Part 1

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EDITED BY THE REV. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D., _Editor of "The Expositor."_

THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES, BY SAMUEL COX, D.D.

TORONTO: WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY AND BIBLE DEPÔT, CORNER OF YONGE AND TEMPERANCE STREETS. 1890.

THE BOOK

OF

ECCLESIASTES.

_WITH A NEW TRANSLATION._

BY

SAMUEL COX, D.D.,

AUTHOR OF COMMENTARIES ON JOB, RUTH, ETC.

"_Omnia vanitas, præter amare Deum, et illi soli servire._"

--ST. AUGUSTINE.

TORONTO: WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY AND BIBLE DEPÔT, CORNER OF YONGE AND TEMPERANCE STREETS. 1890.

PREFACE.

The Lectures on which this book is founded were delivered five-and-twenty years ago, and were published in A.D. 1867.[1] For more than twenty years the book has been out of print, a large first edition having been speedily sold out. No other edition was issued owing to the fact that my publisher soon passed into another profession. I have often been asked to reprint it, but have always felt that, before reprinting, I must rewrite it. Till of late, however, I could not command leisure for the task. But when, at the commencement of this year, the Editor of THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE did me the honour to ask permission to reprint it, that he might include it in this excellent series, I had leisure at command, and cheerfully devoted it to the revision of my work. Among the more recent commentaries I have read with this purpose in view, those which I have found most helpful and suggestive were that of Delitzsch, that by Dr. Wright, that of Dean Plumptre, and the fine fragment contributed to THE EXPOSITOR by Dr. Perowne, the Dean of Peterborough. In the preface to the former edition I dwelt on my indebtedness to the commentary of Dr. Ginsburg, published in A.D. 1861. In my judgment it still remains by far the best, the most thorough and the most sound. It has but one serious defect; it is addressed to scholars, and so abounds in learning and erudition that it can never come into popular use. Indeed even now, although during the last twenty years there has been an immense advance in the study and exposition of Holy Writ, and many able and learned men have devoted themselves to the service of the general public, I know of no commentary on this Scripture which really meets the wants of the unlettered. I cannot but hope, therefore, that _the Quest of the Chief Good_ may still serve a useful purpose, and that, in its revised form, it may be found helpful to those who most need help.

[1] _The Quest of the Chief Good._ A Popular Commentary on the book ECCLESIASTES, with a New Translation. By Samuel Cox. London: Arthur Miall.

In rewriting the book I have retained as much as I could of its earlier form, lest the vivacity of a first exposition of the Scripture should be lost. And, indeed, the alterations I have had to make are but slight for the most part, though I have in many places altered, and, I hope, amended both the translation and the commentary: but there are one or two additions--they will be found on pages 20-26, and, again, in certain modifications of the exposition of Chapter XII., verses 9-12, on pages 279-305; dealing mainly with the structure of _Ecclesiastes_--which may, I trust, be found useful not to the general reader alone. Since the original edition appeared I have had to study the Book of Job, most of the Psalms, many of the Prophetical writings, and some of the Proverbs; and it was inevitable that in the course of these pleasant studies I should arrive at clearer and more definite conceptions on the structure of Hebrew poetry. These I now place at the service of my readers, and submit to the judgment of scholars and critics.

Another and much more important result of these subsequent studies has been that I can now speak with a more assured confidence of the theme of this Scripture, and of its handling by the Author. None of the scholars who have recently commented on the Book doubt that it _is_ the quest of the chief good which it sets forth; and though some of them arrange and divide it differently, yet, on the whole and in the main, they are agreed that this quest is urged in Wisdom, in Pleasure, in Devotion to Public Affairs, in Wealth and in the Golden Mean; and that it ends and rests in the large noble conclusion, that only as men reverence God, and keep his commandments, and trust in his love, do they touch their true ideal, and find a good that will satisfy and sustain them under all changes, even to the last. The assent to this view of the Book was by no means general a quarter of a century ago; but it is so wide now, and is sanctioned by the authority of so many schools of learning, that I think no reader of the following pages need be disturbed by misgivings as to the accuracy of the main lines of thought here set forth.

