V. 1. To every thing there is a season, and to every purpose under heaven there is an hour.
Here, too, Solomon speaks of human works, that is, of those that were done according to human advice. The commentators who do not take this into account think that he is talking about the corruption of man.
The time of the created things. Understand, therefore, that all human works and undertakings have a certain and definite time of their happening, their beginning and their end, and are not in the capacity of man, so that it is said against free will that we are not entitled to time, manner and effect.
He does not prescribe the things that are to be done, and that here our attempts and efforts fail completely, but that everything goes or comes when God has determined it. But he proves this with examples of human works, whose times are beyond the choice of men, in order to conclude from there that men toil in vain with their attempts, even if they should burst, if their time and the hour determined by God has not come. Here belongs what is written in the Gospel [Joh. 2, 4.]: The hour for it (hora ejus) has not yet come. Likewise [Joh. 16, 21.]: "A woman, when she gives birth, has sadness, because her hour has come." Thus the divine power comprehends everything under certain hours, so that they cannot be hindered by anyone.
But, you will say, how is man appointed lord over things, Genesis 1:28 ff, if he cannot rule them according to his will and use them according to his desire? I answer: 1) We are appointed lords over things in such a way that we can use them for the present, but we cannot rule them by our worries and suggestions. No one can do anything for the future by his efforts. For how should he who is uncertain about the future be able to determine anything concerning future things? Therefore, God wants us to use the creatures, but freely, as He presents it, without prescribing time, manner and hour. For these are in the hand of the Lord, lest we should think that it is in our hand to use things when we will, when He does not give them. Therefore Sirach says [Cap. 15, 14. f. freely according to the Vulgate]: God 2) has given man power to take his own counsels, but he has added commandments according to which he shall govern his counsels and actions 2c.
Each has its time.
That is, his appointed hour. Now, when man goes beyond the same, and
1) Erlanger: respondo instead of: respondeo.
2) Veus is missing from the Erlanger.
If a man wants to accomplish everything through his advice and efforts, he will get nothing out of it but vanity. Many work so that they may become rich, but accomplish nothing. Others, however, become rich even without work, because God has given them the hour; to those he has not given it.
And all presuppositions 2c.
[Propositum] in the Hebrew XXX, which is generally translated by studium or beneplacitum, does not seem to me to be inappropriately translated by voluntas, as Ps. 1:2: "He takes pleasure (voluntas) in the law of the LORD"; for XXX means "that one may go about and take pleasure"; the desire (desiderium) to fulfill the law. So also here: All that men desire and wish for, they indeed seek after and want, but they only obtain plague, because they do not meet the hour which they anticipate, therefore they obtain nothing. Therefore, one should simply put things aside and use the present, and abstain from desiring future things. If you do otherwise, you will have nothing but gloom.
V. 2. There is a time to be born, there is a time to die.
He proves what he had said with examples of things and things of men. The birth, he says, has its time, likewise the death its time. And just as we do not have our birth in our power, so also not the death. And yet nothing is more (plus) ours than life and all our limbs, namely, to use them; but dominion is not given to us, even for a moment; 3) in vain, therefore, do we undertake to establish it by laws. A child is in the hand of God, and it is not born until the hour of birth has come. The women are troubled and distressed by the birth of the child, and predict the time.
3) The punctuation in the Erlanger is quite wrong here; neither here, nor before after "gebraitchen" is a distinguishing mark.
but it is nothing certain. So we do not die even when it is most dangerous and quite desperate for us, unless the hour is there. Why then do we fear death? You cannot live longer than God has decreed, nor die sooner. For so says Job, Cap. 14, 5: "Man has his appointed time, the number of his months is with thee; thou hast set a goal, which he shall not pass over."
But you say: Many perish by their own will and by their audacity, who would otherwise live longer, some have hurled themselves alive into abysses 2c., could not these then have kept life longer? I answer: No; GOD gave them the hour and also those means [to death] and the manner of death. Experience also teaches this. Some receive mortal wounds, and are easily healed and live; others are hardly slightly injured, but still die. The astrologers attribute this to the stars, others to luck. But the holy scripture attributes this to God, by whom the time (momenta) of our life and death is fixed, who cares nothing whether you die of a great or a small wound, that he may put to shame all human wisdom and counsel. 1) But this is a great comfort to Christians, that they know that death is not in the power of tyrants, nor is it put into the hands of any creature; nor are they at all afraid of death, but die as children when it pleases the Lord. Therefore, as it is said of the time of birth and death, so it must be said of all other human works, as follows:
Planting has its time, eradicate that is planted has its time.
