(27, 28.) Observe this, have I found the speech of Koheleth (it is usually said that אמרה is a feminine agreeing with קהלת, but קהלת was a king, and so certainly masculine. It has been proposed to write אמר הקהלת, but this is another instance of the attempt to cut the knot by altering the text, besides in that case Koheleth would be generic. We must therefore fall back upon the usual meaning of feminines as the abstract of the masculines. Now, אמר is ‘to say,’ to ‘announce,’ and therefore the abstract will be ‘the announcement;’ this abstract, however, stands by itself, and is not joined closely to קהלת, as in that case it would have been אמרת. Attending then to these principles of grammar, the meaning will be, ‘observe this, I have found it, and announce it as Koheleth,’ an additional proof that here we have a personal experience of Koheleth’s) one to one to find a wise result, (that is collecting instance after instance, or trying one method after another so as to find the wise result, in contrast to the disappointing folly mentioned above) which yet seeks my soul, and has not found (the ‘not’ is emphatic, and denies that he has discovered it: experimental science did no more for him than moral); a man (אדם; we should have anticipated איש from the context, but אדם includes both sexes, so that we have a sarcastic equivoke) a single one from a thousand have I found, but a woman in all these have I not found (that is, that he could come to no general conclusion; only in his experience he had met with one man but not with one woman, the allusion being evidently to his thousand wives and concubines. From this individual history we are allowed to make our own conclusions. In the case of Solomon, it was his numerous wives which turned away his heart. He had apparently one or two male friends, such as Zadoc and Nathan, that he could trust. The word ‘found’ occurs seven times in its different forms——it is all he could discover).
29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
Only observe, this I have discovered, namely, that the Almighty has with respect to humanity done what is correct, but they have sought out machinations without number.
(29.) Only (which standing first is emphatic: ‘This alone is a real discovery, or a safe induction from my numerous trials’) observe, this have I discovered, which is that he has made even the Deity with respect to the man (i.e. ‘has done in regard to man,’ the LXX. notice this by σὺν τὸν ἄνθρωπον) right (or ‘correct,’ see 1 Samuel vi. 12, Proverbs xi. 3), but they (plural following singular——‘every one of them’) seek devices (plural abstract, and as it is used evidently in a sinister sense, we may translate ‘machinations’) many (masculine, notwithstanding the feminine plural, i.e. not many in the abstract, ‘but many a one’——all kinds of sinister plans to evade God’s right order, of which Solomon’s harem was a signal instance. He would have had more real enjoyment had he obeyed the rule at Genesis ii. 24, which assigns one man to one woman, and the spirit of that at Leviticus xxi. 1, which enjoins a Hebrew woman. This harem of strange women was at once Solomon’s most elaborate folly, bitterest disappointment, and saddest fall: it was an experiment in search of happiness, running counter to God’s just and right commands, and proved a most miserable failure; and the only conclusion which could be drawn from it was, that God’s way is invariably the best. The connexion with the following will be best understood if we consider it a reflection on his own failure).
CHAPTER VIII.
WHO is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and [¹]the boldness of his face shall be changed.