Ecclesiastes 8:1. Who is as the wise man? &c.— Who is like the wise man, and who knoweth how to solve difficulties? A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine; whereas a sullen look [Heb. The roughness of his face] would make him an object of hatred. The latter clause of this verse, setting aside the figures, might be thus expressed; A man's wisdom will bring him favour; but arrogance will make him hated.

Ecclesiastes 8:5. Whoso keepeth the commandment— He that observeth despotic commands, will not discern a wrong order; but the wise man's heart will discern both time and reason: (Ecclesiastes 8:6.) For there is both time and reason to every determination of his will; because man's evils are multiplied upon him (Ecclesiastes 8:7.) by his not knowing futurity; for who will shew him what turn things shall take? Desvoeux. By means of his translation, the opposition is exactly kept up, and every thing is plain. The reason given for advising to withdraw from your observation of the king's countenance, as soon as you perceive that he is about to give an evil word, or wrong order, is proper; he will do whatsoever he pleaseth; and you cannot expect that he should allow you the liberty of controlling his absolute commands, especially when he is in a passion. The opposition is, between him who prostitutes his discernment to passive obedience, and him who, through a proper use of his reason, deserves the name of a wise man.

Ecclesiastes 8:8. There is no man that hath power over the spirit— No man is absolute commander over the wind to retain the wind; and there is no commander against the day of death; and there is no embassy to be admitted during the battle. Desvoeux; who remarks, that if ancient interpreters had plainly and literally translated the first clause, No man hath power over the wind to confine the wind, no one would now imagine that any thing else beside the wind and storms were here mentioned by Solomon; as was very well understood by the Latin interpreters of the Syriac and Arabic versions: but, the Greek interpreters having made use of the ambiguous word πνευμα, their successors determined that word to mean either the soul at large, or some particular affection of the soul. Among things which it is not in any one's power to matter, or, if we keep closer to the original, among things which have no commander among men who can dispose of them at his will, none had a better right to be mentioned than wind and death. The two sentences which follow look very like similes contracted into proverbs; and each of them has, besides the literal signification, a farther meaning; which may be easily discovered from their connexion with the subject in hand; namely, the difficulty of extricating ourselves out of the many dangers to which we are daily exposed. Why should not this be likewise a simile to the same purpose? The image of irresistible storms is so much the more proper in this place, as it may, besides the principal subject, imply a beautiful allusion to the violence of parties and factions, which so often rage at court. However, the application of these three proverbial similes to the argument may be thus supplied; It is as impossible to extricate yourself out of the difficulties into which your opposing wrong measures, without discerning both time and reason, will involve you; as to command the wind or death, or to have ambassadors admitted during the heat of the battle. I shall not dwell any longer upon this passage; but I hope it may be looked upon as an advantage, in the interpretation which I propose, that, instead of one single thought (viz. the unavoidability of death), in three different dresses, which most modern interpreters find here, it discovers three distinct ideas, and every one of them well connected with the subject treated by Solomon. The interpreter who makes a judicious writer a tautologist is not the most likely to have hit his true meaning. As far as to the end of the seventh chapter has been declared what discoveries Solomon had made in the latter part of his inquiry concerning the wickedness of ignorance, and the foolishness of that which is in the greatest esteem. It remains that we should have an account of his success in the former part of the same, concerning wisdom. To this effect, he enlarges upon the excellency of wisdom, which principally appears from its being the only sure guide by whose assistance a man can extricate himself out of the difficulties and dangers of this world. "No man," says he, "is to be compared with the wise: No man, besides him, knoweth how to behave in the most difficult occurrences of life: Ecclesiastes 8:1. I tell you, I, who have applied to wisdom more than any man,—Observe both the countenance and discourses of the king; and that for your own sake, for those who approach his person are sworn to support him. Be not so rash as to contradict him. Do not stay to hear what you cannot approve, for it would be in vain for you to oppose it. Some make it a duty blindly to comply with every whim of their superiors, without ever allowing themselves the liberty to examine whether they are right or wrong; but the wise man always makes use of his discernment, and knoweth when and how he should either obey or forbear obeying: Ecclesiastes 8:2-5. For, though other men may act at random; yet to him every determination of the will has its proper time and proper reasons to support it; because he knows that, as he is equally unable to dive into futurity, and to command events, the utmost caution is necessary, to avoid the many dangers to which a man is daily exposed, especially at court. It would be too late to think of mitigating the king's wrath when once it is kindled against you. The safest way is to prevent it, by declining rather than opposing such orders as you cannot comply with. The blind compliance, which is that of the wicked, is not safe or honest; and, though it may for the present ingratiate the courtier with his master, yet the bad consequences of his obsequiousness must sooner or later appear; and then he shall answer for them." Ecclesiastes 8:6-8.

Ecclesiastes 8:12. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times— Because the sinner dieth committing evil, even from the delays granted to him; thus I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, who will continue to fear before his face.

Ecclesiastes 8:14. There is a vanity— After a long but useful digression (See on Ecclesiastes 8:8.) the author resumes the thread of his reasoning: but the second proof that he brings in to support this third proposition is so artfully connected with the latter part of the digression, that no chasm is to be perceived in the discourse. This second proof is taken from those wrong judgments which are owing to an over-hasty observation of things, and consists of two instances. The first instance is that of the practical inferences drawn by the sinners from what is daily observed under a bad government, viz. that the wicked, nay, the most abandoned men, are not punished according to their deserts, but enjoy even the honours of a funeral pomp, the last of earthly rewards: From thence the generality of men conclude, that evil may be committed with impunity: Ecclesiastes 8:9-10. Now, that this is a wrong judgment can appear from no other consideration than this, viz. that there is no sufficient ground, from that observation, to think that a man's being laid in his grave puts him out of the reach of punishment. It may, nay it must, be said to the contrary; and our author says he knows it, or concludes it from the very observation which the wicked wrest to their own purpose, that rewards and punishments shall certainly attend holiness and virtue on the one hand, and wickedness and impiety on the other; whence it follows that the prolongation of a life which must be attended with the continual dread of impending vengeance is a very slight advantage. Yet, on the other hand, it must be owned, that the seeming misapplication of rewards and punishments in this world, which, when duly considered, affords such strong presumptions of the existence of a future state, is for a hasty observer a vain principle, or the source of vain and dangerous conclusions. Ecclesiastes 8:11-14.

Ecclesiastes 8:15. For that shall abide with him of his labour— And this shall borrow him from his labour. We have here an image which will not disgrace Solomon's pencil. Man in this world is the property of labour. God Almighty made him so. If ever that tyrannical owner parts with him, it is only by way of loan: he must be returned, as will appear chap. Ecclesiastes 11:8 Ecclesiastes 12:3.