Ecclesiastes 4:2 Komentář

Solomon, having shown the vanity of this world in the temptation which those in power feel to oppress and trample upon their subjects, here further shows, I. The temptation which the oppressed feel to discontent and impatience (Ecc 4:1-3). II. The temptation which those that love their case feel to take their case and neglect business, for fear of being envied (Ecc 4:4-6). III. The folly of hoarding up abundance of worldly wealth (Ecc 4:7, Ecc 4:8). IV. A remedy against that folly, in being made sensible of the benefit of society and mutual assistance (Ecc 4:9-12). V. The mutability even of royal dignity, not only through the folly of the prince himself (Ecc 4:13, Ecc 4:14), but through the fickleness of the people, let the prince be ever so discreet (Ecc 4:15, Ecc 4:16). It is not the prerogative even of kings themselves to be exempted from the vanity and vexation that attend these things; let none else then expect it.

INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIASTES 4 In this chapter the wise man reassumes the consideration of the case of the abuse of power, to show that there is no happiness in this world, in grandeur and authority enjoyed; since, as he had observed before, on the one hand, the oppressor shall be judged and condemned at the great day of account; so, on the other hand, the oppressed have their lives made so uncomfortable, that the dead are preferred unto them, and unborn persons to them both, Ecc 4:1; Another vanity he observes, that whereas men expect to be happy by their diligence and industry, this brings upon them the envy of others, Ecc 4:4; hence some, on the other hand, place their happiness in sloth and ease, which is another vanity, Ecc 4:5; and others again in covetousness; who are described by their unsocial life, toilsome labour, unsatisfied desires, and withholding good things from themselves, Ecc 4:7; upon which some things are said, to show the benefits of a social life, Ecc 4:9. And the chapter is concluded with exposing the vanity of the highest instance of worldly power and grandeur, royal dignity, through the folly of a king; the effects of which are mentioned, Ecc 4:13; and through the fickleness of the people, who are soon weary of a prince on the throne, and court his successor, Ecc 4:15

Wherefore I praised the dead, which are already dead,.... Truly and properly so; not in a figurative sense, as dead sinners, men dead in trespasses and sins; nor carnal professors, that have a name to live, and are dead; nor in a civil sense, such as are in calamity and distress, as the Jews in captivity, or in any affliction, which is sometimes called death: but such who are dead in a literal and natural sense, really and thoroughly dead; not who may and will certainly die, but who are dead already and in their graves, and not all these; not the wicked dead, who are in hell, in everlasting torments; but the righteous dead, who are taken away from the evil to come, and are free from all the oppressions of their enemies, sin, Satan, and the world. The Targum is, "I praised those that lie down or are asleep, who, behold, are now dead;'' a figure by which death is often expressed, both in the Old and New Testament; sleep being, as the poet (a) says, the image of death; and a great likeness there is between them; Homer (b) calls sleep and death twins. The same paraphrase adds, "and see not the vengeance which comes upon the world after their death;'' see Isa 57:1. The wise man did not make panegyrics or encomiums on those persons, but he pronounced them happy; he judged them in his own mind to be so; and to be much more happy than the living which are yet alive: that live under the oppression of others; that live in this world in trouble until now, as the Targum; of whom it is as much as it can be said that they are alive; they are just alive, and that is all; they are as it were between life and death. This is generally understood as spoken according to human sense, and the judgment of the flesh, without any regard to the glory and happiness of the future state; that the dead must be preferred to the living, when the quiet of the one, and the misery of the other, are observed; and which sense receives confirmation from Ecc 4:3, otherwise it is a great truth, that the righteous dead, who die in Christ and are with him, are much more happy than living saints; since they are freed from sin; are out of the reach of Satan's temptations; are no more liable to darkness and desertions; are freed from all doubts and fears; cease from all their labours, toil, and trouble; and are delivered from all afflictions, persecutions, and oppressions; which is not the case of living saints: and besides, the joys which they possess, the company they are always in, and the work they are employed about, give them infinitely the preference to all on earth; see Rev 14:13. (a) "Stulte, quid est semnus gelidae nisi mortis imago?" Ovid. Plato in Ciceron. Tuscul. Quaest. l. 1. c. 58. (b) Iliad. 16. v. 672, 682. Vid. Pausan. Laconica, sive l. 3. p. 195.

