Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues to show the vanity and miseries of the miser, who, though he abounds in goods, nevertheless by his avarice cheats his own spirit of them, and often leaves the goods collected with so much sweat to a stranger: hence he pronounces a stillborn child to be better than him, and adds other arguments of his vanity and unhappiness. He treated the same matter in the preceding chapters; therefore I shall be brief here.
Vulgate Text: Ecclesiastes 6:1-12
1. There is also another evil which I have seen under the sun, and indeed it is frequent among men: 2. A man to whom God has given riches, and substance, and honor, and his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God does not grant him the power to eat from it, but a stranger shall devour it. This is vanity and a great misery. 3. If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, and have many days of life, and his soul does not use the goods of his substance, and he lacks burial: concerning this one I declare that a stillborn child is better than he. 4. For he comes in vain, and passes into darkness, and his name shall be blotted out by oblivion. 5. He has not seen the sun, nor known the difference between good and evil. 6. Even if he lives two thousand years and has not enjoyed his goods: do not all things hasten to one place? 7. All the labor of man is in his mouth, but his soul will not be filled. 8. What has the wise man more than the fool? And what has the poor man, except that he goes there where life is? 9. It is better to see what you desire than to desire what you do not know; but this too is vanity and a presumption of spirit. 10. He who is to be, his name is already called; and it is known that he is a man, and cannot contend in judgment against one stronger than himself. 11. There are very many words, and they have much vanity in disputing.
Verse 1: THERE IS ALSO ANOTHER EVIL (the Septuagint: πονηρία, that is, malice, that is, misery, affliction), WHICH I HAVE SEEN UNDER THE SUN, AND INDEED IT IS FREQUENT AMONG MEN. — The Hebrew: much over men...
1. THERE IS ALSO ANOTHER EVIL (the Septuagint: πονηρία, that is, malice, that is, misery, affliction), WHICH I HAVE SEEN UNDER THE SUN, AND INDEED IT IS FREQUENT AMONG MEN. — The Hebrew: much over men; the Chaldean: over the sons of men; Symmachus: among men; the Arabic: under heaven; the Septuagint: under man, because, namely, men willingly brood over it and lie in it, so that they seem to wish to be evil, that is, vain and wretched, just as a scabby person delights in scratching his scab and itch, even though by doing so he fosters and increases his scab. The same evil is over man, because it dominates him and torments and vexes him. Hence the Tigurina translates: it is an evil holding dominion among men. Another: it is a very great evil among men.
The word 'another' is not in the Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, or Arabic, but was added by the Translator for the sake of explanation. For it signifies another misery of avarice, and a vanity distinct from that which he reviewed in the preceding chapter, verse 12, namely, that riches are often gathered to the harm of the rich man, and avarice destroys its miserly master. Here therefore he weaves in another vanity of avarice, or rather another species of its vanity, namely that the miser is in want amid his riches and leaves them to a stranger who will squander them. For although at the end of the preceding chapter he said that it is a great good and gift of God to use and enjoy one's own things, yet the contrary vanity of the miser, who does not dare to use his own things, he did not review — which therefore he does here. Moreover this avarice is frequent among men, especially the Jews, to whom Solomon writes these things. Hence we still see Jews thinking of nothing but profits and riches, and pursuing them through usury, by fair means and foul. Hear St. Jerome on that passage of Isaiah 2:7: The earth is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to its treasures: "Both nations, he says, both of the Jews and of the Romans, are reproached for avarice by these words. Which the histories also, both Greek and Latin, relate — that there is no nation more avaricious than the Jews and the Romans," in that age, of course.
Verse 2: A MAN TO WHOM GOD HAS GIVEN RICHES, AND SUBSTANCE, AND HONOR, AND HIS SOUL LACKS NOTHING OF ALL THAT HE DESIRES: YET GOD DOES NOT GRANT HIM THE POWER TO EAT FROM IT, BUT A STRANGER SHALL DEVOUR IT....
2. A MAN TO WHOM GOD HAS GIVEN RICHES, AND SUBSTANCE, AND HONOR, AND HIS SOUL LACKS NOTHING OF ALL THAT HE DESIRES: YET GOD DOES NOT GRANT HIM THE POWER TO EAT FROM IT, BUT A STRANGER SHALL DEVOUR IT. THIS IS VANITY AND A GREAT MISERY. — The Septuagint: this is vanity and the worst languor; the Arabic: this is vain and an unclean infirmity; Vatablus: a grievous pain.
AND HONOR — he joins honor to riches as a daughter to a mother, and an effect to its cause. For riches bestow honors, hence we see the wealthy honored and cultivated by all. Hence the Chaldean translates: the glory of possessions; the Arabic: nobility; others: the splendor of dignity, which riches procure for the rich man.
SUBSTANCE. — Cajetan, novel and trusting his Jewish informant, translates: gems. "And his soul lacks nothing," that is, nothing is lacking to his desire and wish, as if to say: He has riches and an abundance of things, as much as anyone could justly and honestly wish for.
You will ask, how then is it said in verse 7: "His soul will not be filled?" I answer first, because the miser does not dare to use his own things. And so he has riches as to ownership, but not as to use and enjoyment. Hence St. Jerome, epistle 103 to Paulinus: "The miser, he says, lacks what he has as much as what he does not have." Secondly, because he is insatiable, and the more he has, the more he desires, like a dog always gaping. Hear Seneca, epistle 72: "You have seen a dog catching morsels of bread or meat thrown by its master with open mouth; whatever it catches, it immediately swallows whole, and always gapes in hope of the next. The same happens to us: whatever nature has thrown to us as we wait, we let it go without pleasure, immediately alert and attentive for the seizing of another. This does not happen to the wise man; he is full: even if something comes his way, he receives it calmly and stores it away; he enjoys the greatest joy, his own continuous joy."
YET GOD DOES NOT GRANT HIM THE POWER. — The Hebrew: nor has God made him master; hence it comes about that he is a servant of his riches, not their master. Hence the Tigurina: God did not appoint him master; Campensis: but He did not grant him the spirit to use them.
Note: "nor does He grant" can be taken permissively, and the speech would be about the guilt of avarice. For God does not compel the miser to this, but permits him the perverse use of free will so that he gives himself over to avarice, says Olympiodorus — in the same way that God is said to have delivered the philosophers, on account of pride, into the passions of disgrace, Romans 1:26; or positively, so that the speech would be about the punishment of avarice: for this God inflicts upon the miser, when He strips him of his goods, or forbids him to use them, whether through a disease sent upon him, as Lyranus holds, or in some other way, as the Thaumaturgus and Cajetan hold.
BUT A STRANGER (St. Jerome: a foreigner; the Tigurina: an outsider; Campensis: an unknown person) SHALL DEVOUR IT — that is, as Sirach chapter 14 explains: "He gathers and another shall revel in his goods," and this happens in various ways. The Chaldean assigns one way here when he paraphrases thus: the Lord did not give him the power, because of his sin, to taste from them; but he shall die without children, and he did not have mercy on his neighbor so as to make him his heir; and indeed his wife shall be given to another man, who shall inherit them and consume them. The cause of all this was his sins, because he did not do anything good from them, and his riches were turned for him into vanity and into a grievous sickness.
Other ways are: when thieves and robbers snatch riches from the miser, or litigants take them away through lawsuits, or rather when, with children failing or being excluded, an outsider insinuates and introduces himself into his inheritance by cunning. The word 'devour' indicates that what was greedily collected by the master is lavishly consumed by the stranger, as we often see happening. For thus with a fitting punishment of retribution, God chastises avarice and misers. The miser therefore enriches another, not himself; often a stranger, not his son, according to the Italian proverb which Tiraquellus cites: "These four things make a man rich" — namely, as the Italians say: Il morto, il porco, il porto, e l'orto (The dead man, the pig, the port, and the garden).
