Ecclesiastes 2:7

2:1-11 Solomon soon found mirth and pleasure to be vanity. What does noisy, flashy mirth towards making a man happy? The manifold devices of men's hearts, to get satisfaction from the world, and their changing from one thing to another, are like the restlessness of a man in a fever. Perceiving it was folly to give himself to wine, he next tried the costly amusements of princes. The poor, when they read such a description, are ready to feel discontent. But the remedy against all such feelings is in the estimate of it all by the owner himself. All was vanity and vexation of spirit: and the same things would yield the same result to us, as to Solomon. Having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. His wisdom remained with him; a strong understanding, with great human knowledge. But every earthly pleasure, when unconnected with better blessings, leaves the mind as eager and unsatisfied as before. Happiness arises not from the situation in which we are placed. It is only through Jesus Christ that final blessedness can be attained.

I got me servants and maidens,.... Menservants, and maidservants; the Targum adds, "of the children of Ham, and of the rest of the strange people;'' these were such as he hired, or bought with his money; and had servants born in my house; and these were all employed by him; either as his retinue and equipage, his attendants and bodyguards; or to take care of his household, his gardens, and pools; or for his horses and chariots, and for various offices; see 1 Kings 4:26, Ezra 2:58. Villalpandus computes the number of his servants to be forty eight thousand; if there were any pleasure and happiness in such a numerous attendance, Solomon had it; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me; oxen, cows, horses, asses, camels, mules, &c. also sheep and goats; which, as they were profitable, so it was pleasant to see them grazing on the hills and valleys, in the fields, mountains, and meadows.

I procured me male and female servants, and had servants born in my {c} house; also I had great possessions of herds and flocks above all that were in Jerusalem before me: (c) Meaning, of the servants or slaves which he had bought, so the children born in their servitude, were the masters.

I got - Rather, I bought, in distinction from those born in the house. The "children of Solomon's servants" (compare Ezra 2:55 , Ezra 2:58 ) were more probably of Canaanite origin 1 Kings 9:20-21 ; 1 Kings 5:15 than Hebrews 1 Kings Hebrews 9:22 . Possessions of great and small cattle - Rather, herds of oxen and sheep. All ... before me - King David's herds and flocks are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 27:29, 1 Chronicles 27:31 : but we have no specific account of the wealth of other Canaanite or Hebrew inhabitants of Jerusalem before Solomon.

7 . I got me servants and maidens ] Better, I bought. The picture of Oriental state was incomplete without this element, and the slave trade, of which the Midianites were the chief representatives in the patriarchal history. ( Genesis 37:28 ), had probably been carried on without intermission, and supplied both the household and the harem of Solomon. In the Cushi of 2 Samuel 18:21 , in his namesake of Jeremiah 36:14 , in Ebedmelech, the Cushite, or Ethiopian, of Jeremiah 38:7 , we have instances of the presence of such slaves in the royal households. The history of every ancient nation shews the universality of the traffic. Of these slaves each great household had two classes: (1) those “bought with money,” men of other races, captives in war, often, probably, ( Jeremiah 38:7 ) who were employed in the more menial offices ( Genesis 11:11-12 ; Genesis 11:23 ), and (2) those born in the house ( Genesis 14:14 ; Genesis 15:3 ; Jeremiah 2:14 ), the ‘sons of the handmaids’ ( Exodus 23:12 ), who rose into more confidential service, the οἰκογενεῖς of the Greeks, the vernae of the Latins. On the assumption that the book was written under the Ptolemies, their court would present the same features in an even more conspicuous manner. great and small cattle ] Better, oxen and sheep. The daily provision for Solomon’s household ( 1 Kings 4:22 ) gives some idea of the magnitude of his flocks and herds. See also 1 Chronicles 27:29 ; 1 Kings 5:3 .

