V. 1. 2. It is a calamity that I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men. One to whom God has given riches, goods and honor, and lacks none that his heart desires; and yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but another consumes them; this is vain, and an evil plague.
Having interposed the teaching or exhortation, he now returns to his register of the various pursuits of human life, in which vanity and misery reign. It seems, however, that what he mentions here of the rich man is the same as what he said before. But he speaks here of
Such a rich man, who has very large estates and servants and lives in good peace, without loss and damage to his goods, and yet in the midst of wealth and the highest honors is afflicted and cannot enjoy it, because either illness intervenes, or because hatred hinders him and the care for the preservation and increase of the goods. Thus he is tormented by the very things he has and becomes unhappy as a result. When a son is born to him, there is a new worry, how he can gather as much as possible for him and leave it to him, especially when he is already grown up; for it is as it is said in the proverb: Small children small worries, big children big worries. The rich collect for their children, they wish to leave them rich behind them, also to get the highest honors for them. For these are the wishes and desires of all men; yet this is quite vain. For what is it when a living man has everything, and yet has no need of any thing, but always postpones it to the future, and he reaches out for what is not there, but misses the present? He therefore describes a rich man who lacks nothing, that he might live well and pleasantly, and does not. Look at many of our noblemen who could live comfortably at home, since they have abundant possessions in their fields. But they are not satisfied, they go to the courts of princes. They expect greater things, but live exceedingly miserably. The same can be seen in rich people and merchants, who, even though they could live in peace at home, travel over land and sea with great danger to their lives and with the loss of their goods. Is this not vain and an evil plague? Therefore also follows:
V.3.4 If he beget an hundred children, and live so long as to survive many years, and his soul be not satisfied with good, and remain without a grave; of him I say that untimely birth is better than he. For in vanity he cometh, and in darkness he departeth, and his name remaineth covered in darkness.
He depicts the misery of the rich miser in a big way. No one, he says, thinks through
Scarcity to make his heirs rich. For wealth is God's gift, not the fruit of our labor. For many labor with great effort to attain riches and yet do not attain them; again, many become rich who have not anxiously sought it, so that you can clearly recognize that riches are God's gift. Nor is it in your power to make this or that heir rich. "It is said that poor people should not be rich." Do what you will, but you will not make rich the one whom God wants to be poor. Then it can also happen that this rich miser does not die in his goods, but is deprived of all 2c.
And would remain without a grave.
He continues to make misery great. That is, he may be expelled from his own, or die elsewhere than in his house.
I speak of him that untimely birth is better than he.
That is, it would be better not to be there than to be so miserable and poor in the greatest goods. This is true, if one leaves godliness aside. For compare the life of a rich and unhappy miser with one who has not yet been born, and you too will judge in the same way. He does not speak after the manner of fools, nor does Solomon assume the person of a fool, as the perverse interpreters (illi) say, but here he deals with the life of fools in his outward work. 1) He says that it is indeed better not to be born than to live like this, that is, to have wealth, honor, children, 2) long life, and yet not to enjoy it. In truth, therefore, this is understood of the wretched rich man who has what belongs to a happy life, but whose unhappy mind does not let him use these things. Surely the poor man who bears his fate with equanimity is better off than the rich man. For a wanderer who has nothing can sing even if a robber attacks him. But the rich man fears
1) Wittenberger: corpore instead of: opere. '
2) Erlanger: lidros instead of: lidoros.
The world is governed by opinions and is quite poor in the highest well-being. Quite rightly one says therefore: The world is governed by opinions. God governs with things, we toil with opinions and lose the things themselves, like the well-known dog in Aesop.
For in vanity he comes, and in darkness he goes.
That means, naked, empty, poor he comes into the world. This is how he lives, this is how he dies, because he does not enjoy things, because he only strives for the future and struggles with it. But this is nothing else than having nothing, being empty and poor.
And his name remains covered in darkness.
That is to say, he does nothing worthy of remembrance, not even with his family. The only thing that can be said about him is that he has lived neither for himself nor for others. A wretched man, whom no one would like to emulate!