Tropologically, our Alvarez de Paz, Book I On the Spiritual Life, Part II, chapter 13, applies this maxim to tepid religious, who, though they abound in all spiritual goods, yet through sloth neglect to use and enjoy them, because they live under the sun, that is, they fix their affections on earthly things and do not lift them to heaven; therefore a stranger, that is, the devil, devours their goods, by making them useless in them, indeed destructive, so that they may turn to their greater condemnation, as I said a little before.
The truth of this matter is demonstrated by Cyril with an elegant fable of a rich man and Fortune, adorned with beautiful examples, Book III of the Moral Apologies, chapter 4, whose title is: Against those who are not content when they have enough: "From prosperity, he says, when a man, having been made self-sufficient and rich, being by no means content, still thirsted for more, and, turbulent within himself, sought more, he met Fortune, who said to him: Why, dearest, do you not rest, since I have already given you enough? But he answered: Good naturally draws by its own sweetness, and until more has been added, it is troublesome. To which she replied: Rightly, she said, I see that you have become poor, since through cupidity you thirst for more. For if you had enough, you would by no means seek more. For he desires more to whom indeed there is not enough. Behold, your greedy will has impoverished you, cupidity has emptied you, thirsting tempest has stripped you. Yet even if you were to find all of Solomon's badly stored gold, you would have no more. But that which we use well, this at last we truly have. For the dug-up treasure buried in the ground does not belong to the man but to the earth. Therefore, when riches are directed to use, then they are truly possessed. But use should be extended only to the limit of sufficiency. For if you eat beyond what is enough, nature will soon vomit it up, and if you put on more than necessity requires, you cannot bear the burden." He proves the same point with the example of the Hebrews, who gathered and ate the same measure of manna: "Do you not know that (Exodus XVI) when the children of Israel lived on manna in the desert, to great and small, to rich and poor, the same measure of heavenly food was given, and the greedy man did not find more collected, nor the lazy man less? For indeed there is one sufficiency for all, and the universal provider bestowed the same abundance of necessity upon men. For the rich man does not have more than the poor man, but only in the quality of titles is there a difference between them." He confirms the same with an oracle of Apollo: "Have you not heard that the idol of Apollo once, when Agatho, a shepherd who had been made king of Lydia, asked him whether anyone in the world was happier than he, confuted his luxurious riches and replied: to that proud man he preferred old Arcadius, a poor man who had never gone beyond the boundaries of his field, and said that a cottage smiling in security was more praiseworthy and approved than a court saddened by cares and anxieties; and a few clods free from fear more than the broadest fields filled with dread; and one yoke of oxen easy to maintain more than a cavalry burdensome with voracious expenses." Finally, the maxim of Epicurus concludes the fable: "In multiplying true riches, nothing should be added to money, but something should be subtracted from avarice. For a man is recognized as richer in proportion as his desire is less; with these words spoken, she disappeared from the more learned man she had taught."
Conversely, of Christ, who was generous and prodigal with His life for us, Isaiah says in chapter LIII: "His sepulchre shall be glorious." Finally, in ancient times, enemies of the state and fatherland, as well as murderers of themselves and their own, were condemned to deprivation of burial. Such are the avaricious, who by their avarice ruin and virtually kill themselves, their own, and their fatherland. See Durantus Casellius, book II of Various Studies, chapter III.
THAT AN ABORTED CHILD IS BETTER THAN HE. — "Better," that is, of a better condition, superior, more fortunate. Whence Thaumaturgus says: Better is that condition of an untimely birth; St. Jerome: He is of a worse condition than an aborted child.
Mystically, St. Ambrose applies these words to Christ, who was buried not in His own but in another's tomb, namely that of Joseph of Arimathea. For thus he says on the last chapter of Luke: "Christ did not have His own tomb. For a tomb is prepared for those who are under the law of death; the victor over death does not have His own tomb. For what do a tomb and God have in common? Finally, Ecclesiastes chapter VI, concerning him who meditates on good things: And there is no burial for him. Special therefore, beyond the common death of all, is the death of Christ, and therefore He is not buried with others, but in a tomb
Verse 3: IF A MAN BEGET A HUNDRED CHILDREN, AND LIVE MANY YEARS, AND HAVE MANY DAYS OF AGE, AND HIS SOUL DOES NOT USE THE GOODS OF HIS SUBSTANCE, AND HE LACKS BURIAL: OF THIS MAN I DECLARE THAT AN ABORTED C...
3. IF A MAN BEGET A HUNDRED CHILDREN, AND LIVE MANY YEARS, AND HAVE MANY DAYS OF AGE, AND HIS SOUL DOES NOT USE THE GOODS OF HIS SUBSTANCE, AND HE LACKS BURIAL: OF THIS MAN I DECLARE THAT AN ABORTED CHILD IS BETTER THAN HE. — "A hundred," that is, very many; a definite number is used for an indefinite one. Formerly polygamy was lawful and customary; whence from many wives they could beget a hundred or more sons. Thus Ahab begat 70 sons, IV Kings X, 1; Rehoboam 88, II Paralipomenon chapter XI, 21. Moreover, children, whom nature gave for the joy of parents, increase the vexation of the miser: for he is tormented by the expenses he must make to feed them; likewise by the cares of providing an inheritance for them.
Does not use the goods. — The Hebrew, Chaldean, and Theodoret have: is not satisfied with goods. The old translation and the Septuagint: is not filled with goodness. In Greek it is agathosynes, which signifies goodness, that is, pleasantness, as well as beneficence. Thaumaturgus: he neglects to enrich his soul. The Chaldean adds: because he spared his riches, and did not purchase a good name with them, through almsgiving and other works and memorials of beneficence.
AND HE LACKS BURIAL. — Great is the honor, and therefore great the care of burial among all nations. But the miser lacks a decent and worthy burial, because through avarice he did not provide one for himself either in life or in death through a will; whence his heirs, who covet his riches, neglect it. This is a just punishment of God, by which He punishes the miser, so that he who buried his money should himself lack burial. Moreover, misers, especially merchants, often die among foreigners, unknown, wretched, unburied.
Add: the miser, because he was beneficent to no one, is hated by all; and therefore they deny him the honor of a tomb. Finally, misers are not rarely killed by robbers on account of their riches; and so they are cast unburied into sewers, or waters, or ditches. An example is the avaricious king Joakim, of whom Jeremiah says in chapter XXII, 17: "But your eyes and heart are set on avarice, etc. Therefore thus says the Lord, etc.: They shall not mourn him: Alas brother, and alas sister: they shall not lament: Alas lord, and alas noble one. He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, rotting and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem." The miser therefore lacks burial, that is, the honor and pomp of a funeral, to which belong the mourning of parents and friends, male and female mourners who lament him, obsequies, a monument, an epitaph, etc.; for these are denied to the miser, because he is avaricious, and therefore base and hateful to all. Hear St. Jerome: "He signifies that the rich man does not think about his death, and while he possesses all things, he is avaricious even in the construction of a tomb, or because he is often killed by ambush on account of those riches and is cast away unburied; or, which I think better, because he has done nothing good or honorable by which he could obtain a memorial among posterity, and he passes through life in silence like cattle, even though he had the means by which he could have shown that he lived."
He is enclosed in a new tomb." But this allegory corresponds little to the literal sense. For what comparison is there between a miser and an aborted child and Christ?