"So I consider more fortunate the dead, who have already died, than the living, who are still alive. But better than either of them is he who has not yet been, and has never witnessed the evil that is committed under the sun." In comparison with the difficulties, which trouble mortal men in this world, I had judged the dead to be happier than the living according to that which Job says in his argument regarding the dead: " there they rested with tired bodies, with those who had been in chains, now without cares, not hearing the voice of the expeller." [Iob. 3, 17, 18.] But it is better for these two, for the living it seems and for the deceased, who has not yet been born. For one man will suffer ill, another unclothed will escape it as if from a shipwreck. Moreover he who has not yet been born is happier in that, becausehe has not yet experienced the ill of the world. But he says this, not because he who has not yet been born, exists before he has been born, and he is happier in this, since he has not yet been weighed down by his body; but better to be sure is not existing, or not having a sense of wealth, than either being unhappy or living unhappily. Just as the Lord speaks to Judas, referring to his coming anguish: "it was better for that man never to have been born" [Matth. 26, 24.], since it would have been better for sure for him not to have existed, than to suffer eternal torture. Some people in fact understand this passage in this way: they say they are better, who have died, than those who are living, it is permitted to them before they were sinners [Cfr. Origines peri Archon I. 5,5 ; Hier. Epist 124, 3. sqq]. For until now the living were in battle and were held back as if closed in by the prison of the body; but those who have opposed death are already without cares and have stopped sinning. Just like John, in which he was not greater in respect to the sons of women, he is less than him, who is the lowest in the realm of heaven and is freed from the burden of the body. He does not know how to say like the apostle: "I am a wretched man, who will free me from the body of this death?" [Rom. 7, 14.]. But he says he is better than those two, who has not yet been born, nor does not see the wickedness, by which men are oppressed in the world. For our souls mingle among the gods, before descending to these bodies and are blessed so long as the heavenly ones are held in Jerusalem and in the choir of angels.

(Ecc. 4:1-16) returned--namely, to the thought set forth (Ecc 3:16; Job 35:9). power--MAURER, not so well, "violence." no comforter--twice said to express continued suffering without any to give comfort (Isa 53:7).

A profane sentiment if severed from its connection; but just in its bearing on Solomon's scope. If religion were not taken into account (Ecc 3:17, Ecc 3:19), to die as soon as possible would be desirable, so as not to suffer or witness "oppressions"; and still more so, not to be born at all (Ecc 7:1). Job (Job 3:12; Job 21:7), David (Psa 73:3, &c.), Jeremiah (Jer 12:1), Habakkuk (Hab 1:13), all passed through the same perplexity, until they went into the sanctuary, and looked beyond the present to the "judgment" (Psa 73:17; Hab 2:20; Hab 3:17-18). Then they saw the need of delay, before completely punishing the wicked, to give space for repentance, or else for accumulation of wrath (Rom 2:15); and before completely rewarding the godly, to give room for faith and perseverance in tribulation (Psa 92:7-12). Earnests, however, are often even now given, by partial judgments of the future, to assure us, in spite of difficulties, that God governs the earth.