Few Scriptures of the Old Testament are so familiar to the general reader as _Ecclesiastes_; and that mainly, I think, because it addresses itself to a problem which is "yours, mine, every man's." Many more quotations from it have entered into our current speech than have been taken from _Job_, for example, although _Job_ is both a much larger and a much finer poem than this--"the finest poem," as a great living poet has said, "whether of the modern or of the antique world." It is a Book which can never lose its interest for men until the last conflict in the long strife of doubt has led in the final victory of faith; and seems, in especial, to adapt itself to the conditions and wants of the present age. It deals with the very questions which are in all our minds, and offers a solution of them, and, so far as I know, the only solution, in which those who have "eternity in their hearts" can rest. May all who study it, with such help as the following pages afford, find rest to their souls, and be drawn from the heat and strife of thought into the calm and hallowed sanctuary which it throws open to our erring feet.

THE HOLME, HASTINGS, _October 1890_.

CONTENTS.

PAGES

I. THE INTRODUCTION 1-66

§ 1. _On the Authorship, Form, Design, and Contents of the Book_ 3-32

§ 2. _On the History of the Captivity_ 32-66

(1) The Babylonian Period 38-43 (2) The Persian Period 43-66

II. THE TRANSLATION 67-110

§ 1. _The Prologue_ 69-70

§ 2. _The First Section_: or, The Quest of the Chief Good in Wisdom and in Pleasure 71-76

§ 3. _The Second Section_: or, The Quest in Devotion to the Affairs of Business 77-86

§ 4. _The Third Section_: or, The Quest in Wealth and in the Golden Mean 87-96

§ 5. _The Fourth Section_: or, The Quest Achieved 97-108

§ 6. _The Epilogue_ 109, 110

III. THE EXPOSITION 111-335

§ 1. THE PROLOGUE 113-126

§ 2. THE FIRST SECTION: or, _The Quest in Wisdom and in Pleasure_ 127-141

_(a) The Quest in Wisdom_ 127-133

_(b) The Quest in Pleasure_ 133-137

_(c) Wisdom and Pleasure Compared_ 138-140

_(d) The Conclusion_ 140, 141

§ 3. THE SECOND SECTION: or, _The Quest in Devotion to the Affairs of Business_ 142-186

(_a_) The Quest obstructed by Divine Ordinances 143-145

(_b_) And by Human Injustice and Perversity 145-151

(_c_) It is rendered hopeless by the base Origin of Human Industries 151, 152

(_d_) Yet these are capable of a nobler Motive and Mode 153-158

(_e_) So also a happier and more effective Method of Worship is open to Man; 158-160

(_f_) And a more helpful and consolatory Trust in the Divine Providence 161-164

(_g_) The Conclusion 164, 165

APPLICATION 165-186

(_a_) Devotion to Business springs from Jealous Competition: 168, 169

(_b_) It tends to form a Covetous Temper; 169-171

(_c_) To produce a Materialistic Scepticism; 171-173

(_d_) To make Worship Formal and Insincere; 173, 174

(_e_) And to take from Life its Quiet and Innocent Enjoyments 175-179

(_f_) The Correctives of this Devotion are,

(1) A Sense of its Perils; 179, 180

(2) And the Conviction that it is opposed to the Will of God as expressed--

(_a_) In the Ordinances of his Providence, 180

(_b_) In the Wrongs which He permits Men to inflict upon us; 181

(_c_) But above all in the immortal Cravings which He has quickened in the Soul 182, 183

(_g_) Practical Maxims deduced from this View of the Business-Life 184-186

(1) A Maxim on Co-operation 184

(2) A Maxim on Worship 184, 185

(3) A Maxim on Trust in God 185, 186

§ 4. THE THIRD SECTION: or, _The Quest in Wealth and in the Golden Mean_ 187-228

(A) _The Quest in Wealth_ 188-193

(_a_) The Man who makes Riches his Chief Good is haunted by Fears and Perplexities: 188-190

(_b_) For God has put Eternity into his heart; 190, 191

(_c_) And much that he gains only feeds Vanity; 191, 192

(_d_) Neither can he tell what it will be Good for him to have, 192

(_e_) Nor foresee what will become of his Gains 192, 193

(B) _The Quest in the Golden Mean_ 193-209

(_a_) The Method of the Man who seeks a Competence 195-199

(_b_) The Perils to which it exposes him 199-207

(1) He is likely to compromise Conscience: 200, 201

(2) To be indifferent to Censure: 201-203

(3) To despise Women: 203-205

(4) And to be indifferent to Public Wrongs 205-207

(_c_) The Preacher condemns this Theory of Human Life 207-209

APPLICATION 209-228

(A) _The Quest in Wealth_ 212-218

(_a_) The Man who makes Riches his Chief Good is haunted by Fears and Perplexities 213, 214