An aborted child is one who comes forth from the womb dead or in the act of dying. In Hebrew it is called nephel, that is, falling, failing, withered, barely viable, like an unripe fruit that falls useless from the tree; for the root naphal means to slip and fall. The Syriac translates abortive as sinner, in the way that St. Paul calls himself, formerly a persecutor of the faithful, an abortive, I Corinthians XV, 8; but this is mystical: for an aborted child is properly an imperfect, unformed, weak, languishing fetus, born by miscarriage and ejected before mature birth, and such are either dead or barely viable: referring to which, St. Job, chapter III, 18, says: "Why did You bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had been consumed so that no eye would see me. I should have been as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave." Relevant here is the saying of Hippocrates cited by Gellius, book III, chapter XVI: "An eight-month birth both exists and does not exist, because it immediately dies and ceases to exist, or at least barely lives and draws breath." Whence Campensis translates: I judged more fortunate than him the one who was expelled by an aborting mother. Hence in law an aborted child is held as not born.
He compares the miser to an aborted child, because just as the latter, living, does not live, indeed does not live for life but for death; for conceived in the womb he immediately dies, and is not born to see the light and enjoy it, but to depart and exit from it: so too the miser, living, does not live, because he does not dare to enjoy the riches and goods of life, indeed he does not even rejoice, but, as though dead to these things and departed from the joys of life, he leads a dismal life in filth, squalor, and sorrow, like an aborted child and a dying man.
Moreover, he prefers the aborted child to the miser, because the aborted child, just as he lacks the goods and joys of this life, so equally he lacks its evils and sorrows; but the miser, lacking goods and joys, abounds in evils, namely labors, fears, sorrows, cares, and anxieties, which both riches and avarice produce. This is what he said in chapter IV, 2: "And I praised the dead more than the living: and I judged happier than both the one who has not yet been born, nor has seen the evils that are done under the sun."
Verse 4: FOR HE CAME IN VAIN, AND GOES TO DARKNESS, AND HIS NAME SHALL BE BLOTTED OUT BY OBLIVION. — For "in vain" the Hebrew has hebel, that is, vanity, about which see chapter I, 2. Whence the Septuagint ...
4. FOR HE CAME IN VAIN, AND GOES TO DARKNESS, AND HIS NAME SHALL BE BLOTTED OUT BY OBLIVION. — For "in vain" the Hebrew has hebel, that is, vanity, about which see chapter I, 2. Whence the Septuagint and the Syriac translate: in vanity indeed he came, and in darkness he goes, and in darkness his name shall be hidden; Olympiodorus: it shall be concealed; others: in obscurity his name shall be covered; the Arabic: for he shall come with vanity, and into darkness he shall depart, and his name shall be hidden in darkness; Thaumaturgus: for as the aborted child came in vain, so too he departs secretly without any satisfaction or fruit; the Zurich version: for as a worthless thing he comes forth, and into darkness he goes, and darkness conceals his name; Vatablus: for he comes forth into vanity, that is, into the world, which is mere vanity, and goes to death; Campensis:
Campensis: for this one, as some trifle, from conception in the womb has progressed somewhat obscurely, yet so that not even his name was known to anyone. Finally, the Chaldean translates thus: because in vanity he came to this world, and in vanity he will go to the world to come, and in darkness his name will be covered, because he has no merit, and he did not acquire a good name, so as to preserve his memory from the injury of mortality.
Literally he speaks of the aborted child, as Thaumaturgus, Lyranus, Clarius, Campensis, and others hold; consequently, however, he speaks of the miser: for he compares him to the aborted child, as Olympiodorus, Bonaventure, both Hugos, Cajetan, Titelmannus, and others hold. The meaning therefore is, as if he said: Just as the aborted child came into the world in vain, because once born he is either already dead or dies after a day or two, and so passes from the light of life to the darkness of death, and there lies hidden buried in perpetual oblivion, so that not even his name is known: so likewise the miser came into the world in vain, because he does not enjoy the vital light and the joys of life, but as though he had not seen them, filthy, wretched, and hungry, he goes to the darkness of death, and there will be buried in perpetual oblivion. Both therefore came into the world and life in vain, because they are frustrated and deprived of the end and fruits of life, namely the pleasantness and joys of this light and life: the aborted child indeed by nature, the miser by his own will and avarice; but the aborted child was born merely in vain and to no purpose; the miser, not only in vain, but to the greatest miseries and afflictions.
He goes to darkness — that is, to the grave, says Lyranus; to death, say Bonaventure and Titelmannus; to the obscurity and oblivion of his name, says the Chaldean; to afflictions and sorrows, in which the miser lives, says Hugo of St. Victor; to filth and squalor, says Pineda, because having experienced none of the comforts of this life, he wastes away in a corner and in hiding, filthy and squalid, no better known than if he had never emerged into the open from darkness, so that even while still living he is considered dead. No account is taken of him in human society; he was born for no good to the state, not to his fatherland, not to friends, not to himself. All these things amount to the same.
Finally, the miser just as the aborted child goes to darkness, that is, to limbo and the underworld, to Orcus and Tartarus, where there are Cimmerian and perpetual shadows, on account of which the underworld is called in Greek Hades, as if from the privative particle a and idein, that is, to see, because one is deprived of sight, indeed it deprives all its inhabitants of light and sight. Hear Plutarch in the saying, Live secretly: "Those who believe the sun is Apollo, from the mysteries of their ancestors and forebears, call him by the same name Delian and Pythian. But the one who is master of the opposite realm, whether he is a god or a daemon, they call Hades, that is, Orcus, because the dead migrate to a dark and obscure place, to the king of thick night and sluggish sleep."
Mystically, the miser, just as the aborted child dead in the womb, came in vain, because he did not arrive at his end, for which he was created by God, namely eternal happiness: therefore in vain did he receive a rational soul, in vain was he made a man. Again, the miser goes to the darkness of ignorance and imprudence, by which, blinded, he does not consider himself and his condition, or his end, and therefore he goes to the densest and most burning darkness of Gehenna.
Whence the Chaldean translates: he did not even see the light of the law, nor did he know the difference between good and evil, so as to discern between this world and the future one. This is the common and most grievous error of men, that they do not distinguish this life from the future one, that they esteem more a moment of time than all eternity: they live therefore for the present time, and die to eternity; indeed they live for most wretched and hellish eternity. O error, O stupor!
HIS NAME SHALL BE BLOTTED OUT BY OBLIVION. — In Hebrew: in darkness his name shall be covered, that is, his memory will quickly perish, his name will be obscure and unknown; indeed, no name is given to an aborted child: because the Hebrews did not impose a name before the eighth day, on which the infant was circumcised; and the Hebrew became a member of the Synagogue, just as now an infant through baptism becomes a Christian and a member of the Church, and then a name is given to him. So the Romans imposed a name on males on the eighth day, on females the ninth, as Plutarch attests, Problems 202. The Greeks gave names to both on the seventeenth day, as Aristotle attests, book VII of the History of Animals, chapter XII. Furthermore, some barbarians, like the Atlantes, gave no names to children, as Pliny says, book V, chapter VIII. So the miser's name and memory are immediately given over to oblivion, both because his name is hated and detested, and because he goes to Gehenna, which is the land of oblivion, Psalm LXXXVII, 13. Moreover, for aborted children there was no proper tomb, and no inscription indicating a name, but without inscription, without ceremony, without ritual they were cast into the common family tomb or the common earth for all, as Plutarch attests, in the Consolation to His Wife. Whence their tomb is called by Fulgentius Placiadus and Rutilius Geminus in the Astyanax a subgrundarium. So likewise the miser often lacks the honor and pomp of funeral and tomb, as I said a little before.
Verse 5: HE HAS NOT SEEN THE SUN. — Properly this is said of the aborted child, metaphorically of the miser; because the aborted child comes forth from the womb either dead or half-dead, and therefore, as t...
