Ecclesiastes 8:8

[There is] no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit,.... Which is not to be understood of the wind, which the word used sometimes signifies, and of men's having no power to

There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

The spirit, i.e. the soul of man, which is oft called a spirit, as 10:12 104:29, &c. To retain the spirit; to keep it in the body beyond the time which God hath allotted to it. This is added as another evidence of man’ s misery. In the day; or, against the day, i.e. to avoid or delay that day. There is no discharge, as there is in other wars, when soldiers either are dismissed from the service, or escape by flight or otherwise. In that war; in that fatal conflict between life and death, between nature and the disease, when a man is struggling with death, though to no purpose, for death shall always be conqueror. Neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it; and although wicked men, who most fear death, use all possible means, whether good or bad, to free themselves from this deadly blow, yet they shall not escape it.

Ecclesiastes 8:8 [There is] no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither [hath he] power in the day of death: and [there is] no discharge in [that] war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.Ver. 8. There is no man that hath power, &c.] Death man is sure to meet with, whatsoever he miss of, but when he knows not neither. Of doomsday there are signs affirmative and negative, not so of death. Every one hath his own balsam within him, say some chemists, his own bane it is sure he hath. Ipsa suis augmentis vita ad detrimenta impellitur, Every day we yield somewhat to death. Stat sua cuique dies, Our last day stands, the rest run. Death is this only king, against whom there is no rising up The mortal scythe is master of the royal sceptre, and it mows down the lilies of the crown as well as the grass of the field, saith a reverend writer. And again, death suddenly snatcheth away physicians, oft as it were in scorn and contempt of medicines when they are applying their preservatives or restoratives to others, as it is reported of Gaius Julius, a surgeon, who dressing a sore eye, as he drew the instrument over it, was struck with an instrument of death in the act and place where he did it. Besides diseases, many by mischances are taken, as a bird with a bolt while he gazeth at the bow. There is no discharge in war.] Heb., No sending either of forces to withstand death, or of messages to make peace with him. The world and we must part, and whether we be unstitched by parcels, or torn asunder at once, the difference is not great. Happy is he that after due preparation is passed through the gates of death ere he be aware, saith one. Whether my death be a burnt-offering of martyrdom, or a peace offering of a natural death, I desire it may be a freewill offering, a sweet sacrifice to the Lord, saith another. Neither shall wickedness deliver.] No; it is righteousness only that delivereth from death. The wicked may make "a covenant with death," but God will disannul it. "Shall they escape by iniquity?" saith the Psalmist. What! have they no better mediums? No; "in thine anger cast down the people, O God." Every man should die the same day that he is born; the wages of death should be paid him presently; but Christ begs their lives for a season, he is the "Saviour of all men," not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation, that his elect might lay hold on eternal life, and reprobates may have this for a bodkin at their hearts one day: I was in a fair possibility of being delivered. Greg., Moral. Virg. Aeneid. Nulli cedo. Mr Ley, his Monitor of Mortality.

(8) Spirit.—As has been remarked in similar cases, the translation “wind” is possible; but the rendering of the whole verse as given in our version seems to me as good as any that it has been proposed to substitute. Discharge.—Elsewhere only (Psalms 78:49) where it is translated “sending.”

Verse 8. There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit] The Chaldee has, "There is no man who can rule over the spirit of the breath, so as to prevent the animal life from leaving the body of man." Others translate to this sense: "No man hath power over the wind to restrain the wind; and none has power over death to restrain him; and when a man engages as a soldier, he cannot be discharged from the war till it is ended; and by wickedness no man shall be delivered from any evil." Taking it in this way, these are maxims which contain self-evident truths. Others suppose the verse to refer to the king who tyrannizes over and oppresses his people. He shall also account to God for his actions; he shall die, and he cannot prevent it; and when he is judged, his wickedness cannot deliver him.

8. There is no man that hath power over the spirit] The word for “spirit,” may mean either “the wind” or the “spirit,” the “breath of life” in man, and each sense has been adopted by many commentators. Taking the former, which seems preferable, the latter involving a repetition of the same thought in the two clauses of the verse, we have a parallel in Proverbs 30:4, perhaps also in John 3:8. Man is powerless to control the course of the wind, so also is he powerless (the words, though general in form, point especially to the tyrannous oppressor,) to control the drift of things, that is bearing him on to his inevitable doom. The worst despotism is, as Talleyrand said of Russia, “tempered by assassination.” neither hath he power in the day of death] Better, over the day of death. The analogy of the previous clause, as to man’s impotence to control or direct the wind, suggests that which is its counterpart. When “the day of death” comes, whether by the hand of the assassin, or by disease and decay, man (in this case again the generalized thought applies especially to the oppressor) has no power, by any exercise of will, to avert the end. The word for “power” in the second clause is, as in Daniel 3:3, the concrete of the abstract form in the first, There is no ruler in the day of death.there is no discharge in that war] The word for “discharge” occurs elsewhere only in Psalms 78:49, where it is rendered “sending,” and as the marginal reading (“no casting of weapons”) shews has been variously interpreted. That reading suggests the meaning that “in that war (against death), there is no weapon that will avail.” The victorious leader of armies must at last succumb to a conqueror mightier than himself. The text of the English version is probably, however, correct as a whole, and the interpolated “that,” though not wanted, is perhaps excusable. The reference is to the law (Deuteronomy 20:5-8) which allowed a furlough, or release from military duty, in certain cases, and which the writer contrasts with the inexorable sternness which summons men to their battle with the king of terrors, and that a battle with a foregone and inevitable conclusion. Here the strict rigour of Persian rule under Darius and Xerxes, which permitted no exemption from service in time of war, was the true parallel (Herod. iv. 84, vii. 38). neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it] Better, neither shall wickedness deliver its lord. The last word is the same as Baal, in the sense of a “lord” or “possessor,” and is joined with words expressing qualities to denote that they are possessed in the highest degree. Thus “a lord of tongue” is a “babbler” (ch. Ecclesiastes 10:11), “lord of hair” is “a hairy man” (2 Kings 1:8), and so on. Here, therefore, it means those who are specially conspicuous for their wickedness.

Neither hath he power - Rather: “and there is no power.” Compare Ecclesiastes 3:19. No discharge ... - i.

8. No man… hath power… to retain — The tyrant is still spoken of as liable to all human liabilities.