These are works of human life, but as little in our hands as life itself. In spring the planting happens, in autumn the extermination; everything as God gives it and decrees it, and it cannot be done differently by us.
1) Wittenbergers: ^.t; Jenaers and Erlangers:
V. 3-8. strangle, heal break, build weep, laugh lament, dance scatter stones, gather stones heart, far from heart seek, lose keep, throw away tear, sew up keep silent, talk love, hate strife, peace
has its time.
Experience belongs to this register, so that it can be applied to the whole course of life. For it happens that one sows, another drives, one acquires, another scatters. In short, every single work of human life has its appointed time, outside of which one can do nothing, and in vain undertakes everything that one might undertake. Crying has its time and laughing has its time; it often happens that when we want to be most cheerful, suddenly a disturbance occurs. So happiness has its hour. All this proves by experience that we, I say, can do nothing with our advice, but that what can be done is offered at his hour. Therefore, we should not agonize over future things, but enjoy the present.
V. 9. Work as you will, you can do no more.
That is, if the time or the favorable time (χαφος) is not there, the worker does not establish anything. He, who works (factor), has nothing else than his hour, If this does not come, he can erect nothing. "But if the hour arrives, he also arrives."
V. 10. Therefore I saw the trouble that God gave to men to be troubled within.
This is an explanation of all the preceding. In all these works, he says, I saw that men do nothing by 2) themselves.
2) per is missing in the Erlanger.
unless their hour is at hand. But those who want to anticipate their hour have trouble, worry and distress, so that they may be taught by their experience and refrain from worrying about the future and make use of the present.
V. 11: But he does everything well in his time.
Now this is the other part. Those who do not expect the hour have trouble; those who expect it have joy. For everything that God does and that happens by God's gift at His hour is delightful, that is, when the heart is empty of worries, and yet it encounters something that is dear to it, or a joyful sight comes before its eyes, 2c., that gives great delight. Therefore, these people have joy where others have tribulation, because they do things in their own time, which is given to them by God.
And let her heart be troubled, how it shall go: 1) For man cannot accomplish the work which God doeth, neither the beginning nor the end.
This is a confirmation of the previous. He says: Although God has given the world into the heart of men, they cannot rule it with their counsels. But it is a Hebrew expression "to give into the heart" or "to speak into the heart" for giving or speaking sweetly and kindly. He wants to say: God gives the world not only into the power of men, that they may use the present, but also into their hearts, that they may use it pleasantly and with pleasure, "that they may have joy and delight in it". And yet man cannot know when the beginning or the end of the work is, when or how long he will have it. Therefore, man should be satisfied that he has the world to his use. In a similar way Paul says Apost. 14, 17: "And indeed he hath not left himself unwitnessed, hath done us much good, and hath given us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons,
1) The words which Luther later rendered in the Bible thus: "And let her heart be troubled, how it should go", read in our Scripture: Ut munüum üeäit in <?or eornin (he has given the world into her heart). This is what the interpretation refers to.
fills our hearts with food and joy." And in another place [1 Tim. 6:17], "Who giveth us abundantly all things to enjoy." This joy a Christian has, and any one would have it if he could be satisfied with what is present. St. Jerome rightly says in the preface to the Bible: "A believer has the whole world of riches, nor is an unbeliever the master of a penny, as the proverb says: "A miser lacks both what he has and what he does not have.
For man can not meet or find the work 2c.
That means: Man cannot know, even if he should torture himself to death, when God will do good, when to begin, when to end, just as no one can know or say the hour at which someone will be born, live or die, no matter how hard he struggles. Therefore one must say: Lord, it is up to you to give what is to come; meanwhile I will enjoy what is present and the life you have already given me. So also the other acts of life, whose register he has just listed, are not in the power of man. For if this were in the power of men, many would always make war, others would always play, build 2c., for many toil at it. Now the whole world is ours, only we are not to dictate to GOtte the time and the way we want to use it. God says: I do not want to be measured according to your counsels, otherwise everything shall be yours, and also I myself want to be yours. Now he concludes as in the previous chapter:
V. 12, 13. Therefore I perceived that there was nothing better in it than to be glad and to do him good in his life. For every man that eateth and drinketh, and is of good courage in all his work, is the gift of God.