5. HE HAS NOT SEEN THE SUN. — Properly this is said of the aborted child, metaphorically of the miser; because the aborted child comes forth from the womb either dead or half-dead, and therefore, as though blind, does not see the sun, or at most sees it slightly and without pleasure, indeed with pain. The miser likewise, although he sees the sun, does not enjoy it, because in cares, toil, and squalor he leads a dark and sorrowful life. Beautifully Vivianus translates On the Aborted Child: He did not see the golden stars, Nor sense the sun with its vivid Radiance shining forth.
It is a great joy for the living to see the sun, and a great sorrow for the blind not to see it. Whence Tobias, now blind, in chapter V, 12, says: "What joy can there be for me, who sit in darkness and do not see the light of heaven?" The aborted child and the miser are deprived of this joy.
NOR DID HE KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL. — Because the aborted child could not perceive and judge this difference even by sense, much less by intellect; the miser, however, experienced only evils, namely labors and anxieties, and few or no goods; whence he did not perceive the difference between the two.
Again, he did not appreciate the excellence of the true good, that is, of virtue, and the greatness of true happiness, namely how much good differs from evil, virtue from vice, heaven from Gehenna.
For "difference" the Hebrew has nachat, which our translator seems to have derived from the root nacha, that is, he led down, meaning: the leading away of good from evil, and the distance. Properly nachat signifies rest, from the root nouch, that is, he rested. Whence Noah received his name, his father Lamech saying: "This one shall comfort us from the works and labors of our hands," Genesis chapter V, 29. Noah therefore means the same as rest, consolation.
Following this etymology, the Septuagint translate: nor did the rest of this one surpass that one; the Syriac and Arabic: rest is better for him than for the other, meaning the aborted child rests better than the miser. St. Jerome: rest for this one more than for that one; Campensis: he was free from those things by which the miser is continually tortured. The meaning is clear.
Verse 6: EVEN IF HE HAS LIVED TWO THOUSAND YEARS, AND HAS NOT ENJOYED GOOD THINGS: DO NOT ALL THINGS HASTEN TO ONE PLACE? — In Hebrew it reads: if he has lived a thousand years paamim, that is, as the Syria...
6. EVEN IF HE HAS LIVED TWO THOUSAND YEARS, AND HAS NOT ENJOYED GOOD THINGS: DO NOT ALL THINGS HASTEN TO ONE PLACE? — In Hebrew it reads: if he has lived a thousand years paamim, that is, as the Syriac has it, twice, that is, a thousand years doubled or twofold, as St. Jerome translates in his Commentary, that is, two thousand years. The Septuagint intended the same when they translated: and if he lived a return of a thousand years, that is, a thousand years repeated and returning, that is, doubled. Therefore wrongly in the Royal editions the word "return" is referred to what follows in this way: He did not see return and goodness. The Arabic reads for paamim in the dual, peamim in the plural, that is, many times. Whence it translates: and if he lived the totality of thousands of years, that is, even if he lived many thousands of years, indeed myriads. This is a hyperbole, or rather a concession of an impossibility. For the age of man cannot be extended to two thousand years, and none of the first men, who were the longest-lived of all, reached the thousandth year. Methuselah, who was the most long-lived of all, reached only the year 969; but suppose, he says, the miser lived two thousand years, which nevertheless is impossible. This sentence is suspended, and could be referred to the preceding verse, meaning: The miser does not see the difference between good and evil, but only mere misery continually, even if he lived two thousand years. But from the Hebrew it is clear that it should be referred to: do not all things hasten to one place?
The meaning therefore is, as if he said: The miser is not happier but unhappier than the aborted child, both in life and in death. In life, because even if he lives longer than him, indeed even if, per impossibile, you give him two thousand years of life, you will give him the same number of years of affliction and, as it were, living death: for he spends all his days in cares and anxieties and sorrows. In death, because he dies in greater anguish than the aborted child, since he is forced to abandon riches so beloved and acquired with such great toil; also because he fears the Gehenna prepared for him, since "all things hasten to one place," namely death: for there all years, all cares, all the miser's riches come to an end. Suppose then that he lives two thousand years; when they are finished, what will he have? Nothing but greater torment, because his labors and acquired riches cannot protect him from death, nor accompany him after death to the next life: therefore, when he is forced to leave them at death, he is wonderfully tormented, especially because, as the Chaldean adds, he brings with him no virtue or merit. Hear the Chaldean: Even if a man has lived two thousand years, and has not labored in the law, and being bound by oath to the Lord, has not practiced judgment and justice, on the day of his death his soul will fall into Gehenna, to the one place where all sinners go.
The miser therefore by his avarice corrupts all the goods that he could acquire for himself in life and death, in this world and the next, if he knew how to use his goods properly and holily. Therefore both, the miser and the aborted child, go to the same death and to the same underworld; but the aborted child goes to Limbo, where children who died in original sin indeed lack the vision of God, but also lack the punishment of the senses: whereas the miser goes to Gehenna, where the damned are tormented by fire for all eternity. Far worse therefore is the lot of the miser than of the aborted child, who by his cares, usury, and profits does nothing other than heap up for himself bellows and fuel by which he will burn more fiercely in Gehenna. The miser therefore enjoys no goods either in this life or in the future one; but in both he is tormented by evils, in this life by temporal ones, in the future by eternal ones. Note the word "hasten," because our life is nothing other than a continuous race toward death, and through it to immortality, either the most blessed in heaven or the most wretched in hell.
Verse 7: ALL THE LABOR OF MAN IS FOR HIS MOUTH (the Hebrew and Arabic have: to the mouth; the Complutensian: into the mouth): BUT HIS SOUL SHALL NOT BE FILLED. — The Chaldean: all the labor of man is for th...
7. ALL THE LABOR OF MAN IS FOR HIS MOUTH (the Hebrew and Arabic have: to the mouth; the Complutensian: into the mouth): BUT HIS SOUL SHALL NOT BE FILLED. — The Chaldean: all the labor of man is for the food of his mouth, for which he labors, and he is nourished by the word of the Lord: yet the appetite cannot be satisfied by food and drink; Campensis: there is no other fruit of human labor than to supply food to the mouth: yet the appetite of the soul can in no way be satisfied; Vatablus: and yet the desire of possession is not filled. Arias puts it in verse: For the sake of belly and mouth man undertakes all labor; Yet the mouth is never filled, however narrow it be: But the gluttony of the belly and the desire to have more.
Another: By no price of gold, by no food can it be satisfied.
This maxim can be explained in three ways: first, concerning labor; second, concerning speech; third and genuinely, concerning food.
First, then, concerning labor, various authors explain it variously. First, as if he said: "All the labor of man," that is, all the misery and calamity is in the mouth of man, that is, it is judged heavy or light according to how it tastes to his mouth and palate, according to how it is exaggerated and magnified, or diminished and belittled by his mouth; according to how his mouth and heart, that is, his mind, is affected; and if it is ill-affected, as commonly happens, it is not satisfied, but turns what happens for the worse; but if it is well-affected, as in the saints, it gathers a salutary fruit from everything. So Moringus. Similar to this is the maxim in Psalm CXLVII, 16: "Who gives snow like wool," which some explain thus, meaning: God makes snow and winter cold felt according to how much or how little one is clothed, so that, for example, the poor, being less clothed, feel less the rigor of winter, while the rich feel it more.
Second, others explain it thus, meaning: God measures out labor to each one not beyond his strength, but according to each one's mouth, that is, capacity and condition, so that He imposes no more on him than he himself can bear and, as it were, devour with his mouth.
Third, others say, meaning: Each person has his labor in his mouth, that is, each one frequently speaks about his occupation and labor, for example, the plowman about farming, the craftsman about his works, the cobbler about his shoe-stitching, the physician about his treatments; but no one is ever satisfied with his labor, or his craft, or the profit from it.
Here belongs the interpretation of St. Bonaventure: The gaping mouth, he says, signifies desire, meaning: Every man labors to fill his mouth, that is, to satisfy his desire; but in vain, because it is insatiable and cannot be filled.