Verse 7. - I got me - I bought, procured - servants and maidens . These are distinct from those mentioned immediately afterwards, servants born in my house ; Septuagint, οἰκογενεῖς : called in the Hebrew, "sons of the house" ( Genesis 15:3 ). They were much more esteemed by their masters, and showed a much closer attachment to the family than the bought slaves or the conquered aboriginals, who were often reduced to this state ( 1 Kings 9:20, 21 ). The number of Solomon's attendants excited the wonder of the Queen of Sheba ( 1 Kings 4:26 , etc.; 1 Kings 10:5), and with good reason, if Josephus's account is to be believed. This writer asserts that the king had some thousand or more chariots, and twenty thousand horses. The drivers and riders were young men of comely aspect, tall and well-made; they had long flowing hair, and wore tunics of Tyrian purple, and powdered their hair with gold dust, which glittered in the rays of the sun ('Ant.,' 8:07. 3). Attended by a cavalcade thus arrayed, Solomon used to betake himself to his "paradise" at Etham, to enjoy the refreshing coolness of its trees and pools. Great and small cattle ; oxen and sheep . The enormous amount of Solomon's herds and flocks is proved by the extraordinary multitude of the sacrifices at the consecration of the temple ( 1 Kings 8:63 ), and the lavish provision made daily for the wants of his table ( 1 Kings 4:22, 23 ).

The cattle of David were very numerous, and required special overlookers ( 1 Chronicles 27:29-31 ). Job ( Job 1:3 ) had, before his troubles, seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and these items were all doubled at the return of his prosperity. Among Solomon's possessions, horses are not here mentioned, though they formed no inconsiderable portion of his live stock, and added greatly to his magnificence. Koheleth, perhaps, avoided boasting of this extravagance in consideration of the religious sentiment which was strongly opposed to such a feature. That were in Jerusalem before me (so ver. 9; see Ecclesiastes 1:16 ). But the reference here may not necessarily be to kings, but to chieftains and rich men, who were celebrated for the extent of their possessions. Ecclesiastes 2:7

"I procured servants and maidens, and also I obtained servants born in the house; also the possession of flocks; I obtained many horned and small cattle before all who were in Jerusalem before me." The obtaining of these possessions is, according to Genesis 17:12 ., to be understood of purchase. There is a distinction between the slaves, male and female (mancipia), obtained by purchase, and those who were home-born (vernae), the בּית (ילידי) בּני, who were regarded as the chief support of the house ( Genesis 14:14 ), on account of their attachment to it, and to this day are called (Arab.) fada wayyt, as those who offer themselves a sacrifice for it, if need be. Regarding לי היה, in the sense of increasing possession; and regarding היה for היוּ, vid., at Ecclesiastes 1:10 , Ecclesiastes 1:16 ; at all events, the sing. of the pred. may be explained from this, that the persons and things named are thought of in the mass, as at Zechariah 11:5 ; Joel 1:20 (although the idea there may be also individualizing); but in the use of the pass., as at Genesis 35:26 ; Daniel 9:24 , the Semite custom is different, inasmuch as for it the passive has the force of an active without a definite subject, and thus with the most general subject; and as to the case lying before us in Ecclesiastes 2:7 , we see from Exodus 12:49 , cf. Genesis 15:17 , that היה (יהיה) in such instances is thought of as neut.

According to Genesis 26:14 and the passage before us, מקנה lay nearer than מקנה, but the primary form instead of the connecting form is here the traditional reading; we have thus apposition (Nebenordnung) instead of subordination (Annexion), as in zevahim shelamim, Exodus 24:5 , and in habbaqar hannehhosheth, 2 Kings 16:17 , although vaqar vatson may also be interpreted as the accus. of the more accurate definition: the possession of flocks consisting in cattle and sheep. But this manner of construction is, for a book of so late an origin, too artificial. What it represents Solomon as saying is consistent with historical fact; at the consecration of the temple he sacrificed hecatombs, 1 Kings 8:63 ; and the daily supply for the royal kitchen, which will at the same time serve to show the extent of the royal household, was, according to 1 Kings 5:2 ., enormous. There now follows the enumeration of riches and jewels which were a delight to the eye; and finally, the large provision made for revelling in the pleasures of music and of sensual love.