This is sufficiently understood from the foregoing. For he wants to say: Nothing is better for a man in such troublesome business than that he enjoys the things of the present and is of a cheerful and happy spirit without sorrow and worry for the future. But that one can do this, that is
God's gift. I can teach, he says, but I cannot teach or give so that it is done. At the same time, he shows what to do and teaches where to receive it. He teaches that our worries only bring affliction, but he exhorts that one should call upon God to take away these worries and give prosperity and peace of heart.
V. 14. I noticed that everything that God does always exists; one cannot add to it, nor detract from it; and this is what God does, that one should fear Him.
That is, I have seen that all that God does endures, but our works are uncertain and vain. The contrast is to be noted. God alone, he says, can carry out his counsels and establish them at a certain hour. To whom he has given this gift of enjoying in the present, he has it. He is faithful and reliable. What he gives, no one takes away. If he gives life, no one can snatch it away, even if the world and the devil rage, because he is certain and constant. If he gives good eyes, I will keep them, even if the devil scatters all the dust of the earth in them. If he gives healthy and strong arms or legs, no one can take them 2c. Our works all have their hour, these we cannot do. Who can? God himself makes this hour, not luck or fate, as the philosophers think. If the one who made the hour allows it, it comes.
Why then does he afflict men so with these vain thoughts, having reserved this hour for things? Therefore, he says, so that people may fear him, so that we may not be presumptuous in his works, and do nothing in a hopeful and presumptuous way but from ourselves, as Paul also teaches [Rom. 4, 16. Phil. 2, 12. 13.]: Walk in fear, as you know that it does not depend on anyone's willing or running, because God himself works both the willing and the doing. Whoever believes this, namely that the things themselves are not in our hands, does nothing in a sacrilegious way, but places everything in the hands of God as the worker and expects it from him. If he gives, he enjoys it; if he does not give, he lacks it.
same, when He takes it away, He suffers it. Thus, God's glory and our humiliation and right worship remain in us. For this is to fear God, to have God before one's eyes, to know that He looks upon all our works, and to know Him as the One from whom all good and all evil come [Amos 3:6].
V. 15. what God does, that stands there; and what he wills to do, that must come to pass; for he seeks and pursues after him. 1)
Above in the first chapter [v. 9] he had said: "What is it that has happened? Just that which will happen hereafter" 2c. This is quite different from what he says here, "That which has come to pass is now here." For there he spoke of the works and things of men, here of the deeds of GOD. The human heart cannot be satisfied with what is present, nor want what is now, but what is to come. But when it has what is to come, it is not yet satisfied, but seeks something else again. The heart is not satisfied. This is the nature of the human heart, that it always looks at what is to come, and yet is not satisfied. But God does and acts in the opposite way. For with him, what has been is still there. That is, he does not turn away to future things, for it is said of him [Gen. 1:31]: "He looked at all that he had made, and behold, it was very good." God remains with His work which He does, and does not rush or fly after other and again other desires of the future, as the human mind does. And those who walk according to God also do so; they do not allow themselves to be drawn away to the future by neglecting the present. A godly man works in a constant way and enjoys things constantly.
For God seeks and pursues him.
He compares, as I said, our actions with the actions of God.
1) Different from this our Bible text Luther translates here thus: Huoä Mit, Uoe ipsurn Hain est, Huock erit, iä (MiMm. Mit. Lt Dsus Huaerit en, "tinMkl irnpeäiantur (What has been, the same is now; what will be, that has already been. And GOD strives after it, even if one tries to hinder it). The AusleguiP rhymes, however, also very well to the text of the Bible.
Our actions are such that we disregard what we have and become weary of it, and look for what we want to have. But God pursues what is there and perseveres in His work, so that what He does may endure. This is also the way the godly do. So he wants to say: Even if man wants and tries to hinder God's work, God still pursues him and defends his work, which men try to hinder, to challenge 2c. Thus God had appointed David king; Absalom persecuted him and afflicted him, but God restored that which Absalom prevented. That which comes from God is not as fickle as human counsel, for God does not grow weary of His counsel.
