Ecclesiastes 1:16 - Exposition

Koheleth now arrives at his first conclusion, that wisdom is vanity. I communed with mine own heart . The expression suggests, as it were, an internal dialogue, as the Greek Venetian puts it, διείλεγμαι ἐγὼ ξὺν τῇ καρδίᾳ μου (comp. Ecclesiastes 2:1 , Ecclesiastes 2:15 ). Lo, I am come to great estate. If this be taken by itself, it makes Koheleth speak of his power and majesty first, and of his progress in wisdom afterwards; but it is best to connect it with what follows, and to confine the clause to one idea; thus: "I have obtained great and ever greater wisdom"—I have continually added to my stores of knowledge and experience. Than all they ( above all ) that have been before me in ( over ) Jerusalem . Who are the rulers alluded to? Solomon himself was only the second of the Israelite kings who reigned there; of the Canaanite princes who may have made that their capital, we have no knowledge, nor is R likely that Solomon would compare himself with them. The Targum has altered the approved reading, and gives, "Above all the wise men that were in Jerusalem before me." The reading, "in [instead of 'over'] Jerusalem," has indeed some manuscript authority, and is confirmed by the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac, but it is evidently a correction of the text by critics who saw the difficulty of the authorized wording. Motais and others assert that the preposition in the Masoretic text, עַל ( all , often means "in," as well as "over," when the reference is to an elevated spot; e . g . Isaiah 38:20 ; Hosea 11:11 . But even granting this, we are still uncertain who are the persons meant. Commentators point to Melchizedek, Adonizedek, and Araunah among rulers, and to Ethan, Heman, Chalcol, and Darda ( 1 Kings 4:31 ) among sages. But we know nothing of the wisdom of the former, and there is no tangible reason why the latter should be designated "before me in Jerusalem." Doubtless the words point to a succession of kings who had reigned in Jerusalem, and the writer, involuntarily, perhaps, betrays his assumed character, in relying an excusable anachronism, while giving to the personated monarch a position which could not belong to the historical Solomon. Yea, my heart had great experience of ( hath seen abundantly , κατὰ πολύ Venetian) wisdom and knowledge , הַרְבֵה used adverbially qualifies the word before it, "hath seen." The heart, as we have observed (verse 13), is considered the seat of the intellectual life. In saying that the heart hath seen wisdom, the writer means that his mind has taken it in, apprehended and appropriated it (comp. Ecclesiastes 8:16 ; Job 4:8 ). Wisdom and knowledge ; chokmah and daath ; σοφίαν καὶ γνῶσιν , the former regarding the ethical and practical side, the latter the speculative, which leads to the other (comp. Isaiah 33:6 ; Romans 11:33 ).