Ecclesiastes 2:16

2:12-17 Solomon found that knowledge and prudence were preferable to ignorance and folly, though human wisdom and knowledge will not make a man happy. The most learned of men, who dies a stranger to Christ Jesus, will perish equally with the most ignorant; and what good can commendations on earth do to the body in the grave, or the soul in hell? And the spirits of just men made perfect cannot want them. So that if this were all, we might be led to hate our life, as it is all vanity and vexation of spirit.

For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever,.... The Targum interprets it, in the world to come; but even in this world the remembrance of a wise man, any more than of a fool, does not always last; a wise man may not only be caressed in life, but may be remembered after death for a while; the fame of him may continue for a little time, and his works and writings may be applauded; but by and by rises up another genius brighter than he, or at least is so thought, and outshines him; and then his fame is obscured, his writings are neglected and despised, and he and his works buried in oblivion; and this is the common course of things.

(16) It might be urged on behalf of the Solomonic authorship that Solomon himself might imagine that in the days to come he and his wisdom would be forgotten, but that such a thought does not become a long subsequent writer who had been induced by Solomon’s reputation for wisdom to make him the hero of his work. It would seem to follow that the writer is here only giving the history of Solomon’s reflections, and not his ultimate conclusions. Better to omit the note of interrogation after “wise man,” and put a note of exclamation after “fool,” the “how” being used as in Isaiah 14:4 ; Ezekiel 26:17 .

For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool {l} for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And {m} how dieth the wise man? as the fool. (l) Meaning, in this world. (m) He wonders that men forget a wise man, being dead, as soon as they do a fool.

There is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; their name and memory, though it may flourish for a season among some men, yet it will not last for ever, but will in a little time be worn out; as we see in most of the wise men of former ages, whose very names, together with all their monuments, are utterly lost, as hath been oft observed and bewailed by learned writers in several ages. As the fool; he must die as certainly as the fool, and after death be as little remembered and honoured.

16 . there is no remembrance of the wise ] More accurately, For the wise man as for the fool there is no remembrance for ever , the last two words being emphatic, almost as if intentionally calling in question the teaching of Psalm 112:6 , that “the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.” The assertion seems at first too sweeping. There are sages, we say, who live yet in the memory of men whose names the world will not willingly let die. Practically, however, as regards the influence of the desire for posthumous fame as a motive, the number of such names is inappreciably small, even with the manifold resources of monuments and written records. The scribes and doctors, the artists and the poets of one age are forgotten in the next, and only here or there can any man be bold to say with Bacon that he commits his memory “to the care of future ages.” (See note on ch. Ecclesiastes 1:11 .) Even a biographical dictionary is often but as the sepulchre of the mouldering remains of reputations that have been long since dead, and their place knoweth them no more. Then, as in later days, there were those who substituted the permanence of fame for that of personal being, and the Debater , with his incisive question shatters the unsubstantial fabric. And how dieth the wise man? As the fool ] Literally, “ with the fool ,” as if in partnership with him, sharing the same lot. Better, perhaps, as an exclamation, not a question, “ How dieth the wise man with (= as) the fool.

The absence of any hope of an immortality beyond that of fame has been already implied. The present clause brings before us the manner and circumstances of death. We stand, as it were, by the two death-beds, of the wise and of the fool, and note the same signs of the end, the same glazed eye, the same death-dew on the brow, the same failing power of thought. The picture of chap. Ecclesiastes 12:1-6 is true of both. The seeker had apparently never stood by the death-bed of one whose face was lit up, and, as it were, transfigured by a “hope full of immortality.” Here also we may trace in the later personator of Solomon a deliberate protest against what seemed to him the teaching of Ecclesiastes ( Wis 2:1-9 ).

Verse 16. - For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool forever ; Revised Version, more emphatically, for of the wise man , even as of the fool , there is no remembrance forever . This, of course, is not absolutely true. There are men whose names are history, and will endure as long as the world lasts; but speaking generally, oblivion is the portion of all; posterity soon forgets the wisdom of one and the folly of another. Where the belief in the future life was not a strong and animating motive, posthumous fame exercised a potent attraction for many minds. To be the founder of a long line of descendants, -r to leave a record which should be fresh in the minds of future generations, these were objects of intense ambition, and valued as worthy of highest aspirations and best efforts. The words of classical poets will occur to our memory; e.g. Horace, 'Carm.,' 3:30. "Exegi monumentum aere perennius...Non omnis metier, multaque pars meiVitabit Libitinam." Ovid, ' Amor .,' 1:15. 4 - "Ergo etiam, cum me supremus adederit ignis,Vivam, parsquc mei multa supersteserit." But Koheleth shows the vanity of all such hopes; they are based on sounds which experience proves to be unsubstantial. Though Solomon's own fame gives the lie to the statement received without limitation (comp.

Wisd. 8:13), yet his reflections might well have taken this turn, and the writer is quite justified in putting the thought into his mouth, as the king could not know how subsequent ages would regard his wisdom and attainments. Seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten . The clause has been variously translated. Septuagint, "Forasmuch as the coming days, even all the things, are forgotten;" Vulgate, "And future times shall cover all things equally with oblivion." Modern editors give, "Since in the days that are to come they are all forgotten;" "As in time past, so in days to come, all will be forgotten.... In the days which are coming [it will be said by-and-by], The whole of them are long ago forgotten.'" This is a specimen of the uncertainty of exact interpretation, where the intended meaning is well ascertained. " All" ( הכל ) may refer either to wise and foolish, or to the circumstances of their lives. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool. Better taken as one sentence, with an exclamation, How doth the wise man die with ( even as) the fool I (For "with" ( ira ), equivalent to "as," comp. Ecclesiastes 7:11 ; Job 9:26 ; Psalm 106:6 .) "How" ( אֵידּ ) is sarcastic, as Isaiah 14:4 , or sorrowful, as 2 Samuel 1:19 . The same complaint falls from a psalmist's lips, "He seeth that wise men die; the fool and the brutish together perish" ( Psalm 49:10 ).