V. 16. 17. Further, I saw under the sun a place of judgment, where there was an ungodly creature; and a place of righteousness, where there were ungodly. Then thought I in mine heart, God must judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a season to every purpose and to every work.
What shall I say of the error and vanity of man's doings, since even in the place of judgment, that is, in the exercise of law and judgment, the ungodly and ungodliness do their thing. Solomon does not so much complain about the fact that godlessness is in the place of judgment as about the fact that godlessness cannot be stopped in the place of judgment, as if he wanted to say: Everything is so vain that even this effort to stop the unrighteousness of the rulers has no continuation. When I saw this ungodly nature, I thought of doing away with it, but I realized that I would not be able to do so until God improved it. Our Prince Frederick also used to say: The longer I rule, the less I know how to rule. Likewise: Where shall I finally find people whom I can trust? See how in all courts of princes, however good people there may be, who have the best for the state in mind and advise, you can always find some who put great difficulties in the way of everyone's advice and disturb everything. So great, therefore, is the wickedness of men, that you cannot best them all.
So Solomon wants to say this: If someone should struggle here, that he wants to improve all, he will have nothing else than tribulation and heartache. Therefore one must command GOtte and lift and clear away this stone, which one can lift and clear away; which mau not lift, one must leave lying. I, he says, have been a wise king of a holy people, and have carefully cultivated righteousness, yet I have had to leave ungodly people in public offices; though I have deposed some, yet others have always come in unawares. What should not happen to others? Therefore, the best thing would have been to execute what God gives, but to leave the rest to God, who will judge the righteous and the wicked in his time; people do not want to do it, nor are they able to do it, no matter how much they want to.
For there is a time for everything that is noble and for all works.
Everything, he says, has its time. Infirmities cannot be corrected until their appointed hour. In vain, therefore, do we anticipate this time and undertake to improve everything in the future. I did not succeed in doing this even with the authorities. Therefore, I have worked to the best of my ability and have improved what I could; the rest I have ordered GOtte to do.
V. 18, 19. I spoke in my heart of the nature of men, in which God indicates and makes them look as if they were like cattle among themselves. For man is like cattle; as these die, so dies he.
This passage is somewhat obscured, not only by its fault, but also by that of the commentators, who are very troubled, since they are generally of the opinion that Solomon speaks in the person of the wicked; but this is quite cold, although generally accepted. It seems only that the sense must be taken simply. He has given a comparison or conciliation (concionem) of men's pretensions and endeavors, namely, that all human counsels and pretensions are vain. Finally he comes to the heart
sorry with the authorities, that those who should be an example to all others are also vain. Thus he passes from the particular in the preceding to the general. What shall I say of individuals, since we are all like cattle; is not this a miserable thing among men? What difference is there 1) between them and the cattle, which likewise do not remember God? But here the question arises: Why did he compare man with cattle, as if they had nothing more than cattle, while he taught above godly being or fear of God, and that after this life there was eternal life? This is what has most troubled the commentators. The answer is briefly this: The commentators have not paid attention to the purpose (scopum) of the book, nor have they been mindful of what it so often inculcates, that it speaks of the things under the sun, for which in the New Testament and in common life the expression is used: of the things in the world. For this booklet distinguishes the godly life from the life of the world or the life under the sun. To have a joyful heart and to rejoice in the present in the fear of God is not a thing of the world, but a gift of God from heaven and above the sun. But to have tribulation in these things is not to differ from cattle in anything.
On the nature of human beings (de genere vitae filiorum hominum).
In Hebrew is a word which has a very wide meaning, but in this form it denotes the way, the condition, the order, the walk. As in the 110th Psalm, v. 4: "Thou art a priest for ever after the manner of Melchizedech." I believe that it actually means, "one being." The epistle to the Hebrews has treated this word of the Psalm gloriously. Namely, [Heb. 7:3, 17, 21.] as Melchizedek had no father and mother 2c., so art thou, saith he, 2c., after the same manner or order 2c. But this word comes from
that is thing, cause. But it denotes
1) Erlanger: ctiscivMt instead of: äiserepaM.
the behavior, the happening (contingentiam), so that the meaning is: "I spoke in my heart of the life of the people", that is, how it is with the people on earth, "how it is with the people, and how they have themselves".