Moreover, concerning speech, various authors explain it variously in the same way. First, Olympiodorus: "All the labor," he says, of man, namely of carnal and sin-infected man, is in his mouth, because his mouth always labors to bring forth something wicked, namely insults, quarrels, blasphemies, deceits.
Second, Hugo of St. Victor says, meaning: Every man, because he is a man, surpasses other animals in two things, namely reason and mouth, that is, speech; therefore he strives to polish his mouth, that is, his speech, so as to speak elegantly, politely, and ornately, so as to excel in eloquence; but however great that power may be, it never fills his desire. For only the grace and charity of God fills the heart of man. In a similar way St. Jerome explains that the soul derives no benefit from the refreshment of the body."
Again, and rather, it is a rebuke. For he tacitly meets the objection of the miser who says: I labor perpetually to procure necessities for my mouth and to fill the mouths of my household, to obtain food and clothing; but Solomon refutes this and says: Out of your own mouth I condemn you, O wicked miser. For you defraud your mouth in order to heap up riches. Whence the Syriac translates: he withheld everything for which a man labors for his mouth, and his soul was not filled. Again, to fill mouth and belly, little is needed, but to fill your soul, that is, your greed and avarice, you labor perpetually like a donkey; and that in vain, because your avarice is restrained by no limits, but extends itself immeasurably, and therefore is insatiable and cannot be filled. So says Thaumaturgus. You wish, then, to fill your desire, but you cannot; you labor therefore in vain and attempt an impossible thing. For you act as though someone were trying to fill the entire bed of the sea with a single drop of water. Why then, wretch, do you endure so many labors? Why do you weary and torment yourself in vain with so many cares? Why do you uselessly wear yourself out and consume yourself with so many afflictions? Why are you your own torturer and executioner?
Finally, to embrace the meaning summarily, this is the vanity and foolishness of the miser: that while he labors for his mouth, he nevertheless defrauds it even of necessary things, and that he wishes to fill his desire for possessing, yet cannot.
Mystically, by mouth understand the talent and desire gaping to know, but by soul the mind, which cannot be filled by any abundance of knowledge. So St. Gregory, homily 40 on the Gospels: "Well," he says, "it is said by Solomon of the learned and the negligent: All the labor of man is in his mouth, but his soul shall not be filled; because whoever labors only to know what he should say, fasts from the very nourishment of his knowledge with an empty mind." To the same effect, in homily 18 on Ezekiel, he cites Proverbs XVI, 26: "The soul of the laborer labors for himself, because his mouth compels him. Our mouth," he says, "compels us to labor, when through what we say to others, we are restrained from vices: because it is too shameful for us to fall by negligence where we have undertaken by preaching to raise up others," about the one who has learned much, and yet always desires to learn.
Third, Cassian, Conference XIV, IX, asserts that all the labor of man is in his mouth, that is, in restraining it through silence, and that we should receive all the teachings and maxims of the elders with attentive heart and, as it were, with a mute mouth, and carefully store them in our breast, and hasten to put them into practice rather than to teach them; because from the latter the presumption of vainglory will spring, from the former the fruit of spiritual knowledge.
Fourth, Hugo the Cardinal: All the labor of man, he says, is in verifying, sanctifying, and guarding his mouth. But all these expositions are ingenious adaptations of words rather than sincere and genuine explanations of Solomon's mind; therefore they are games of wit rather than the meaning of Scripture.
Therefore Solomon's meaning is to speak not of labor nor of speech, but of food, as the Chaldean, Campensis, and the rest explain.
The meaning therefore, first, can be about food and drink, to show their vanity, and that happiness does not consist in them, as sensualists and Epicureans think; indeed Solomon himself, in chapter II, verses 9 and 25, saying: "Who has devoured and abounded in delights as I have?" sought happiness in them, but did not find it. He seems therefore to be looking back to this, as well as to chapter V, which immediately preceded, verse 17, where he said: "This therefore seemed good to me, that one should eat and drink," etc. The meaning therefore is, as if he said: The greater part of men places happiness in food and drink, that is, in delicate eating and drinking, and therefore all their labor is for the mouth, in Hebrew, to the mouth, so that they may delight their mouth and palate with their delicacies; but "their soul shall not be filled," both because gluttony is insatiable and cannot be filled: whence gluttons, the more they drink, the more they desire to drink, and the more they gorge themselves, so that they seem to gape with their mouth always open for drink; and because bodily pleasures cannot satisfy and fill a spiritual soul capable of God. So Olympiodorus, Titelmannus, and Cajetan. And so Solomon himself explains it, Proverbs chapter XVI, verse 26, saying: "The soul of the laborer labors for himself, because his mouth compelled him;" the Hebrew has: because he bowed down to his own mouth.
Second, more precisely and genuinely, these words pertain to the miser, about whom all the preceding discourse has been, meaning: The miser labors continually to gather riches with which to satisfy his mouth and belly; but in vain, because the belly and gullet are insatiable. So St. Jerome says: "All that men labor for in this world is consumed by the mouth, and ground by the teeth, is handed over to the belly for digestion; and when it has briefly delighted the palate, it seems to give pleasure only as long as it is contained in the throat; but when it has passed into the stomach, the difference between foods ceases. And after all this, the soul of the eater is not filled, either because he again desires something to eat, or because
and life, and the living. Hence from the broad and ambiguous Hebrew, various authors translate variously (see them in Lorinus if you wish), but in perplexing, ambiguous, and tasteless fashion, while our translator rendered it clearly, certainly, and tastefully by understanding the word "except"; whence the Septuagint agrees with him, translating: because the abundance of the wise man is over the fool, in that the poor man knows to go to the face of life; the Syriac: because there is gain for the wise man beyond that of the fool, because the poor man knows to go to life; the Arabic: what does the wise man have that is more excellent than the fool? because the poor man knew the course before life, that is, to know how to live here, to know how to lead life well and happily here. Another says, meaning: The poor man goes to beg from door to door to procure for himself the food necessary for life. But this is cold and tasteless.
This is an antithesis between the foolish miser and the wise poor man. For Scripture often by the poor man indicates the wise and just man, and by the rich man the foolish, avaricious, and unjust man; because, as St. Jerome says: "Every rich man is either unjust or the heir of an unjust man;" but the poor man, because he is content with little, spurns riches and transfers his heart to the true riches of God in heaven; hence he is wise and just.
The meaning therefore is, as if he said: The wise man and the poor man in life and death, and in the labor of procuring sustenance to satisfy mouth and belly, are equal; however, in this respect the wise poor man surpasses the avaricious and foolish rich man: that the poor man goes to life, but the rich man to death, and indeed a threefold death. For the Hebrew chaiim is a plural, and therefore signifies a threefold life, namely the natural life of the soul, the spiritual life of grace, and the heavenly life of glory.
First, then, concerning natural life, you may explain it thus, meaning: The poor man, content with moderate food and clothing, goes to true life, which consists in a spirit that is content with its own, tranquil, and cheerful. For such a one lives and leads a life that is sweet, pleasant, and long. But the rich miser, turning his eyes to the ground, and on it, like a serpent, creeping and crawling, to collect gold and silver, that is (as Habakkuk says) dense mud of the earth, empty, wretched, and unhappy, consumes himself with continuous labor, and does not dare to enjoy what he has acquired, but always strives to heap more upon the old: therefore he lives a life of wretchedness, which should be called death rather than life, and soon he goes, naked and destitute, to the death common to all, which is foolish vanity. So St. Jerome, Hugo the Cardinal, and the Gloss; Vatablus differs slightly: for he considers that the poor man is here admonished to renounce all desire, content with his tranquil, wise, and holy poverty: "For what does it profit," he says, "the learned poor man to walk prudently among men before those very men in this world, if he labors with the desire to possess?" This amounts to the same thing as before; but the former interpretation is simpler and more genuine.
