CHAPTER V.
THE WISE MAN'S PARTING COUNSELS.
A new section begins at x. 16—no ingenuity avails to establish
a connection with the preceding verses. We are approaching
our goal, and breathe a freer air. From the very
first the ideas and images presented to us are in a healthier
and more objective tone. The condemnation expressed in
ver. 16 does credit to the public spirit of the writer, and, I need
hardly say, is not really inconsistent (as Hitzig supposed) with
the advice in ver. 20. In the words—
Even among thine acquaintance[1] curse not the king, and in thy
bedchambers curse not the rich; for the birds of the heaven may
carry the voice [comp. the cranes of Ibycus] and that which hath
wings may report the word—
Dean Plumptre perhaps rightly sees 'the irony of indignation'
which 'veils itself in the garb of a servile prudence.'
There is no necessity to reduce Koheleth to the moral level
of Epicurus, who is said to have deliberately preferred despotism
and approved courting the monarch.
It is a still freer spirit which breathes in the remainder of the book. Let courtiers waste their time in luxury (x. 18), but throw thou thyself unhesitatingly into the swift stream of life. Be not ever forecasting, for there are some contingencies which can no more be guarded against than the falling of rain or of a tree (xi. 3, 4). Act boldly, then, like the corn-*merchants, who speculate on such a grand scale,—
Send forth thy bread upon the wide waters [lit. upon the face of
the waters], for thou mayst find it [i.e. obtain a good return for it]
after many days (xi. 1).
- ↑ Altering the points with Klostermann.
