Ecclesiastes 1:1

The words of the preacher,.... Or the preacher's sermon. The whole book is one continued discourse, and an excellent one it is; consisting not of mere words, but of solid matter; of things of the

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. The Preacher - and Convener of assemblies for the purpose. See my Preface. Qohelet (H6953) in Hebrew.

CHAPTER 1 All is vanity; our labour great and unprofitable, Ecclesiastes 1:1-3. The whole course of things is always going and returning, Ecclesiastes 1:4-7. Nothing in nature is satisfied, Ecclesiastes 1:8. Nothing new; old things are forgot, Ecclesiastes 1:9-11. The search after wisdom is itself a vain labour; cannot supply our natural wants, nor satisfy our desires; but increaseth sorrow: all this the Preacher found out by experience, Ecclesiastes 1:12-18. The Preacher; who was not only a king, but also a teacher of God's people, which he did both by words, upon some solemn occasions, and by writings; who having sinned grievously and scandalously in the eyes of all the world, justly thought himself obliged to preach or publish his true repentance for all his folly and wickedness, and to give public warning and wholesome counsels to all persons to avoid those rocks upon which he had split. The Hebrew properly signifies either gathering or gathered; and so it signifies either, 1. A preacher, as it is commonly rendered, whose office it is to gather in souls unto God or his church. Or, 2. A penitent or convert, or one gathered or brought back by true repentance to God, and to his church, from which he had so wickedly revolted. King of Jerusalem: this is added partly as a description of the person or author of this book, Solomon, who was the only man that was both son of David, properly so called, and king of Jerusalem; and partly as an aggravation of his sin, because he was the son of David, a wise and godly father, who had given him both excellent counsel, and, for his general course, a good example: and for the evil example which he gave him in the matter of Uriah, that also, considered with his hearty and effectual repentance for it, and the dreadful punishments of it upon his person and family, was a fair warning and most powerful instruction to him to learn by his father's example, and because he was a king, not by birth, for he was not David's eldest son, but by the special favour and designation of that God whom he had now so ill requited, and that in Jerusalem, a holy city, the place of God's special presence, and of his worship, where he had daily opportunities to know and obligations to practise better things, which place he had defiled by his horrid sins, and thereby made it, and all God's people, and the true religion, and the name of the blessed God, odious and contemptible amongst all the nations round about him.

Ecclesiastes 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.Ver. 1. The words.] Golden words, weighty, and worthy of all acceptation; grave and gracious apophthegms, or rather oracles, meet to be well remembered. Solomon’ s sapiential sermon of the sovereign good, and how to attain to it; Solomon’ s soliloquy, as some style it; others, his sacred retractations; others, his ethics, or tractate de summo bono, of the chiefest good, compiled and composed with such a picked frame of words, with such pithy strength of sentences, with such a thick series of demonstrative arguments, that the sharp wit of all the philosophers, compared with this divine discourse, seems to be utterly cold, and of small account; their elaborate treatises of happiness to be learned dotages, and laborious loss of time. How many different opinions there were among them concerning the chief good in Solomon’ s days is uncertain. Various of them he confuteth in this book, and that from his own experience, the best school dame. But Varro, the most learned of the Romans, reckoneth up two hundred and eighty in his time; and no wonder, considering man’ s natural blindness, not unlike that of the Syrians at Dothan, or that of the Sodomites at Lot’ s door. What is an eye without the optic spirit but a dead member? and what is all human wisdom without divine illumination but wickedness of folly, yea, foolishness of madness? as our preacher, not without good cause, calleth it. "A spirit there is in man," saith Elihu - viz., the light of reason; and thus far the animal man goes, and there he makes a halt; he cannot transcend his orb - but "the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." God had given Solomon wisdom above any man; Abulensis saith above Adam in his innocence, which I believe not. He was παιδαριογερων - as Macarius was called - a man at twelve years old. His father, had taught him; his mother had lessoned him; the prophet Nathan had had the breeding of him. But besides, as he was Jedidiah, loved of God, so he was θεοδιδακτος, taught of God. And being now, when he penned this penitential sermon, grown an old man, he had experimented all this that he here affirmeth; so that he might better begin his speech to his scholars than once Augustus Caesar did to his soldiers, Audite senem iuvenes, quem iuvenem senes audierunt, Young men, hearken to me, an old man, whom old men hearkened unto when I was yet but young. "Have not I written for you excellent things in counsel and knowledge?" Or, have I not written three books for thee - so some read those words - proverbial, penitential, nuptial? See the note there. “ Nescis temerarie, nescis Quem fugias, ideoque fugis.” - Ovid. Metam. Surely, "if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that speaketh unto thee," thou wouldst "incline thine ear and hear," thou wouldst listen as for life itself.

(1) The words.—The Book of Nehemiah begins similarly; so do the prophecies of Jeremiah and Amos, and of Agur and Lemuel (Proverbs 30, 31) The Preacher.—Rather, convener (see Introduction). This word (Kohéleth) occurs in this book, Ecclesiastes 1:1-2; Ecclesiastes 1:12; Ecclesiastes 7:27, where, according to our present text, it is joined with a feminine, being elsewhere used with a masculine; and Ecclesiastes 12:8-10, having the article in the first of these passages, and there only, being elsewhere used as a proper name.

ECCLESIASTES OR, THE PREACHER -Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3027. -Year from the Flood of Noah, according to the common Hebrew text, 1371. -Year before the birth of Christ, 973. -Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 977. -N. B. The time when this book was written is very uncertain: the above chronology is agreeable to that contained in the present authorized version. CHAPTER I The prophet shows that all human courses are vain, 1-4. The creatures are continually changing, 5-8. There is nothing new under the sun, 9-11. Who the prophet was, his estate and his studies, 12-18. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. The words of the Preacher] Literally, "The words of Choheleth, son of David, king of Jerusalem." But the Targum explains it thus: "The words of the prophecy, which Choheleth prophesied; the same is Solomon, son of David the king, who was in Jerusalem. For when Solomon, king of Israel, saw by the spirit of prophecy that the kingdom of Rehoboam his son was about to be divided with Jeroboam, the son of Nebat; and the house of the sanctuary was about to be destroyed, and the people of Israel sent into captivity; he said in his word -Vanity of vanities is all that I have laboured, and David my father; they are altogether vanity." The word קהלת Koheleth is a feminine noun, from the root קהל kahal, to collect, gather together, assemble; and means, she who assembles or collects a congregation; translated by the Septuagint, εκκλησιαστης, a public speaker, a speaker in an assembly; and hence translated by us a preacher. In my old MS. Bible it is explained thus: a talker to the peple; or togyder cleping.

1. The words of the Preacher] For the title of the Book and the meaning of the word translated “Preacher” (better, Debater, or, perhaps, as the Hebrew noun has no article, Koheleth, as a proper name, carrying with it the meaning of Debater), see Introduction. The description “king in Jerusalem” is in apposition with “the Preacher” not with “David.” It is noticeable that the name of Solomon is not mentioned as it is in the titles of the other two books ascribed to him (Proverbs 1:1; Son 1:1).

Preacher - literally, Convener. No one English word represents the Hebrew קהלת qôheleth adequately.

1. Words of the Preacher — The title of the book is already discussed in the Introduction.