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The Words of the Preacher
Ecclesiastes Revisited
Part II of III
Hope
There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.
So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he. For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?
I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.
Joy
Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me: Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.
So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.
I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
Increase
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
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? All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him? Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.
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. Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.
In the Hand of God
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done. Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place? Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better? For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living? Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.
He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.
This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity. 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?
For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
Shhh!
I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness: and I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found. Whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good. And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.
For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
[ Ecclesiastes Revisited, Part I ]
[ Ecclesiastes Revisited, Part III ]
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