(_b_) Much that he gains only feeds Vanity 214, 215

(_c_) He cannot tell what it will be Good for him to have; 215

(_d_) Nor foresee what will become of his Gains: 215, 216

(_e_) And because God has put Eternity into his heart, he cannot be content with Temporal Gains 216-218

(B) _The Quest in the Golden Mean_ 218-228

(_a_) The Method of the Man who seeks a Competence 220-222

(_b_) The Perils to which it exposes him 222-226

(1) He is likely to compromise Conscience: 222-224

(2) To be indifferent to Censure: 224

(3) To despise Women: 225

(4) And to be indifferent to Public Wrongs 226

(_c_) The Preacher condemns this Theory of Human Life 227, 228

§ 5. THE FOURTH SECTION: or, _The Quest Achieved_ 229-275

(_a_) The Chief Good not to be found in Wisdom: 230-234

(_b_) Nor in Pleasure: 234-237

(_c_) Nor in Devotion to Affairs and its Rewards: 237-246

(_d_) But in a wise Use and a wise Enjoyment of the Present Life, 247-256

(_c_) Combined with a stedfast Faith in the Life to come 256-275

§ 6. THE EPILOGUE: _In which the Problem of the Book is conclusively Solved_ 276-335

INTRODUCTION.

§ 1. _ON THE AUTHORSHIP, FORM, DESIGN, AND CONTENTS OF THE BOOK._

Those who raise the question, "Is life worth living?" answer it by--living on; for no man lives simply to proclaim what a worthless and wretched creature he is. But for the most part the question is mooted in a merely academical and not very sincere spirit. And to the dainty and fastidious pessimist who goes about to imply his own superiority by declaring that the world which contents his fellows is not good enough for him, there still seems no better reply than the rough but rousing and wholesome rebuke which Epictetus gave to such as he some nineteen centuries ago, reminding them that there were many exits from the theatre of life, and advising them, if they disliked the "show", to retire from it by the nearest door of escape, and to make room for spectators of a more modest and grateful spirit.

Of the pessimists of his time he demands, "Was it not God who brought you here? And as what did He bring you? Was it not as a mortal? Was it not as one who was to live with a little portion of flesh upon the earth, and to witness his administration--to behold the great spectacle around you for a little while? After you have beheld the solemn and august spectacle as long as is permitted you, will you not depart when He leads you out, adoring and thankful for what you have heard and seen? For you the solemnity is over. Go away, then, like a modest and grateful person. Make room for others."

"But why," urges the pessimist, "did He bring me into the world on these hard terms?"

"Oh!" replies Epictetus, "if you don't like the terms, it is always in your power to leave them. _He_ has no need of a discontented spectator. He will not miss you much, nor we either."

But if any man lift the question into a more sincere and noble form by asking, "_How_ may life be made worth living, or _best_ worth living?"--in other words, "What is the true ideal, and what the chief good, of man?"--he will find no nobler answer to it, and none more convincingly and persuasively put, than that contained in this Scripture, which modern pessimists are apt to quote whenever they want to "approve" their melancholy hypothesis "with a text." From Schopenhauer downward, this Book is constantly cited by them as if it confirmed the conclusion for which they contend, Taubert even going so far as to find "a catechism of pessimism" in it. Their assumption, however, is based on a total misapprehension of the design and drift of Ecclesiastes of which no scholar should have been guilty, and of which it is hard to see how any scholar could have been guilty had he studied it as a whole, instead of carrying away from it only what he wanted. So far from lending any countenance to their conclusion of despair, it frankly traverses it--as I hope to show, and as many have shown before me--and lands us in its very opposite; the conclusion of the whole matter with the Hebrew Preacher being, that whoso cultivates the virtues of charity, diligence, and cheerfulness, because God is in heaven and rules over all, _he_ will not only find life well worth living, but will pursue its loftiest ideal and touch its true blessedness.