"And again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold there the tears of the oppressed, and they have no comforter; and from the hand of their oppressors goeth forth violence; and they have no comforter." Incorrectly Hahn: And anew I saw, - the observation is different from that of Ecc 3:16, though cognate. Thus: And again I saw, - the expression follows the syntactic scheme of Gen 26:18; regarding the fut. consec. brought into view here and at Ecc 4:7. The second העשׁ is part. pass.; the first, as at Job 35:9, and also at Amo 3:9, is abstract (i.e., bringing the many separate instances under one general idea) pluraletantum (cf. פּדוּיי, redemti, Isa 35:10; and redemtio, pretium redemtionis, Num 3:46); the plur. נע אשׁר need not appear strange, since even חיּים is connected with the plur. of the pred., e.g., Psa 31:11; Psa 88:4. דּמעת has, as at Isa 25:8 (cf. Rev 21:4, πᾶν δάκρυον), a collective sense. The expression כּח ... וּמיּד is singular. According to the most natural impression, it seems to signify: "and from the hand of their oppressors no power of deliverance" (carrying forward אין); but the parallelism of the palindromically constructed verse (as at Ecc 1:6; Ecc 2:10; Ecc 3:16) excludes this meaning. Thus כּח is here once-nowhere else-used, like the Greek βία, in the sense of violence; Luzzatto prefers the reading וּביד, by which the expression would be in conformity with the linguistic usage; but also מיד is explained: the force which they have in their hands is, in going forth from their hands, thought of as abused, and, as taking the form of שׁד or חזקה. In view of this sorrow which men bring upon their fellow-men, life for Koheleth lost all its worth and attraction.

"And I praised the dead who were long ago dead, more than the living who are yet in life; and as happier than both, him who has not yet come into existence, who hath not seen the evil work which is done under the sun." ושׁבּח is hardly thought of as part., like יוּקשׁים = מיקּשׁים, Ecc 9:12; the m of the part. Pih. is not usually thrown away, only מהר, Zep 1:14, is perhaps = ממהר, but for the same reason as בּית־אל, Kg2 2:3, is = בּבית - אל. Thus ושׁבּח, like ונתון, Ecc 8:9, is inf. absol., which is used to continue, in an adverbially subord. manner, the preceding finite with the same subject, (Note: Also Ch1 5:20, the subject remains virtually the same: et ita quidem ut exaudirentur.) Gen 41:43; Lev 25:14; Jdg 7:19, etc.; cf. especially Exo 8:11 : "Pharaoh saw ... and hardened (והכבּד) his heart;" just in the same manner as ושׁבּח here connects itself with ושׁ אני וא. Only the annexed designation of the subject is peculiar; the syntactic possibility of this connection is established by Psa 15:5, Job 40:2, and, in the second rank, by Gen 17:10; Eze 5:14. Yet אני might well enough have been omitted had וש אני וא not stood too remote. Regarding עדנה (Note: Thus punctuated with Segol under Daleth, and ,נ raphatum, in F. H. J. P. Thus also Kimchi in W.B. under עד.) and עדן. The circumstantial form of the expression: prae vivis qui vivi sunt adhuc, is intentional: they who are as yet living must be witnesses of the manifold and comfortless human miseries. It is a question whether Ecc 4:3 begins a new clause (lxx, Syr., and Venet.) or not. That את, like the Arab. aiya, sometimes serves to give prominence to the subject, cannot be denied (vid., Bttcher, 516, and Mhlau's remarks thereto). The Mishnic expressions היּום אותו, that day, הארץ אותהּ, that land, and the like (Geiger, 14. 2), presuppose a certain preparation in the older language; and we might, with Weiss (Stud. ueber d. Spr. der Mishna, p. 112), interpret אשׁר את in the sense of אותי אשר, is qui. But the accus. rendering is more natural. Certainly the expression טוב שׁבּח, "to praise," "to pronounce happy," is not used; but to טוב it is natural to suppose וקראתי added. Jerome accordingly translates: et feliciorem utroque judicavi qui necdum natus est. הרע has the double Kametz, as is generally the case, except at Psa 54:7 and Mic 7:3. (Note: Vid., Heidenheim, Meor Enajim, under Deu 17:7.) Better than he who is born is the unborn, who does not become conscious of the wicked actions that are done under the sun. A similar thought, with many variations in its expression, is found in Greek writers; see regarding these shrill discordances, which run through all the joy of the beauty and splendour of Hellenic life, my Apologetick, p. 116. Buddhism accordingly gives to nirvna the place of the highest good. That we find Koheleth on the same path (cf. Ecc 6:3; Ecc 7:1), has its reason in this, that so long as the central point of man's existence lies in the present life, and this is not viewed as the fore-court of eternity, there is no enduring consolation to lift us above the miseries of this present world.