V. 5: He does not enjoy the sun and knows no rest here or there.
It is a Hebrew way of speaking [in the Vulgate]: "Not seeing the sun", for: enjoying and rejoicing in things, because this bodily life has the sun, as it were, as an exceedingly holy God-power (numen), which is most necessary for mortals; without it everything appears and is sad, as also Christ says [Joh. 12, 35]: "He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going", but [Joh. 11, 9]: "He who walks by day does not stumble, for he sees the light of this world" 2c. It is therefore something exceedingly lovely that the sun shines. But the miser does not look at the light, he does not look at the sun, that is, he does not consider how good the light is; but he also does not see any creature, so that he may enjoy it and use it properly. For with him all contemplation of the benefits and creatures of God 1) perishes before his desires. He never sees how glorious a gift the daily rising sun is. He thinks
1) Erlanger: ereaturarmia rerum instead of: erealnrarnin.
nothing, admires nothing, seeks nothing but money. Thus, an ambitious man looks at nothing but honor. A wooer does not look at his wife, but always at a foreign one. That is, the present good creatures 2) do not enjoy her. Thus the wicked prepare for themselves the beginning of hell in this life, because 3) they deprive themselves of the custom of all creatures and gifts of God, so that they never see the sun, which we have daily 2c., that is, they do not enjoy the gifts of God, they always look at something else.
V. 6. Even if he lived two thousand years, he would never have good courage; would it not all come to one place?
See how great he makes the misery of the miser. That is, nothing else will happen to such a person than that the more his life is prolonged, the more his misery and heartache will be increased and prolonged. This is human life, nothing but vanity and misery, which you both experience yourself and see in others. For even the saints, though they do not live according to the flesh, are plagued by the flesh and must feel the vanity of the flesh.
Doesn't it all come in one place?
He repeats what he said above in the first chapter, v. 5: "The sun rises and sets, and returns to its place, so that it rises there again. [All waters flow again to the place whence they came." [v. 4. 1 "One generation perishes, another comes" 2c. "All things pass away from their place of origin," all things perish at last. Human life, kingdoms, and all that men have, return whence they came, from the earth to the earth, as the wind blows and blows back again, and as the sun runs back again to the place of its beginning. So Solomon wants us to stop worrying and anxiously striving for what is to come and for the provision of grids, but to enjoy what is already there. Therefore he continues:
2) Wittenberger: donis ob creaturis.
3) Instead of Hira in the editions, ^uia should probably be read.
V. 7: To every man work is laid up according to his measure, but the heart cannot keep at it.
In Hebrew it is said: All the work of man is according to his mouth, according to the manner of speaking peculiar to them. So Moses uses this word "mouth" for measure or part of Joseph, Gen. 47, 12: "He fed them and all his father's house, and gave every man his food", where it is said in Hebrew: "And feeding them after their mouth, he fed them, that is, he fed all his father's house after the manner of little children, to whom food is given even without their working. And Exodus 12:4: According to the mouths of the people of every house (singulorum) ye shall eat the passover, that is, according to the number (mensuram) of them that can eat out a lamb. So also here Solomon says that the work of all men is according to their mouth, that is, "according to their measure" or according to their allotted portion, that is, every man has his appointed work. God has assigned to every man his work according to his strength, according to his profession. This is what we say in German: "Je Jeder hat seinen bescheiden Theil." (Everyone has his modest share.) To each one God has measured out his portion. A child is to work in a different way than a man, a person in authority differently than a private man; he wants to occupy you as a child with childish tasks or work, but a prince with heavy and great ones. Hence also the common saying: Depending on the person is, one measures him also the apron coat.
So he calls us back from the worries about other things, to what is incumbent upon us. He does not forbid to work, yes, he declares that one should work, but he wants you to cheerfully do your business, according to the task given to you, and leave strange things to others. And he wants us to enjoy the good life, but in God, so that we do not revel with the wicked when the good life is there, nor grieve over it when it is not there, but bear it with equanimity. He says: "Be happy in heart and hard-working in body, but in such a way that you remain in the part that is given to you, not as an envious person who follows strange things. A
The merchant praises the life of a man of war, a man of war enumerates his accidents and hardships and praises the merchant status, the old men the youthful age. From our very great comforts we turn our eyes away, and with great lamentation we aspire to foreign things. No one can look at his good properly, nor be satisfied with his fate; if he looked at it properly, he would not strive so much for foreign things. For if the old people saw the dangers of youth, they would not wish to be young, and again the young, seeing so many troubles of old age, would gladly bear their own troubles and not be envious if old age has some good things ahead. 2c.