Second, concerning spiritual life, explain it thus, meaning: The poor man, despising earthly riches, pursues spiritual ones, and devotes himself to gathering virtues and merits, according to James II: "Has not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?" The poor man therefore lives the life of grace.
But the avaricious rich man devotes himself entirely to riches; whence he becomes destitute and needy in grace and virtues, and through usury, fraud, and unjust contracts commits mortal sins, by which he incurs the death of the soul. So St. Bonaventure, Lyranus, and the Carthusian.
Whence Olympiodorus understands by life Christ, toward whom the poor man, who is proclaimed blessed by Him, walks along the paths of virtue; while the foolish rich man enslaves himself to pleasures after the manner of cattle.
Therefore by life here, mystically, understand the Eucharist, by which the poor deliciously nourish their minds, far more than the rich nourish their bodies with their banquets. For of the Eucharist Christ says: "Whoever eats this bread shall live forever," John VI, 59; and verse 48: "I am the bread of life," etc. Thaumaturgus, however, says the poor man tends to life because he tends to poverty and contempt of riches, in which the integrity and rectitude of life consists: "It is characteristic of the fool," he says, "to indulge too much in desires, and therefore he is reproved. The wise man voluntarily restrains himself from them. Indeed the rectitude of life is for the upright man a guide on the road to poverty."
Third, the poor man through the life of grace tends to the life of glory, and the miser through the first death of sin and avarice tends to the second death of Gehenna; just as Lazarus the beggar was led by angels to heaven, but the rich man the glutton was buried in hell, Luke XVI. So the Chaldean says: "For indeed, what more do the wise have in this world than the foolish, and what does the poor man have, except to devote himself to the discipline of the Lord's law, so as to know how it will come about that he goes altogether before the just into the paradise of Eden," that is, of pleasure, in which Adam was placed by God, who was a type and prelude of the paradise and glory of heaven.
Tropologically, from the fact that he says the poor man goes to life, learn that the road to life is poverty, under which understand humility. Hence the Hebrew ani signifies both humble and poor; for poverty is the mother of humility; whence we find the poor humble and the rich proud. For, as Phocylides says: Pride follows riches, insolence follows the great.
For this reason St. Francis founded himself and his order on poverty, so as to found it on humility. Both therefore are a guide and road to true life; hence Christ first pointed it out, to teach it to us: "I," He says, "am a beggar and poor;" and: "Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls." Thus God ordained with wonderful congruity and wisdom. For it is fitting that those who despise earthly things should occupy heavenly ones. Hear St. Ambrose, sermon 74 On the Birthday of Martyrs: "We too," he says, "can say to the Lord: You have made known to us the ways of life. For He Himself made known to us the ways of life, when He taught me faith, mercy, justice, chastity;" add humility, poverty, patience: "for by these paths one arrives at life." Thus, when St. Benedict died, as St. Gregory writes in Dialogues II, chapter XXXVII, two monks from his flock were seen to behold a certain broad and straight road strewn with hangings and sparkling with innumerable lights, and a certain old man standing by who said: "This is the way by which Benedict, beloved of God, ascended to heaven." St. Bernard, in the homily Behold, We Have Left All Things, considers this road to be nothing other than the pattern of poverty and religious life instituted by him, so that as he, by observing it, had ascended to heaven, so too would all who followed him.
Verse 9: IT IS BETTER TO SEE WHAT YOU DESIRE THAN TO DESIRE WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW. — The Hebrew has: good is the sight of the eyes, rather than the wandering of the soul, that is, it is better to see with th...
9. IT IS BETTER TO SEE WHAT YOU DESIRE THAN TO DESIRE WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW. — The Hebrew has: good is the sight of the eyes, rather than the wandering of the soul, that is, it is better to see with the eyes a certain thing than to wander and stray through very many and uncertain things by the various thoughts, lusts, and desires of the soul. The Complutensian Septuagint reads: agathon orama ophthalmon hyperporeuomenou psyche, that is, good is the sight of the eyes surpassing the soul, that is, which surpasses the desire of the soul, meaning: It is good to perceive and have present the object which, while it is absent, the soul desires and longs for: for presence surpasses the absence of a thing, just as the sight of a thing seen surpasses the hope and desire of a thing to be seen. But more correctly and more in conformity with the Hebrew, the Vatican codices, for hyperporeuomenon by contraction, read hyper poreuomenon by expansion. Whence they translate: good is the sight of the eyes rather than the wandering of the soul. St. Jerome renders: in soul; Olympiodorus: than to walk according to the will of the soul; the Zurich version: than for one to follow desire; Vatablus: than that the soul be agitated.
Thaumaturgus, however, following the former version of the Complutensians, explains superambulans, that is, prevailing over the soul, and drawing it into the lust for the thing seen, which is a great and foolish vanity. Whence he translates thus: the spectacle of dishes irritates the eyes of some; but since this pursuit of life is vain, pernicious enticements drag the soul into barren occupations.
The Syriac: better is the sight of the eyes than the stride of the soul; the Arabic: the eye is essentially better than the bright mind; Pagninus: better is the sight of the eyes than that the soul should go by the way of fools; the Chaldean: it is better to see what you desire than to desire what you do not know, but this too is vanity and presumption of spirit.
Or, as Costus translates: it is better for man to rejoice in the future age, to cultivate justice, and on the great day of judgment to receive a good reward for his works, than to enter this life in calamities and disturbances of soul: for to the wicked man this is vanity and affliction of spirit.
Setting aside the various explanations of various authors that are less probable, I offer five more probable ones. For "to see with the eyes," as the Hebrew has it, signifies five things: first, to look at and contemplate a thing present; second, to foresee things future; third, to judge about things, for the eye judges about colors and things seen; fourth, to experience, for experience is taken in by sight; fifth, to enjoy, to taste, to hold and possess: for the eye enjoys a thing seen, and by its sight, as it were, holds it and makes it its own, possesses and comprehends it. According to these five meanings, a fivefold sense arises.
First, Isidore Clarius and Campensis, following the first meaning of seeing, translate: "It is better to contemplate with the eyes riches that are present, than to live day by day like the poor relying solely on industry: surely you are mistaken if you think this: for the sight of riches brings nothing other than foolish cares and torments of the mind." On the contrary, Christ commands us not to be anxious about tomorrow, but to resign the care of tomorrow to God, Matthew VI. These authors therefore consider this maxim to be spoken from the mind of the rich, not of Solomon; whence he himself corrects it, saying: "But this too is vanity and affliction of spirit."
Second, Symmachus, following the second meaning of seeing, translates: Beltio problepes e idein anapoterasian, that is, it is better to foresee than to walk as one pleases, as St. Jerome translates, who explains it thus, meaning: It is better to look ahead at what must be done through reason (for this is the eye of the soul) than to follow the will and desires of the heart, as do those who walk in the will of their heart, as Ezekiel says in chapter XI, 21, in the Hebrew. So also Olympiodorus: "It is far better," he says, "to have the perceptive eyes of the soul and of reason, illuminated by the light of the Holy Spirit, than to proceed according to the will of the carnal man who walks in darkness," according to Matthew VI, 22: "If your eye is simple, your whole body will be full of light, that is," he says, "if the power of the rational soul is illuminated by light, it will bring the license of the sensitive appetite back into its proper order." And Proverbs chapter XIX, 2: "Where there is no knowledge of the soul, there is no good: and he who is hasty with his feet will stumble." So says Olympiodorus.
