Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 8:7
For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
7. For he knoweth not that which shall be ] The subject of the sentence is apparently the wicked and tyrannous ruler. He goes on with infatuated blindness to the doom that lies before him. The same thought appears in the medival proverb, “ Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat,” or, in our modern condemnation of the rulers or the parties, who “learn nothing, and forget nothing.” The temper condemned is that (1) of the cynical egoism, which says, “ Apres moi, le deluge,” (2) of those who act, because judgment is delayed, as if it would never come.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When – Or, as in the margin. For the meaning of this verse, compare marginal references.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Men are generally ignorant of all future events, and of the success of their endeavours, and therefore their minds are greatly disquieted, and their expectations frequently disappointed, and they fall into many mistakes and miscarriages, which they could and would prevent if they did foresee the issues of things.
Who can tell him? no wise man, no astrologer or other artist, can discover this.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. hethe sinner, byneglecting times (for example, “the accepted time, andthe day of salvation, 2Co 6:2),is taken by surprise by the judgment (Ecc 3:22;Ecc 6:12; Ecc 9:12).The godly wise observe the due times of things (Ec3:1), and so, looking for the judgment, are not taken bysurprise, though not knowing the precise “when” (1Th5:2-4); they “know the time” to all saving purposes (Ro13:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For he knoweth not that which shall be,…. Or that “it shall be” b; that he ever shall have the opportunity again he has lost, nor what is to come hereafter; what shall be on the morrow, or what shall befall him in the remaining part of his days; what troubles and sorrows he shall meet with, or what will be the case and circumstances of his family after his death;
for who can tell him when it shall be? or “how it shall be” c? how it will be with him or his; no one that pretends to judicial astrology, or to the art of divination, or any such devices, can tell him what is to come; future things are only certainly known by God; none but he can tell what will certainly come to pass; see Ec 3:22; Jarchi interprets it of a man’s not considering for what God will bring him to judgment, and that no man can tell him the vengeance and punishment that will be inflicted.
b “quod futurum est”, Pagninus, Montanus. c “quo modo”, Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus, Rambachius, so Broughton.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ecc 8:7 and Ecc 8:8 thus continue the For and For: “For he knoweth not that which shall be; for who can tell him who it will be? There is no man who has power over the wind, to restrain the wind; and no one has authority over the day of death; and there is no discharge in the war; and wickedness does not save its possessor.” The actor has the sin upon himself, and bears it; if it reaches the terminus of full measure, it suddenly overwhelms him in punishment, and the too great burden oppresses its bearer (Hitzig, under Isa 24:20). This comes unforeseen, for he (the man who heaps up sins) knoweth not id quod fiet; it arrives unforeseen, for quomodo fiet, who can show it to him? Thus, e.g., the tyrant knows not that he will die by assassination, and no one can say to him how that will happen, so that he might make arrangements for his protection. Rightly the lxx ; on the contrary, the Targ., Hitzig, and Ginsburg: when it will be;
(Note: The Venet. , as if the text had .)
but signifies quum , Ecc 5:1; Ecc 5:3; Ecc 8:16, but not quando , which must be expressed by (Mishnic , ).
Now follows the concluding thought of the four , whereby Ecc 8:5 is established. There are four impossibilities enumerated; the fourth is the point of the enumeration constructed in the form of a numerical proverb. (1) No man has power over the wind, to check the wind. Ewald, Hengst., Zckl., and others understand , with the Targ., Jerome, and Luther, of the Spirit ( ( tir ); but man can limit this physically when he puts a violent termination to life, and must restrain it morally by ruling it, Pro 16:32; Pro 25:28. On the contrary, the wind hrwch is, after Ecc 11:5, incalculable, and to rule over it is the exclusive prerogative of Divine Omnipotence, Pro 30:4. The transition to the second impossibility is mediated by this, that in , according to the usus loq., the ideas of the breath of animal life, and of wind as the breath as it were of the life of the whole of nature, are interwoven. (2) No one has power over the day of death: death, viz., natural death, comes to a man without his being able to see it before, to determine it, or to change it. With there here interchanges , which is rendered by the lxx and Venet. as abstr., also by the Syr. But as at Dan 3:2, so also above at Ecc 8:4, it is concr., and will be so also in the passage before us, as generally in the Talm. and Midrash, in contradistinction to the abstr., which is , after the forms , , etc., e.g., Bereshith rabba, c. 85 extr.: “Every king and ruler who had not a , a command (government, sway) in the land, said that that did not satisfy him, the king of Babylon had to place an under-Caesar in Jericho,” etc.
(Note: Regarding the distinction between and , vid., Baer’s Abodath Jisrael, p. 385.)
Thus: no man possesses rule or is a ruler … .
A transition is made from the inevitable law of death to the inexorable severity of the law of war; (3) there is no discharge, no dispensation, whether for a time merely ( missio ), or a full discharge ( dimissio ), in war, which in its fearful rigour ( vid., on the contrary, Deu 20:5-8) was the Persian law. Even so, every possibility of escape is cut off by the law of the divine requital; (4) wickedness will not save ( , causative, as always) its lord (cf. the proverb: “Unfaithfulness strikes its own master”) or possessor; i.e., the wicked person, when the comes, is hopelessly lost. Grtz would adopt the reading instead of ; but the fate of the , or of the , is certainly that to which the concatenation of thought from Ecc 8:6 leads, as also the disjunctive accent at the end of the three first clauses of Ecc 8:8 denotes. But that in the words (not ) a despotic king is thought of ( , as at Ecc 5:10, Ecc 5:12; Ecc 7:12; Pro 3:27; cf. under Pro 1:19), is placed beyond a doubt by the epilogistic verse:
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
7. For he knoweth not The tyrant knoweth not, etc. He cannot see what will come of his own tyranny. The next scene in his drama has often been a dethronement, an exile, an assassination. Many such tyrants went down in ruin about the time of the Captivity; and they are always liable to terminate their fantastic tricks by some other than natural death.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 8:7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
Ver. 7. For he knoweth not that which shall be. ] Man’s misery is the greater because he cannot foresee to prevent it; but he is suddenly surprised and hit many times on the blind side, as we say.
“ Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurae. ”
Men are in the dark in regard to future events. God only knows them, and is thereby oft in Isaiah distinguished from the dunghill deities of the heathens. In his mercy to his people he gave them prophets to tell how long, and when these failed the Church heavily bewails it. Psa 74:9 Howbeit a prudent man “foreseeth an evil, and hideth himself.” Pro 22:3 See Trapp on “ Pro 22:3 “ By the strength of his mind, saith Ambrose, a he presageth what will follow, and can define what in such or such a case he ought to do. Sometimes he turns over two or three things in his mind together, of which conjecturing that either all may come to pass jointly, or this or that severally, or whether they fall out jointly or severally, he can by his understanding so order his actions as that they shall be profitable to him.
a Amb. De Offic., lib. i. cap. 38.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
he knoweth: Ecc 6:12, Ecc 9:12, Ecc 10:14, Pro 24:22, Pro 29:1, Mat 24:44, Mat 24:50, Mat 25:6-13, 1Th 5:1-3
when: or, how
Reciprocal: Job 10:13 – hid Job 24:1 – seeing Ecc 3:22 – who Ecc 8:16 – When I