The Sceptics of the Old Testament: Job - Koheleth - Agur Part 33

6. Folly is set in high places, The great ones must sit low down; 7. Slaves have I beheld on horseback, And princes trudging on foot.

_(c) In the Conditions of Everyday Life_

X. 8. He that diggeth a pit may fall into it; him who breaketh down walls a serpent may sting. 9. Whoso removeth stones may be hurt therewith; he who cleaveth wood may be endangered thereby.

10. If the axe be blunt it demands more strength:[293]

Only through intelligence doth exertion avail.

11. If the serpent bites before the spell, Then bootless is the charmer's art.

12. Speech from the wise man's mouth is grace, The lips of a fool swallow him up; 13. The first words of his mouth are folly.

And the end of his talk rank madness.

II.15. For in self-conceit babbles the fool,[294]

X.14_a_. The silly man multiplieth his words; 15. The fussiness of the fool jadeth him.

Who knows not yet the way citywards.[295]

_Exhortation to enjoy Life_

X. 14_b_. Man knoweth not what shall come to pa.s.s, and who can tell him IX. 3. during his life, what shall befall after his death? Afterwards they go down to the[296] [dead, and there none can tell him aught nor can he apprehend anything. Even could he take it in, it would avail him nothing, for in _Sheol_ there is no partic.i.p.ation in life]. 4. For whosoever may enrol himself in the company of all the living, can rest content, seeing that a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5. For the living know at least that they shall die, whereas the dead know not anything at all, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6. As well their love as their hatred and jealousy has long since pa.s.sed away, neither have they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done under the sun.

7. Go, eat thy bread with joy, And quaff thy wine with merry heart.

For G.o.d hath countenanced beforehand this thy doing. 8. Let thy garments be always white and let thy head lack not ointment. 9. See life with a woman whom thou lovest throughout all the days of thy empty existence which he hath given thee under the sun, during all thy vain days! For that is thy portion in life[297] and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. 10. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do that with thy might. For there is no work, nor cogitation, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the _Sheol_[298] whither thou goest. XI. 7. But sweet is the light and pleasant it is for the eyes to gaze upon the sun. 8. For how many years soever a man may live, he should enjoy himself during them all, and bear in mind the days of darkness that they shall be many. Everything that is to come, is vain.

9. Rejoice, young man, in thy youth![299]

And let thy heart make thee glad!

And walk in the ways of thine heart, And according to the seeing of thine eyes!

_10a._ Drive sorrow from thy heart; And put away care from thy fles.h.!.+

XII._1a._ And bethink thee of thy fountain,[300]

In the days of thy youth!

XI. _10b._ For youth and dawn are fleeting.

XII._1b._ Dreary days are drawing near, And years approach devoid of joy.

2. Then darkened shall be sun and moon, And clouds come after rain alway.

3. The keepers of the house[301] shall quake, The st.u.r.dy ones[302] shall bend themselves; Darksome shall the windows[303] be, 4. And closed shall be the portals.[304]

The roar of the mill[305] shall be as the sparrows twitter, The daughters of song[306] shall bow low; 5. Likewise of heights shall they be afraid, For dread shall lie in wait.

3. The grinding maids[307] shall leave off work, 5. The almond-tree[308] shall shed its blooms; The gra.s.shopper[309] shall be burdened, And the caperberry[310] unavailing.

For man goeth to his everlasting home and the mourners are in readiness in the street.

6. Asunder snaps the silver chain; s.h.i.+vered is the golden lamp; The pitcher shattered at the brook; The scoopwheel falls into the well.

8. O Vanity of Vanities, saith the Speaker; all is vanity![311]

Footnotes:

[254] For the convenience of the reader I give the chapters and verses as they are in the ordinary Hebrew Bible, so that they can be found at once in the Authorised Version. The letter _a_ after the verse number indicates the first half of that verse, the letter _b_ the second half.

[255] The meaning is almost the opposite of that of the Authorised Version. Eye and ear are wearied and bewildered by the incessant whirl of the vast machinery of the universe. _Cf._ Schopenhauer, ed. Grisebach, vol. v. p. 295, -- 144. The metre of the strophe is identical with that of the "Poem of Job."