But we do not do that. We always look at what is foreign and despise what is ours. Thus the rich miser looks at what he does not have and covets it; what he has he does not respect. For "the heart cannot hold on," that is, it does not hold on to what it has. No one is satisfied with his lot. He who is entitled to the game always lets himself think that he would play better. When I hear another preach, I think that I could beat him in many respects. Likewise a servant thinks: If I were king, I would rule everything most wisely. So he says in Terence: I should be king! Now if he were commanded the kingdom, no greater fool could be found than he. "But it is said: God give the ride to him, 1) who does it better than he can." But the heart neglects its work, and is exceedingly busy in strange things, therefore man does neither rightly. For he who does not take care of his own will take very bad care of foreign things. God has given me work to do, so that I should not be idle, but behold, I forsake my work and trouble myself with other people's work. This is indeed the same as what he said above [Cap. 1, 8]: "The eye never sees its fill" 2c. In the same way, the heart or soul is not satisfied with desire, but is always inconstant and wanders.
1) Ritte - shaking fever. Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. VIII, 1830.
V. 8: For what does a wise man do better than a fool? What dare the poor man be among the living?
That is to say, both the wise and the fools are plagued by the desire for work that lies outside their own appointed portion, and in this the wise are no different from the fools. For both desire immoderate things, and both are carried away by the desire for other things. By "wise men," however, he understands not those who are wise in truth, but those who are wise according to their spiritual dispositions (ψυχιχώς). By "fools," however, he understands the ungodly, "the loose, nefarious, impudent people." Both, he says, have their Reasonable Work, except which they will accomplish nothing. "One will get as far as the other." Another may think or say that if he were in the magistracy he would accomplish much, but if he were a magistrate he would accomplish no more than he who now pronounces and sentences. The same is what follows:
What does the poor man 2c. dare to do?
By "the living" he understands here as above [Cap. 4, 15.] not only those who have life, but those who enjoy life, that is, live well and pleasantly. He therefore says: It is foolish that private people want to dictate to others how they should order and carry out everything, by letting themselves dream that they would take care of everything better, because nothing else happens than how it should go.
V. 9: It is better to use the present good than to think of others. This is also vanity and misery.
This whole 1) is a Hebrew way of speaking that is quite 2) unusual to us. The Hebrew word actually means a mirror, that is, a thing that presents itself to the eyes or is under the sight of the eyes. For so it is said 2 Mos. 38, 8.: "And made the handstand of brass, and his foot also of brass; against the women (de speculis mu-
etus oculorum, Huain animam - The sight of the eyes is better than the wandering of the soul.
2) Erlanger: omnidus instead of: omnino.
Around) who served at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." This should have been translated this way: He also made a handbasket 2c. under the sight of the armies that did war service at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony. For this people had women who had made vows (votarias), who stopped with prayers and petitions, and served God, and did military service day and night, as 1 Sam. 2, 22. and Luc. 2, 37. is written of Hannah that she practiced knighthood (militasse). Of this knighthood the women were called "an army of the Lord", which did military service at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony. Afterwards, however, in the course of time, this service fell away and, as Jude [vv. 16, 18] says, was turned into fornication. Thus it is said of Jacob's wife Rachel [Gen. 29:17]: She was beautiful to the mirror, that is, of reputation, "she was beautiful to look upon.
So the meaning is: It is better to enjoy what is present before the sight under the eyes, than that the soul wanders, that is, use what is present and do not wander by desire, as the dog in Aesop desires the shadow, but loses the present flesh. That which the Lord has set before thee, as it were, use, and be satisfied, and follow not thy soul, which is not satisfied, as he also said before. Therefore, by "sight of the eyes" do not understand the sight which the eyes do, but which they have of things, so that the sight is [not an active but] a suffering one, that is, that which is given to you in the presence, use that. Thus it is said of God, Gen. 1:31: "God looked upon all that he had made," 2c., that is, he rejoiced in his works, he held fast to them, he sees them, they please him, they are very good.
Thus he who is godly also holds fast to what is his, and he likes what God has given him and allotted to him in the present. The wicked, however, does not do so, but everything he sees is a torment to him, because he does not use it as a mirror, but wanders about with his soul. When he has money, he does not take pleasure in it; he does not enjoy it, but always desires something else; he takes a wife, he
desires another; he overcomes a kingdom and is not satisfied with one. Alexander looks out for another world and desires it. But all things should be a mirror for us, that we may delight in them, that we may fix our eyes and our gaze on them, enjoy them and thank God for them. Therefore, he forbids the soul to wander (ambulare, as it is called in Hebrew), that is, to wander about in thoughts and empty opinions of things, so that the essence of this passage is: Use the present and do not wander about with your desires. For this is vain, that the soul should wander.