So also Salonius, Alcuin, Hugo of St. Victor, and others explain it, meaning: It is better to do all things by reason with premeditation than rashly to follow the foolish desires of the soul and the surging of wandering and harmful lusts. Here belongs the Zurich translation: better is foresight than for one to follow desire. Hugo the Cardinal agrees, who considers that here it is signified that foresight or the knowledge of prevision, by which it is known what should be desired and what not, is better than the rash and headlong lust for things that cannot be desired except by those who are ignorant of their nature, such as temporal goods, which like rotten wood and fish scales shine only in darkness and are unworthy of being known.
Lyranus does not go far from this, except that he properly wishes superstitious and vain foreknowledge of the future to be reproved. Nor does Dionysius disagree, specifying superstitious, magical, frivolous, and false things, which it is more expedient not to know than to know, since on the contrary one should study more the knowledge of what ought to be desired, namely the ultimate end and the means to it.
Third, according to the third meaning of seeing, as it signifies to judge, define, and measure, the sense is, meaning: It is better to set for oneself a definite value and limit of riches, which is suited and, as it were, proportioned to one's talents and condition, and to live content with that, than to let the soul wander to always think about and desire one thing after another, and to set no limit to one's desire.
Fourth, according to the fourth meaning of seeing, as it is the same as to experience, the sense is, meaning: It is better to see, that is, to experience, what labor, what occupation, what condition, what and how great riches suit you and your temperament and condition and are sufficient, and to rest in them with a tranquil mind, than to give free rein to desire and to desire always more and more without measure, things which you do not know what they are like and whether they suit you and are salutary.
Note the phrase "what you do not know," that is, things whose nature, condition, advantages, and disadvantages you are ignorant of, do not feel, do not taste, do not experience, and have not sufficiently examined; for if you perceived them, you would certainly not desire or covet them. For this is what the antithesis demands: "It is better to see what you desire than to desire what you do not know," that is, what you would not desire: for if you knew its vanity and worthlessness, you would certainly not desire it but flee from it.
Mystically, it is better to see what you desire, that is, to aspire to heavenly glory, in which you will see God, and by His vision, which you desire, you will be satisfied and will be blessed, than to desire what you do not know, that is, to pursue earthly riches, pomp, and banquets, whose worthlessness, dangers, and harms you are ignorant of and do not know, that is, you do not attend to, do not consider, do not perceive, especially that they will drag you into ruin and Gehenna.
Whence the Author of the Greek Catena expounds this maxim thus, meaning: "Better is the knowledge of God than fleeting and corruptible pleasure, or than indulging the desires of the soul." Or according to the version of Symmachus: it is better to look forward to the things that are future than to seek delight from these present things.
BUT THIS TOO IS VANITY AND A PRESUMPTION OF SPIRIT. — The Syriac: this is vanity and disturbance of soul; the Arabic: this is vain and affliction of spirit; the Chaldean: contrition of spirit; Cajetan: breaking of spirit; others: thought of spirit; Aquila and Theodotion: feeding the wind; the Zurich version: vexation of soul; Campensis: surely you are mistaken who think this: for it is nothing other than foolish cares and torments of the soul. See what was said at chapter I, verse 2.
Fifth and most aptly and genuinely, according to the fifth meaning of seeing, as it is the same as to use, enjoy, taste, hold, occupy, and possess, the sense is, meaning: It is better to see, that is, to use and enjoy things present and certain, which you perceive with your eyes and touch with your hand, than to desire things absent and uncertain, which you do not know whether you can obtain, and whether they will bring you satisfaction and happiness. For he continues to contrast and prefer the wise poor man to the foolish rich man, because the former sees what he desires, that is, possesses and enjoys the riches he desires, though modest but present, and content with them lives quietly, cheerfully, and happily: while the latter desires what he does not know, that is, burns with an insatiable desire to acquire absent and often impossible riches, of which he is ignorant of the use and enjoyment by experience and does not know it, that is, he does not feel, does not taste, does not rejoice, does not enjoy, but they are to him as if he did not know them and they were unknown and unseen to him; which is nothing other than foolish vanity and presumption? For on account of the hope of uncertain things he deprives himself of the enjoyment of certain things; he vainly presumes upon that to which he foolishly aspires, since often he cannot attain it; therefore he labors in vain and tears himself apart over riches whose benefits and pleasantness he does not experience and never will experience. For avarice fashions for itself vain riches and empty hopes, which it will never obtain; certainly it will never use and enjoy them.
Here belongs the translation and exposition of Pagninus: better is the sight of the eyes than the walking of the soul (that is, it is better to enjoy present things, which you have before your eyes, than to wander hither and thither in mind and never be satisfied). Cajetan: better is the sight of the eyes than the walking of the soul, that is, better is a present good and what is seen with the eyes than a future one which is had only by desire: for the walking of the soul, he says, is done by the steps of desire and hope.
Vatablus: better is the sight of the eyes than that the soul should be agitated, that is, it is better to be content with one's present fortune, though modest, than to desire many things, however great, and to wish now for this, now for that. "Better is a dove present on the table than a goose flying in the air." It is better to occupy a few things in peace than to pursue and seek after new things always, greedy and anxious.
Verse 10: HE WHO IS TO BE, HIS NAME HAS ALREADY BEEN CALLED (the Arabic has: designated; others: named; Cajetan: he has already been called by his name, that is, he is known: for a thing is known by its name...
10. HE WHO IS TO BE, HIS NAME HAS ALREADY BEEN CALLED (the Arabic has: designated; others: named; Cajetan: he has already been called by his name, that is, he is known: for a thing is known by its name. It is a catachresis) AND IT IS KNOWN THAT HE IS A MAN, AND HE CANNOT CONTEND IN JUDGMENT AGAINST ONE STRONGER THAN HIMSELF. — The Hebrew has: what was, its name has already been called, but "was" is the same as "will be." For the Hebrews often interchange tenses and take the past for the future: otherwise there would be an inept tautology here. For who does not know that what has been is named and known? But that what is to be was pre-named and foreknown, this is wonderful, extraordinary, and worthy of God; whence Campensis clearly translates: in what way was each thing of old before it existed known and recognized by its name, that willy-nilly this man was going to exist, and he will not be able to contend with God, who is stronger than he, except in vain, and therefore he was created as he is. Whence
First, the Chaldean takes this maxim as referring to created things, namely that among them there is nothing new, but all things were already decreed by God long ago, and therefore man cannot contend with God about them. For the Hebrew has it in the neuter gender: what is it that was? its name has already been called. So too the Septuagint. The Chaldean therefore translates thus: what was in the world, behold its name has already been called, and it is known to the sons of men from the day when the first man was made, and all things were decreed by the word of the Lord, and there is no power for a man to stand in judgment with the ruler of the world, who is stronger than he. But the Hebrew, our translator, the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic restrict this maxim to man and do not extend it to other created things. Whence they say: and it is known that he is a man.
Second, therefore, others consider these words said against the ambitious, meaning: Why, O ambitious man, do you boast of nobility, riches, knowledge, and rank, when before you from the beginning of the world until now many were made and called by God who are nobler, wealthier, more learned, and more worthy than you, with whom, as being stronger and more excellent than you, you cannot contend in judgment so as to prefer yourself to them, but you must submit yourself to them and acknowledge yourself their inferior. Whence some, following Aben-Ezra, explain it thus, meaning: Wicked, base, and foolish are the efforts of the miser, who always attempts and contrives greater things, to equal the wealthiest in riches, indeed to surpass them, when this is impossible to accomplish.
Third, others think these words are said against the curious, who arrogate to themselves the foreknowledge of future things as though they wished to equal God in their foreknowledge and, as it were, contend with Him in judgment, as judicial astrologers arrogate this to themselves, and similar diviners and soothsayers. So Lyranus and from him Titelmannus: Suitably, he says, he passes from the avarice of riches to the avarice of knowledge, that is, to curiosity and the immoderate desire to know, by which man attempts to know hidden and future things, so as to be like God and, as it were, another God, just as Adam wanted to be when eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So also St. Bonaventure, both Hugos, Dionysius, and others.
