Let us now resume the thread of Koheleth’s moralising. Violence and oppression were two of the chief evils which struck an attentive observer of Palestinian life. But there were two others equally worthy of a place in the sad picture—the evils of rivalry and isolation. First, with regard to rivalry (iv. 4-6). What is ‘skilful work,’ or art, but an ‘envious surpassing of the one by the other’? This also is ‘pursuit of wind;’ it gives no permanent satisfaction. True, indolence is self-destruction: but on the other hand a little true rest is better than the labour of windy effort, urged on by rivalry yielding no rest (Delitzsch). Such at least is the most probable connection, supposing that vv. 5 and 6 are not rather interpolated or misplaced. If however it be objected (here Koheleth passes to a second great evil—that of isolation) that a man may labour for his child or his brother, yet who, pray, is benefited by the money-getting toils of one who has no near relative, and stands alone in the world? A pitiable sight is such unprofitable toil! The fourth chapter closes with maxims on the blessings of companionship (iv. 9-12), followed by a vivid description of the sudden fall of an old and foolish king (iv. 13-16), who had not cared to appropriate one of the chief of these blessings, viz. good advice. There is much that is enigmatical in the last four verses. We should expect the writer to be alluding to some fact in contemporary history, but no plausible parallel has yet been indicated.[[307]] Ver. 16 is certainly either corrupt or mutilated. Bickell thinks that it must originally have run somewhat as follows:—
There was no end of all the people, even of all those who [applauded him and cast reproaches on the old king. For because he had despised the counsel of the prudent, to rule foolishly and to oppress the people, therefore they hated him, even as those had hated him] who were before them; they also that came afterwards did not rejoice in him.
At this point the ideal autobiography of Koheleth is interrupted. From v. 1 (= iv. 17 in the Hebrew) to vii. 14 we are presented with a mixture of proverbial sayings (such perhaps as Koheleth was continually framing and depositing in his note-books) and records of the wise man’s personal experience. Notice especially the reappearance of the old Israelitish instinctive sympathy with husbandmen (or, shall I say, with yeomen) in ver. 9. Both proverbs and personal records are the offspring of different moods, and therefore not always consistent. Thus at one time our author repeats his preference of sensuous enjoyment to any other mode of passing one’s life.
For (then) he will not think much on the (few) days of his life, because God responds to the joy of his heart (v. 20).
But the writer is too pessimistic to rest long in this thought. It is a ‘common evil among men’ to have riches without the full enjoyment of them: ‘better an untimely birth,’ he cries, than to be in such a case (vi. 3). Note here in passing the fondness of our author for using a comparison in expressing an emphatic judgment (comp. iv. 9-16, vii. 1-8). Better, he continues, is a momentary experience of real happiness than to let the desire wander after unattainable ends. ‘There are many things that increase vanity;’ with the reserve of good taste, he understates his meaning, for what human object, according to Koheleth, is not futile? That gift which to the Christian is so wondrously fair—the gift of life—to him becomes ‘the numbered days of his life of vanity;’ and ‘who knows what is good for man in life, which he spends as a shadow? For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?’ (vi. 12.) Koheleth, we see, has no faith in his nation, nor in humanity.
I do not feel sure that we may say with Dean Bradley that ‘out of this very gloom and sadness come forth in the next chapter thoughts that have gone, some of them, the round of the world.’ No doubt there is more than a mere tinge of the same midnight gloom in some of these proverbial sayings. But surely there is a complete break in the thread of thought of vi. 12, and a fresh collection of looser notes has found a place at the head of chap. vii. At any rate, these sayings supply a convincing proof that Koheleth was not a mere hedonist or Epicurean. He recalls in vii. 2 his former commendation of feasting, and declares,
It is better to go into the house of mourning than to go into the house of feasting, inasmuch as that is the end of all men, and the living can lay it to his heart (vii. 2).
I said that Koheleth was too pessimistic to remain long under the influence of hedonism. I might have said that he was too thoughtful; a rational man could not, without the anticipations of faith, close his mind to the suggestions of pessimism in the circumstances of Koheleth’s age. Better thoughtful misery than thoughtless mirth, is the keynote of the triad of maxims (vii. 2-6) on the compensations of misery which follows the dreary sentence praising death, in vii. 1.[[308]] Resignation is the secret of inward peace; ‘with a sad face the heart may be cheerful.’ Not only in view of the great problem of existence, but in your everyday concerns, restrain your natural impulses whether to towering passion or to brooding vexation at the wrongness or the slowness of the course of human affairs (vii. 8, 9). Above all, do not give way to an ignorant idealism. It is unwise to ask ‘How is it that the former days were better than these?’ (vii. 10.) The former time, so bright and happy, and the present, with its predominant gloom, were alike ordained by God (vii. 13 should follow vii. 10); and as a last consolation for cool and rational thinkers, be sure that there is nought to fear after death; there are no torments of Gehenna. This in fact is the reason why God ordains evil; there being no second life, man must learn whatever he can from calamity in this life.
On a good day be of good cheer, and on an evil day consider (this): God hath also made this (viz. good) equally with that (evil), on the ground that man is to experience nothing at all hereafter[[309]] (vii. 14; comp. ix. 10).
Thus, not only ‘be not righteous over much’ (vii. 16), but ‘do not believe over much’ is the teaching of our rationalist-thinker. There is neither good nor evil after death. But is there no present judgment? Yes; but this is not a thought of life and hope. It is a true ‘religion’ to him; it binds him in his words as well as his actions. But although Hooker so admired the saying in v. 2 (‘God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few’) as to quote it in one of his finest passages,[[310]] yet the context of v. 2 sufficiently shows how different was the quality of the reverence of the two writers. Be careful to pay thy vows, says Koheleth, lest when thou invokest God’s name, His angel should appear, and call thee to account.