V. 10, 11: What if a man is highly famous, but it is known that he is a man, and he cannot quarrel with that which is too powerful for him? For it is too much of a vain thing; what has a man more of it?
This can be understood sufficiently from the preceding. For we have said above [Cap. 1, 9.] of this way of speaking, "What is it that is?" 2c. In all words are Hebrew expressions, which we in German would give thus: "As it has gone, so it still goes, and as it goes, so it will go," that is, always men will be quite vain, since they desire vain things and look for them, for it is outside the word of GOD and their work assigned to them. For they do not hear the counsel of God. God has circumscribed and preordained all people with a certain limit, when they should be born, when they should die, by what name they should be called and what office they should hold, and after we are born, He offers us the present things so that we may use them. But men are not satisfied with the decree and counsel of God, and choose and desire other things, but in vain. For God alone directs what he thinks. Hence the meaning:
What is it that is there?
That is, what is the man who is already alive, or others who will be born after him? since the man is already set, what is
and what name he will acquire. But by "name" you must understand the name that will be attached to him according to his deeds, and which will be generally spread over this man, as that Caesar will be called a victor, Catilina a traitor to the fatherland 2c. These, I say, are the names determined beforehand and named beforehand by God before we are born. So also it is determined that this one shall become a cobbler, this one a priest, another one a preacher 2c. Now when all these offices and names have been determined and decided beforehand, what then does man wander about with his opinions, undertaking many things and desiring excessively? What does he go beyond the measure prescribed for him? For he accomplishes nothing other than to cause himself more heartache.
For he cannot quarrel with that which is too powerful for him.
1) Osrta stnnt ornnia IsZs (Virgil). Cf. Walch, St. Louis edition, vol. XVIII, 1694.
2) quis is missing in the Erlanger.
one about the Orient, the other about the Occident, but he failed. Look at the thoughts of Caesar, how far he failed; even the pope did not go beyond his plan. For their name was named and determined; they went beyond the measure set for them. Therefore they fought against that which was too powerful for them, and thereby obtained nothing but suffering and fear and misfortune.
Since you now see that everything is ordered by a certain law, both your name and your office, but, nevertheless not satisfied with it, act against it and resist it, you swim against the current and yet accomplish nothing, however much you may wisely advise 1) and do; only you will cause many words: "Nothing more comes of it than that one speaks of it. Thus Plato wrote many things, likewise Aristotle many things, how one must govern a state, and of civil manners 2c. But they are only words and remain words, on which nothing follows. Afterwards, when they saw that it had no progress, they wished to help things with other and new counsels and laws, saying: Oh, that we had acted thus, for they were wise, since it was too late (post factum). Therefore, both the histories of the Gentiles and of the Jews teach that, apart from the work assigned, nothing can be done by anyone, whether he is wise or foolish. Only that the histories of the Jews happened in the word of God and teach us that everything happens according to the decree of God, and for this reason it is safer that we keep to them; otherwise the histories of the Gentiles are just as wonderful and great, but they happened outside the word of God.
Cap. 7, 1. For who knows what is useful to a man in life, as long as he lives in his vanity?
1) Erlanger: eonsoleris instead of: eonsnlueris, which the Wittenberger correctly offers. Jenaer: eonsulerig.
Which passes away like a shadow? Or who will tell man what will come after him under the sun?
That is, no man knows what is good for him in life; they do not know how to enjoy things, they do not know how to have a calm heart. The aspirations of men are many; one seeks dominion, another wealth, and yet they do not know whether they will attain it; they enjoy neither the present nor the future. They desire only the good they do not have and do not see. This is a general saying in which all men are resolved. No one knows what he brings about about himself. Thus Cicero and Demosthenes, although they had written much about the state and wanted to help it with their advice, ruled it most unhappily. Similarly, the monks and the papists want to rule the world, and behold, they seduce it and plunge it into the gravest dangers and the deepest darkness.
Or who will tell man what will come after him? 2c.
He does not speak of what will happen after this life, but what will come after the present hour, and after we have made use of the present things. Nobody knows what will happen, whether Antonius will stay alive, whether Brutus and Cassius will win. Since Julius [Caesar] already had the success from his side, he was anxious to order the rule, but he perished just when he was dealing with it. Why then do we trouble ourselves so with thoughts, since the future is not in our power at any moment? Therefore, we should be content with the present, and entrust ourselves into the hand of God, who alone knows and governs the past and the future.