When scholars and "philosophers" have fallen into a mistake so radical and profound, it is not surprising that the unlettered should have followed their leaders into the ditch, and taken this Scripture to be the most melancholy in the Sacred Canon, instead of one of the most consolatory and inspiriting, for want of apprehending its true aim. Beyond all doubt, there is a prevailing ground-tone of sadness in the Book; for through by far the larger part of its course it has to deal with some of the saddest facts of human life--with the errors which divert men from their true aim, and plunge them into a various and growing misery. But the voice which sinks so often into this tone of sadness is the voice of a most brave and cheerful spirit, a spirit whose counsels can only depress us if we are seeking our chief good where it cannot be found. For the Preacher, as we shall see, does not condemn the wisdom or the mirth, the devotion to business or the acquisition of wealth, in which most men find "the chief good and market of their time," as in themselves vanities. He approves of them; he shows us how we may so pursue and so use them as to find them very pleasant and wholesome; how we may so dispense with them, if they prove beyond our reach, as none the less to enjoy a very true and abiding content. His constant and recurring moral is that we _are_ to enjoy our brief day on earth; that God _meant_ us to enjoy it; that we are to be up and doing, with a heart for any strife, or toil, or pleasure; not to sit still and weep over broken illusions and defeated hopes. Our lower aims and possessions become vanities to us only when we seek in them that supreme satisfaction which He who has "put eternity into our hearts" designed us to find only in Him and in serving Him. If we love and serve Him, if we gratefully acknowledge Him to be the Author of "every good gift and every perfect boon," if we seek first his kingdom and righteousness; in fine, if we are Christian in more than name, the study of this Book should not make us sad. We should find in it a confirmation of our most intimate convictions, and incentives to act upon them. But if we do not hold our wisdom, our mirth, our labour, our wealth as the gifts and ordinances of God for our good, if we permit them to usurp his seat and become as gods to us, then indeed this Book will be sad enough for us, but no whit sadder than our lives. It will be sad, and will make us sad, yet only that it may lead us to repentance, and through repentance to a true and lasting joy.

* * * * *

It is to be feared that the popular misconception of this singular and most instructive Scripture goes much farther than this, and extends to questions much more superficial than that of the temper or spirit it breathes. If, for example, the average reader of the Bible were asked, Who wrote this Scripture? when was it written? to whom was it addressed? what is its general scope and design? his answer, I suppose, would be: "Solomon wrote this Book; of course, therefore, it was written in his lifetime, and addressed to the men over whom he ruled; and his design in writing it was to reveal his own experience of life for their instruction." And yet in all probability no one of these answers is true, or anywhere near the truth. According to the most competent judges, the Book Ecclesiastes was not written by Solomon, nor for centuries after his death; it was addressed to a generation of feeble and oppressed captives, who had been carried away into exile, or had lately returned from it, and not to the free prosperous nation which rose to its highest pitch in the reign of the Wise King. It is a dramatic representation of the experience of a Jewish sage, who deliberately set himself to discover and pursue the chief good of man in all the provinces and along all the avenues in which it is commonly sought, eked out by what he supposed or tradition reported Solomon's experience to have been; and its design was to comfort men who were groaning under the heaviest wrongs of Time with the bright hope of Immortality.

To scholars versed in the niceties of the Oriental languages, the most convincing proof of the comparatively modern date and authorship of the Book is to be found in its words, and idioms, and style. The base forms of Hebrew and the large intermixture of foreign terms, phrases, and turns of speech which characterize it--these, with the absence of the nobler rhythmic forms of Hebrew poetry, are held to be a conclusive demonstration that it was written during the Rabbinical period, at a time long subsequent to the Augustan age in which Solomon lived and wrote. The critics and commentators whose names stand highest[2] tell us that it would be just as easy for them to believe that Hooker wrote Blair's Sermons, or that Shakespeare wrote the plays of Sheridan Knowles, as to believe that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes. And of course on such questions as these we can only defer to the verdict of men who have made them the study of their lives.

[2] Rosenmüller, Ewald, Knobel, De Wette, Delitzsch, Ginsburg, with many other competent judges, are agreed on this point; and even those who in part differ from them differ only in assigning the Book to a date still farther removed from the time of Solomon. There are but few scholars who now contend for the Solomonic authorship, and hardly any of these are, I think, in the first rank.

But with all our deference for learning, we have so often seen the conclusions of the ripest scholars modified or reversed by their successors, and we all know "questions of words" to be capable of so many different interpretations, that probably we should still hold our judgment in suspense, were there no arguments against the traditional hypothesis such as plain men use and can understand. There are many such arguments, however, and arguments that seem to be of a conclusive force.