an observation which it is hard to clear of the charge of irrelevance. I prefer, as in our version, to connect with the following verses, and the best explanation I can give of the connection of the paragraph is that it contains a consideration intended to mitigate the difficulty felt at the sight of riches acquired by oppression, namely, that riches add little to the real happiness of the possessors.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Profit of the earth is for all It would seem as if Koheleth had adopted the maxim subsequently expressed by Solon, that “A damage to the meanest citizen is a damage to the whole State.” This difficult verse at least the first part is difficult should be, The advantage of a country is, that it concerns all. That is, the country is the common concern of all its inhabitants. The king and the tiller of the field are bound together by real interests, and this gives stability and advantage to the institutions of the land. As long as the sense of this unity of interests can be maintained in a land, it is safe and prosperous, and it is the basis of popular government, “for the people and by the people.” When any class is restricted from the enjoyment of the good allowed to other classes, “The land becomes to hastening ills a prey.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 5:9. The king himself, &c. The king is served on account of the field. Desvoeux. Houbigant renders the verse, And when these things are so, it is advantageous for the land that there be a king who may destroy the oppressor of the province. In this and the foregoing verse is contained the third admonition. Let no one look upon the injustices which men in power are guilty of, to the prejudice of the poor, as a disparagement of Providence; for one who is abovenot the governors of provinces only, but likewise above the monarchs from whom they derive their authority, keeps them all in reserve for the day of retribution; and, as a token of his firm resolve to distribute justice to all with the most perfect equality, he has so ordered things in this world, that, after all incroachments and extortions of the powerful, there is a common fund remaining for the support of all, without distinction, and for the sake of which chiefly the kings themselves are served. For what inducement have other men to subject themselves to the king’s authority, but that under his protection the land may be properly improved and cultivated?
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Ecc 5:9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king [himself] is served by the field.
Ver. 9. Moreover, the profit of the earth is for all, ] viz., For all sorts of men, and for all kind of uses. Alma mater, terra ferax. “Then shall the earth yield her increase; and (therein) God, even our own God, shall bless us.” Psa 67:6 “Can any of the vanities of the heathens give rain,” or grain? No, neither. Jer 14:22 Can the earth bring forth fruit of herself? a So, indeed, our Saviour seems to say, “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear”; Mar 4:28 but then it is after the good husbandman hath sowed it, and God by his blessing given the increase. The drift of the Preacher here is to set forth the excellence of tillage first, and then to show the vanity of it. Tillage is the life and blood of a commonwealth; it is beyond all pecuniary possessions. Jacob had money and other fruits of the earth, and yet if Egypt, the world’s granary, as one calls it, had not supplied them with grain, he and his might have perished. Gen 43:1-2
The king himself is served by the field.
a .
b Rex agro fit servus. – Ar. Montan.
is = “it [is]. “
for all = [consists] in the whole, i.e. not confined to one day.
the profit: Gen 1:29, Gen 1:30, Gen 3:17-19, Psa 104:14, Psa 104:15, Psa 115:16, Pro 13:23, Pro 27:23-27, Pro 28:19, Jer 40:10-12
the king: 1Sa 8:12-17, 1Ki 4:7-23, 1Ch 27:26-31
Reciprocal: Gen 3:23 – till Gen 9:20 – an husbandman 1Co 12:22 – General
Ecc 5:9. The profit of the earth is for all The fruits of the earth are necessary and beneficial to all men. The wise man, after some interruption, returns to his former subject, the vanity of riches; one evidence whereof he mentions in this verse, that the poor labourer enjoys the fruits of the earth as well as the greatest monarch, and that the richest man in the world depends as much upon them as the poorest. The king himself is served by the field Is supported by the fruits of the field.
5:9 Moreover the {g} profit of the earth is for all: the king {h} [himself] is served by the field.
(g) The earth is to be preferred above all things which belong to this life.
(h) Kings and princes cannot maintain their estate without tillage, which commends the excellency of tillage.
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