Ecclesiaste 3:15 Commento

Solomon having shown the vanity of studies, pleasures, and business, and made it to appear that happiness is not to be found in the schools of the learned, nor in the gardens of Epicurus, nor upon the exchange, he proceeds, in this chapter, further to prove his doctrine, and the inference he had drawn from it, That therefore we should cheerfully content ourselves with, and make use of, what God has given us, by showing, I. The mutability of all human affairs (Ecc 3:1-10). II. The immutability of the divine counsels concerning them and the unsearchableness of those counsels (Ecc 3:11-15). III. The vanity of worldly honour and power, which are abused for the support of oppression and persecution if men be not governed by the fear of God in the use of them (Ecc 3:16). For a check to proud oppressors, and to show them their vanity, he reminds them, 1. That they will be called to account for it in the other world (Ecc 3:17). 2. That their condition, in reference to this world (for of that he speaks), is no better than that of the beasts (Ecc 3:18-21). And therefore he concludes that it is our wisdom to make use of what power we have for our own comfort, and not to oppress others with it.

INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIASTES 3 The general design of this chapter is to confirm what is before observed, the vanity and inconstancy of all things; the frailty of man, and changes respecting him; his fruitless toil and labour in all his works; that it is best to be content with present things, and cheerful in them, and thankful for them; that all comes from the hand of God; that such good men, who have not at present that joy that others have, may have it, since there is a time for it; and that sinners should not please themselves with riches gathered by them, since they may be soon taken from them, for there is a time for everything, Ecc 3:1; of which there is an induction of particulars, Ecc 3:2; so that though every thing is certain with God, nothing is certain with men, nor to be depended on, nor can happiness be placed therein; there is no striving against the providence of God, nor altering the course of things; the labour of man is unprofitable, and his travail affliction and vexation, Ecc 3:9; and though all God's works are beautiful in their season, they are unsearchable to man, Ecc 3:11; wherefore it is best cheerfully to enjoy the present good things of life, Ecc 3:12; and be content; for the will and ways and works of God are unalterable, permanent, and perfect, Ecc 3:14; and though wicked men may abuse the power reposed in them, and pervert public justice, they will be called to an account for it in the general judgment, for which there is a time set, Ecc 3:16; and yet, such is the stupidity of the generality of men, that they have no more sense of death and judgment than the brutes, and live and die like them, Ecc 3:18; wherefore it is best of all to make a right use of power and riches, or what God has given to men, for their own good and that of others, since they know not what shall be after them, Ecc 3:22.

That which hath seen is now; and that which is to be hath already been,.... That which has been from the beginning now is; that which cometh, and what shall be in the end of days, has been already, as the Targum. Jarchi interprets this of God and his attributes, which are always the same; he is the "I am that I am", Exo 3:14; the immutable and eternal Jehovah, which is, and was, and is to come, invariably the same. Or rather it designs his decrees and purposes; what has been decreed in his eternal mind is now accomplished; and what is future has been already in his decrees; nor does anything come to pass but what he has appointed. So it is interpreted, in an ancient tract (p) of the Jews, of "what was before it came into the world, so that there is nothing new under the sun; now it is obliged to come into this world, as it is said, "before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee", Jer 1:5.'' This will also hold true of natural things, and of the identity of them; of some individuals, as the sun, moon, and stars, which are as they always were, and will be; the sun rises and sets as it used to do; and the moon increases and decreases, as it always has done; and the stars keep the same station or course, and so they ever will, as they have: the same seasons are now in their turn as heretofore, and such as will be have been already; as summer, winter, spring, autumn, seedtime, harvest, cold, heat, night, and day: the same kinds and species of creatures, that have been, are; and what will be have been already; so that there is no new thing under the sun; the same thing is here expressed as in Ecc 1:9; and God requireth that which is past; his decrees and purposes to be fulfilled, which are past in his mind; the same seasons to return which have been; and the same kinds and species of creatures to exist which have already. The words may be rendered, "and God seeketh that which is pursued", or "persecuted" (q): and accordingly the whole will bear a different sense; and the preacher may be thought to have entered upon a new subject, which he continues in some following verses, the abuse of power and authority: and the meaning then is, the same acts of injustice, violence, and persecution, have been done formerly as now, and now as formerly; and what hereafter of this kind may be, will be no other than what has been; from the beginning persecution was; Cain hated and slew his brother, because of his superior goodness; and so it always has been, is, and will be, that such who are after the flesh persecute those who are after the spirit; but God will make inquisition for blood, and require it at the hands of those that shed it; he will seek out the persecuted, and vindicate him, and, avenge his persecutor. This way the Midrash, Jarchi, and Alshech, and the Septuagint version, render the words; and so the Syriac version, "God seeketh him that is afflicted, who is driven away"; and to this agrees the Targum, "and in the great day which shall be, the Lord will require the mean and poor man of the hands of the wicked that persecute him.'' And what follows seems to confirm this sense. (p) Tikkune Zohar Correct. 69. fol. 104. 2. (q) "Deus quaerit propulsum, seu quod persecutionem veluti passum est", Gejerus, Schmidt.