For man is like cattle.
That is, the same thing happens, the same thing happens to the people as to the cattle. He wants to say: The human race is inactive (vagatur), like the cattle, and has no more profit from life than the cattle. As cattle die, so do men die. He speaks of the hour of death, not of death. That is, just as the hour of death of animals is uncertain, so also that of men. An animal does not know when it will have sickness or health, or when it will die, neither does man. Why then are we hopeful, since we have no more knowledge of the hour of death than cattle?
V. 19. 20. And all have one breath; and man hath nothing more than cattle; for all is vain. It all leads to one place; it is all made from dust and returns to dust.
This passage cannot be twisted to mean that the spirit (animi) is mortal, for it speaks of things under the sun. The world certainly cannot understand nor believe that the soul (animam) is immortal. Yes, if you look at it as it goes, and at the appearance of which Solomon says: "Man dies like cattle; men have the same breath as cattle, so we agree with the same in appearance. The philosophers have indeed discussed the immortality of the soul, but so coldly, as if they had only to do with fables, but especially Aristotle disputes so about the soul, that he has everywhere very carefully and cunningly taken care that he did not speak anywhere of its immortality, and he has not wanted to explicitly say what his opinion would be. Plato has rather reelected what he has heard, than that he has expressed his opinion. And it cannot be explained by any human reason
The immortality of the soul must be shown, because it is a thing that is not under the sun, that one believes that the soul is immortal. In the world it is not seen and recognized for certain that the souls are immortal.
It all goes to One Place 2c.
If the Lord did not give man his spirit, no one could say that man is different from cattle, because both man and cattle, having been made from the same dust, return to it. And this returning to the same place is a reason of proof for the similarity between man and cattle. Not that it is so, but because the world, which judges by the outward appearance and behavior common to both, thinks so, and cannot think otherwise; but, to believe otherwise, something higher than the world is necessary.
"By this GOD tests them" (Quo probat eos ]XXXX]). 1) The Hebrew word means to purify or choose. GOD, he says, allows both men and cattle to walk and live at the same time in the same condition, in the same form. But God allows this to test men, whether they look only at these outward things, and whether they are moved by these evidences, on which the wicked look, and do not believe other things. But also the godly are trained in this, so that they gain more faith. They walk in the same way as the wicked and the cattle, but in the spirit they are comforted and pacified within.
V. 21. Who knows whether the breath of men goes upward, and the breath of cattle goes downward under the earth?
He says par excellence: Show me a man, not of the godly, but of those who are under the sun or in the world, who can claim that the soul is
1) Here the interpretation resorts to the 18th verse, where in our Bible these words are rendered thus: "In it GOD indicates." In the editions they are highlighted in print as if they were here in the text. In the Vulgate: ut xroduret eos.
He sees that there is no difference between the living breath of men and animals, for death comes to both immediately as their breath ceases. No one among men knows this. But what we know, we know not as men, but as children of God and above the sun, since we are in the heavenly nature [Eph. 2, 6.], and belong to heaven. In the world, however, this knowledge does not exist, nor is there peace, but everything happens as with cattle. There were in Greece very excellent spirits, who nevertheless never said anything consistent about this matter. Lucian, a man of sharp mind and pleasant nature, disputes about it vehemently, but only ridicules the opinions of the philosophers of the soul.
V. 22. Therefore I see that there is nothing better than for a man to rejoice in his work, for that is his portion. For who will bring him to see what will happen after him?
This is a saying for godly people. For they have grasped this doctrine, but the wicked are tormented by the likeness of cattle, and have nothing else of their works but vanity. For this doctrine they know and believe not, because reason persuadeth them not of it. And from this passage the whole crowd of philosophers is convicted, who raise many things about the immortality of the soul, which they themselves do not believe. This, therefore, is the part of the righteous, that they enjoy the present and are not troubled by the future, but this does not happen under the sun. But those who do otherwise suffer a twofold disadvantage: they have no use for the present, and they do not gain the future. They are like the dog in Aesop, which snatches at the shadow to catch something, but loses the meat. So also those are tired of the present and look for something else. And up to now Solomon has spoken in general about the vanity of the bet in general, now the special follows.