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Selected Verse: Ecclesiates 10:19 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ec 10:19 |
King James |
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| Referring to Ecc 10:18. Instead of repairing the breaches in the commonwealth (equivalent to "building"), the princes "make a feast for laughter (Ecc 10:16), and wine maketh their life glad (Psa 104:15), and (but) money supplieth (answereth their wishes by supplying) all things," that is, they take bribes to support their extravagance; and hence arise the wrongs that are perpetrated (Ecc 10:5-6; Ecc 3:16; Isa 1:23; Isa 5:23). MAURER takes "all things" of the wrongs to which princes are instigated by "money"; for example, the heavy taxes, which were the occasion of Rehoboam losing ten tribes (Kg1 12:4, &c.). |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
"Meals they make into a pleasure, and wine cheereth the life, and money maketh everything serviceable." By עשׂים, wicked princes are without doubt thought of-but not immediately, since Ecc 10:16 is too remote to give the subject to Ecc 10:19. The subject which 'osim bears in itself (= 'osim hēm) might be syntactically definite, as e.g., Psa 33:5, אהב, He, Jahve, loves, thus: those princes, or, from Ecc 10:18 : such slothful men; but 'osim is better rendered, like e.g., omrim, Exo 5:16 (Ewald, 200a), and as in the Mishna we read קורין and the like with gramm. indefin. subj.: they make, but so that by it the slothful just designated, and those of a princely rank are meant (cf. a similar use of the inf. abs., as here of the part. in the historical style, Isa 22:13). Ginsburg's rendering is altogether at fault: "They turn bread and wine which cheereth life into revelry." If עשׁה and לחם as its object stand together, the meaning is, "to prepare a feast," Eze 4:15; cf. 'avad lehēm, Dan 5:1. Here, as there, 'osim lěhěm signifies coenam faciunt (parant). The ל of לשׂ is not the sign of the factitive obj. (as leēl, Isa 44:17), and thus not, as Hitz. supposes, the conditioning ל with which adv. conceptions are formed, - e.g., Lam 4:5, האך למע, where Jerome rightly translates, voluptuose (vid., E. Gerlach, l.c.), - but, which is most natural and is very appropriate, it is the ל of the aim or purpose: non ad debitam corporis refectionem, sed ad hera ludicra et stulta gaudia (Geier). שׂחוק is laughter, as that to which he utters the sentence (Ecc 2:2): Thou art mad. It is incorrect, moreover, to take lěhěm veyaim together, and to render yesammahh hayaim as an attribut. clause to yain: this epitheton ornans of wine would here be a most unsuitable weakening of the figure intended. It is only an apparent reason for this, that what Psa 104:15 says in praise of wine the author cannot here turn into a denunciatory reproach. Wine is certainly fitted to make glad the heart of a man; but here the subject of discourse is duty-forgetting idlers, to whom chiefly wine must be brought (Isa 5:12) to cheer their life (this sluggard-life spent in feasting and revelry). The fut. ישׂמּח is meant in the same modal sense as יגבּר, Ecc 10:10: wine must accomplish that for them. And they can feast and drink, for they have money, and money ־הכּל... יע. Luther hits the meaning: "Money must procure everything for them;" but the clause is too general; and better thus, after Jerome, the Zrich Bible: "unto money are all things obedient." The old Jewish interpreters compare Hos 2:23., where ענה, with accus. petentis, signifies, "to answer a request, to gratify a desire." But in the passage before us הכּל is not the obj. accus. of petentis, but petiti; for 'anah is connected with the accus. of that to which one answers as well as of that which one answers, e.g., Job 40:2, cf. Ecc 9:3. It is unnecessary, with Hitzig, to interpret יענה as Hiph.: Money makes all to hear (him who has the money), - makes it that nothing is refused to his wish. It is the Kal: Money answers to every demand, hears every wish, grants whatever one longs for, helps to all; as Menander says: "Silver and gold, - these are, according to my opinion, the most useful gods; if these have a place in the house, wish what thou wilt (εὖξαι τί βούλει), all will be thine;" and Horace, Epod. i. 6. 36 s.:
"Scilicet uxorem cum dote fidemque et amicos
Et genus et formam regina pecunia donat."
The author has now described the king who is a misfortune and him who is a blessing to the land, and princes as they ought to be and as they ought not to be, but particularly luxurious idle courtiers; there is now a warning given which has for its motive not only prudence, but also, according to Ecc 8:2, religiousness. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
A feast is made for laughter - The object of it is to produce merriment, to banish care and concern of every kind. But who are they who make and frequent such places? Epicures and drunkards generally; such as those of whom Horace speaks:
Nos numerus sumus, et fruges consumere nati.
Epist. lib. i., ep. 2, ver. 27.
"Those whose names stand as indications of men, the useless many; and who appear to be born only to consume the produce of the soil."
But money answereth all - This saying has prevailed everywhere.
Scilicet uxorem cum dote, fidemque, et amicos,
Et genus, et formam Regina Pecunia donat;
Ac bene nummatum decorat Suadela, Venusque.
Hor. Ep. lib. i., ep. 6, ver. 36.
"For gold, the sovereign Queen of all below,
Friends, honor, birth, and beauty, can bestow.
The goddess of persuasion forms her train;
And Venus decks the well-bemonied swain."
Francis. |
4 Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.
23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
5 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler:
6 Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place.
15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
16 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!
18 By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.
2 I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.
3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
10 If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
2 I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
17 And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.
1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
15 Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.
16 There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick: and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people.
18 By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.
5 He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.
16 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!