"What has been, already exists, and what is still to be, has already been, and God seeks him that suffers persecution." All things we perceive in the past, present or future, they themselves have been, are, and will be. That same sun which now rises, existed before we were in this world, and after we die, it will rise again. But we have mentioned the sun, so that we understand other things to be the same as they have been before. Because if they are seen to die by what we call death, they do not really die, but grow again given a second life, and nothing dies forever but is reborn and relives as if with a certain new seed. For this is what he says: "and God seeks him that suffers persecution", which is said better in Greek "kai ho theos zetesei to diokomenon "that is what dies, what has perished, and has ceased to be. But if that speaks about all that are in the world there is no doubt about man, that having died he will be reborn. But if anyone likes to choose a beginning as if his own, "and God seeks him that suffers persecution", he uses this evidence in the persecution of certain people: to comfort him, who had persevered in martyrdom. And since all in this world, who want to live religiously, follow the apostle, they suffer persecution and take consolation in the fact that God seeks him that suffers persecution, just as he seeks out the blood of a man who has been murdered, and comes to seek what has perished, and carry the wandering sheep back to the flock on his shoulders. [Cfr Luc. 19, 10 ; 15, 4-7.]

If those are “blessed who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” and at the same time the kingdom of heaven is the totality of the ideas of the things that have been and will come into being, then it follows that the persecuted are blessed because they have insight into the knowledge of created things.

“Our Father.” No one should be astonished that one not yet born calls God Father. With God, beings who will be born are already born; with God future beings have been made. “The things that shall be,” Scripture says, “have already been.” [Thus] it is that while John was still in the womb he perceived his creator, and he who was unaware of his own life served as a messenger to his mother. [Thus] too we read that Jacob waged war before he was born and triumphed before he lived. [Thus] too, those who do not yet exist themselves are existent for God, that is, those who were chosen before the foundation of the world.

(Ecc. 3:1-22) Man has his appointed cycle of seasons and vicissitudes, as the sun, wind, and water (Ecc 1:5-7). purpose--as there is a fixed "season" in God's "purposes" (for example, He has fixed the "time" when man is "to be born," and "to die," Ecc 3:2), so there is a lawful "time" for man to carry out his "purposes" and inclinations. God does not condemn, but approves of, the use of earthly blessings (Ecc 3:12); it is the abuse that He condemns, the making them the chief end (Co1 7:31). The earth, without human desires, love, taste, joy, sorrow, would be a dreary waste, without water; but, on the other hand, the misplacing and excess of them, as of a flood, need control. Reason and revelation are given to control them.

Resumption of Ecc 1:9. Whatever changes there be, the succession of events is ordered by God's "everlasting" laws (Ecc 3:14), and returns in a fixed cycle. requireth that . . . past--After many changes, God's law requires the return of the same cycle of events, as in the past, literally, "that which is driven on." The Septuagint and Syriac translate: "God requireth (that is, avengeth) the persecuted man"; a transition to Ecc 3:16-17. The parallel clauses of the verse support English Version.

"That which is now hath been long ago; and that which will be hath already been: God seeketh after that which was crowded out." The words: "hath been long ago" (הוּא כּבר), are used of that which the present represents as something that hath been, as the fruit of a development; the words: "hath already been" (היה כּבר), are used of the future (ל אשׁר, τὸ μέλλον, vid., Gesen. 132. 1), as denying to it the right of being regarded as something new. The government of God is not to be changed, and does not change; His creative as well as His moral ordering of the world produces with the same laws the same phenomena (the ו corresponds to this line of thought here, as at Ecc 3:14) - God seeks את־ן (cf. Ecc 7:7; Ewald, 277d). Hengstenberg renders: God seeks the persecuted (lxx, Symm., Targ., Syr.), i.e., visits them with consolation and comfort. Nirdaph here denotes that which is followed, hunted, pressed, by which we may think of that which is already driven into the past; that God seeks, seeks it purposely, and brings it back again into the present; for His government remains always, and brings thus always up again that which hath been. Thus Jerome: Deut instaurat quod abiit; the Venet.: ὃ τηεὸς ζητήσει τὸ ἀπεληλαμένον; and thus Geier, among the post-Reform. interpreters: praestat ut quae propulsa sunt ac praeterierunt iterum innoventur ac redeant; and this is now the prevailing exposition, after Knobel, Ewald, and Hitzig. The thought is the same as if we were to translate: God seeks after the analogue. In the Arab., one word in relation to another is called muradif, if it is cogn. to it; and mutaradifat is the technical expression for a synonym. In Heb. the expression used is שׁמות נרדּפים, they who are followed the one by another, - one of which, as it were, treads on the heels of another. But this designation is mediated through the Arab. In evidence of the contrary, ancient examples are wanting.