Ecclesiastes 12:9 - Exposition

And moreover ; וְיֹתֵר ; καὶ περισσόν ; rather, with the following שֵׁ , besides that . The Preacher was wise. If we render "because the Preacher was wise," we are making an unnecessary statement, as the whole book has demonstrated this fact, which goes without saying. What the writer here asserts is that Koheleth did not merely possess wisdom, but had made good use of it for the instruction of others. The author throws aside his disguise, and speaks of his object in composing the book, with a glance at the historical Solomon whom he had personated. That he uses the third person in relation to himself is nothing uncommon in historical memoirs, etc. Thus Daniel writes; and St. John, Thucydides, Xenophon, Caesar, mask their personality by dropping their identity with the author (comp. also Ecclesiastes 1:2 ; Ecclesiastes 7:27 ). The attestation that follows is compared with that at the end of St. John's Gospel ( John 21:24 ), and is plainly intended to confirm the authority of the writer, and to enforce on the hearer the conviction that, though Solomon himself did not compose the work, it has every claim to receive attention, and possesses intrinsic value. He still taught the people knowledge. As well as being esteemed one of the company of sages, he further ( od ) took pains to instruct his contemporaries, to apply his wisdom to educational purposes. Yea, he gave good heed ; literally, he weighed (like our word "ponder"); only thus used in this passage. It denotes the careful examination of every fact and argument before it was presented to the public. Sought out, and set in order many proverbs. There is no copula in the original; the weighing and the investigation issued in the composition of "proverbs," which term includes not only the wit and wisdom of past ages in the form of pithy sayings and apophthegms, but also parables, truths in metaphorical guise, riddles, instructions, allegories, etc; all those forms which are found in the canonical Book of Proverbs. The same word ( mishle ) is used here as in the title of that book. Koheleth, however, is not necessarily referring to that work (or to 1 Kings 4:29 , etc.), or implying that he himself wrote it; he is only putting forth his claim to attention by showing his patient assiduity in the pursuit of wisdom, and how that he adopted a particular method of teaching. For the idea contained in the verb taqan , "to place or make straight" ( Ecclesiastes 1:15 ; Ecclesiastes 7:13 ), applied to literary composition, Delitzsch compares the German word for" author" ( Schriftsteller ). The notion of the mashal being similitude, comparison, the writer's pondering and searching were needed to discover hidden analogies, and, by means of the known and familiar, to lead up to the more obscure and abstruse. The Septuagint has a curious and somewhat unintelligible rendering, καὶ οὖς ἐξιχνιάσεται κόσμιον παραβολῶν , "And the ear will trace out the order of parables," which Schleusner translates, "elegantes parabolas."