Fourth, others more correctly think these words are said of those who, not content with their lot, murmur against divine Providence, because they have not obtained a different and better lot from it, who therefore, as Olympiodorus says, imprudently ask why God oppressed this man with poverty but poured out great riches on that man. Against these, therefore, he teaches that all things, and especially man, are in all respects subject to the divine ordinance, whether he be poor or rich, noble or ignoble, healthy or sick, happy or unhappy, etc., and therefore in no lot, chance, or state of affairs can he murmur against God, since He distributes to each as He pleases, as the supreme Lord of all and the wisest and best governor of all. Whence Thaumaturgus translates this verse and the following one thus: the things that have now been done are already known, and it is clear that man cannot resist and oppose the things that are above him. Moreover, trifles and follies circulate among men, increasing the madness of those who engage in them, namely murmurings and curiosities, about which see the following chapter, verse 4.
And the Author of the Greek Catena says: "All things," he says, "are from God, all things were also foreknown by Him, and were allotted a name aptly corresponding to each, and they received from God that manner of life which He foresaw would most benefit each one. Who then is he who would resist His will? So that it is therefore futile and vain to investigate hereafter why this man abounds in riches and that man is oppressed by poverty, and other things of the same kind." And further: "Let no one therefore dare to say, says Ecclesiastes, why am I glued to such a body, or why did I not become an angel? Unless perhaps there is respect of persons with God. For words of this kind overflow with much vanity."
Therefore, under substance he understands accidents; under thing, all the attributes and circumstances of a thing; that is, under man, all the conditions and qualities of man, such as poverty, wealth, misery, happiness, infirmity, health, and all the various lots and chances of fortune in this life, which, whatever they may be, God foreknew and preordained as to what they would be and to whom they would come.
Fifth, most fittingly and genuinely, refer these words to the miser, whose vanity he shows throughout this entire chapter, and who desires things he does not know whether he will obtain and enjoy, as just preceded; for he reproaches the foolishness of those who, not content with present things, always gape after future ones in order to increase their affairs, meaning: Misers are accustomed to heap up immense riches, so as to provide for themselves and their posterity, fame, and glory for the future over long stretches of time; for, confident in their own industry, they think they can establish their riches, palaces, and estates for many ages, and immortalize their name, as though they were not subject to God, nor do they need Him, but by their own cleverness they can accomplish all that they plan; in which matter they err grievously and display their vanity as well as their foolish presumption, as was said. Because whatever is to be is known to God alone, and is provided and ordained by Him; whoever is to exist is already known to God, and it has been decreed that he be not an angel, nor a god prescient and omniscient of future things, but Adam from adama, that is, man from earth, that is, earthly, wretched, fragile, unstable, subject to many chances of fortune, and soon to die, who therefore cannot contend with God who is stronger than he, neither in foreknowledge and prevision of the future, nor in stability and constancy, nor in exemption, so as to be exempt from God's right and governance, but he must in all things subject himself to His providence and ordinance, so as to be content with that measure of riches, that lot of circumstances, that span of life, that posterity and fame which God has ordained and predestined to measure out to him. For God often ordains that a poor son or grandson be born to a rich man, indeed that the rich man himself immediately become poor, wretched, miserable, and die. The whole force lies in the word "to be" and in the Hebrew word Adam, which signifies man subject to all miseries, chances, and afflictions. Whence Vatablus translates: in what way he existed, of old his name was called, that is, he says, from what matter he was formerly made, his name shows. For Adam signifies that he was made from adama, that is, that he is earthly, from earth. And Isidore Clarius: "When," he says, "a man has long gaped by fair means and foul after perishable things and honors, and his name has been spread throughout all the earth, nevertheless in death it will become known that he was a mortal man and could not enter into judgment with God who is stronger than he."
That this is the meaning is clear from what immediately precedes and from the following chapter, verse 1. For all these things look to future times, which the avaricious wish to secure for themselves. But let them know "that they are men," says David, Psalm IX, 21; and Isaiah, chapter XXXI, 3: "Egypt is a man and not a god." St. Augustine narrates from Varro, in book XII of The City of God, chapter V, that it was a capital offense among the Egyptians to say that Serapis had been a man, even though his tomb and bones existed in Egypt: because of course they worshipped him as a god, and therefore denied he had been a man. So great is the vanity and madness of proud men! Such men therefore contend with God, indeed they strive to equate man with God, and sacrilegiously to arrogate to him divinity and the foreknowledge of future and hidden things, which is proper to God alone. The avaricious are similar, who attribute their riches to their own labor, indeed do not hesitate to assert a wealthy posterity of sons as owed to them, and thereupon to allege this impudently before God.
Mystically, St. Jerome continues to apply these words to Christ, and explains thus: "Since man is ignorant of his own state, and whatever he seems to know and perceive, he sees not as the truth of the matter is, but through a mirror and shadow and image, and does not know the future, and through much speaking does not escape sin, let him impose silence on his mouth, and believe that He has come who was written of, in what manner, and not inquiring how great and of what kind He came. The Hebrews at this point establish the midpoint of the book; whence from the beginning to here they count 112 verses, and they count the same number from this point to the end of the book.
"Openly," he says, "it is proclaimed of the coming of the Savior, that He who was to come before He was seen in the body, His name had already been called in the Scriptures, and was known to the prophets and saints of God, because He is a man, and according to this, that He is man, He cannot compare Himself with the Father, and says in the Gospel: 'He who sent Me is greater than I,' John XIV; whence also in what follows it is commanded: Let us not seek beyond what has been written for us about Him, nor let man wish to know more than Scripture has attested."
Verse 11: THERE ARE VERY MANY WORDS, AND THEY HAVE MUCH VANITY IN DISPUTING. — The Hebrew has: multiplying vanity. So too the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic. Thaumaturgus: because men are agitated by...
11. THERE ARE VERY MANY WORDS, AND THEY HAVE MUCH VANITY IN DISPUTING. — The Hebrew has: multiplying vanity. So too the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic. Thaumaturgus: because men are agitated by trifles; the Chaldean of Costus: there are certainly in this world innumerable things most full of vanity, and in devoting effort to them what gain can come to man, this indeed we find to be most true. The Zurich version: there are many things that increase emptiness.
Some refer this maxim to philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, etc., who arrogated to themselves the knowledge of all things, scrutinizing all the secrets of nature, disputing verbosely about everything, as though they wished to contend with God's omniscience and subject it to themselves, and therefore they became vain in their thoughts, Romans I. Whence Vatablus translates: many words of the philosophers can be cited, but they do nothing but increase vanity. So Dionysius. Others take it as the words of those who murmur against divine providence, because it has made them poor, wretched, and unfortunate. So Hugo. Others refer it to the curious, who wish to discourse and speak about everything, indeed to dispute and contend.
More fittingly, as I said, refer these words to the avaricious, who think, speak, and dispute a great deal about their riches and the ways of increasing, preserving, and perpetuating them. Again, misers, especially the rich and powerful, are accustomed to be anxious about the future, and about future wealth and posterity, and therefore, in order to foresee these things, not rarely consult augurs, astrologers, casters of horoscopes, magicians, and diviners, who fill them with vain hopes through their fabricated divinations, or rather flatteries, as we still see happening in Rome from astrologers. Their prophecies, conjectures, and divinations he therefore calls here "very many words having much vanity." The same was frequent among the Hebrews, who, living in Egypt, where astrology flourished, had learned this art and vanity of divining from the stars, as well as from the Canaanites and Philistines, their neighbors. Solomon therefore reproves them here, as does Jeremiah, chapter X, verse 2, and Isaiah, chapter II, verse 2: "They had augurs like the Philistines."