[256] It is interesting and instructive to compare this with the identical doctrine of Buddha, as set forth in the canonical book, "Samyuttaka-Nikayo," vol. i. vii., 2 P, 2 Suttam. It is accessible to most readers in the admirable German translation of Dr. K. E. Neumann, Leiden, 1892. Pp. 156, 157.

[257] The Authorised Version has "shall not be satisfied with silver."

The meaning is that he who loves silver shall not enjoy the good things it can purchase.

[258] _I.e_., The care and anxiety which accompany the possession of wealth. The Authorised Version has: "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep." The Hebrew word _saba'_ can signify both wealth and repletion. Here it manifestly means the former; but some well-intentioned person whose ideas of physiology were defective, having taken it to mean repletion, confirmed his view by interpolating the words: "whether he eat little or much."

[259] Here a portion of the original text has been lost, as is evident from the pa.s.sage beginning "What profit," two sentences lower down, which sums up the troubles of the rich man and makes them consist not merely in the loss of what he actually possessed, but likewise in the hards.h.i.+ps and privations which he endured in order to produce his wealth. I give in brackets the words which Professor Bickell conjecturally supplies in lieu of the lost pa.s.sage.

[260] And therefore extremely doubtful. When Koheleth wishes to express the idea of inexorable law, or Fate, he has recourse to the notion of G.o.d.

[261] It is only on earth that one can hope for some approximation to happiness. If we fail to obtain it here--and the odds are very much against us--there is no hereafter to look forward to; for we _all_--the miserable as well as the fortunate--are drifting steadily into one place--the dreary _Sheol_, where there is no pleasure, no striving, no life.

[262] _I.e._, not merely, as commentators generally suppose, that desire is not satiated; but that the enjoyment for the sake of which alone we desire life, and toil to sustain it, is never attained. The aim of labour is enjoyment, without which existence is a burden; but the real result of it all is the mere support of life without its redeeming pleasures. _Cf._ Schopenhauer, vol. v. pp. 300, 301.

[263] That is to say, is a very uncertain outlook.

[264] This is a remarkable sentence, which, if it could be supposed to be the fruit of the writer's own speculations, would ent.i.tle him to a high place in the Pantheon of speculative philosophers. This proposition, which underlies all Buddhistic doctrines, would be formulated by Kant or Schopenhauer somewhat as follows: Time, s.p.a.ce, and causality are given to man as the _a priori_ conditions of all thought; they are the stuff his mind is made of. As they are likewise the three ingredients of which the universe is composed, it follows that the world is the web of his own intellect, and, in so far as it is knowable, exists for the intellect alone. That which underlies all the shadows of existence, the one eternal force or will, he never beholds.

[265] Schopenhauer would express it thus: Our sources of knowledge--inner and outer observation--are identical with those of animals, the difference consisting in that faculty of imparting to our intuitions the form of abstract ideas.

[266] That is to say, is highly uncertain; for, as we learn in the following lines, happiness and misery depend upon chance or luck.

G.o.d gives his favourites an agreeable life, leaving the drudgery to all the rest. And his choice is not determined by any ethical acts of man.

[267] "Sinner" is not the correct translation of the Hebrew word _khote_ here; otherwise the author could not say that this too (_i.e._, the punishment of the sinner) is vanity.

[268] The Jews frequently give to piety and morality the name of wisdom.

[269] The sense of this pa.s.sage, which has become proverbial, is generally misunderstood. What it means is that man's work, be he never so skilful, be it never so easy, is absolutely dependent for success upon conditions which are wholly beyond his control, and that undertaken under any other conditions is inevitably doomed to failure.

[270] Here Professor Bickell supplies the words: "Against this no man can strive."

[271] The utmost that physical science can teach us is the where, the when and the why of the appearance of the forces of nature. The _what_ remains for ever a mystery.

[272] Wisdom here is taken to mean the one eternal reality which underlies the shadowy appearances that we see and know. The same use of the word and exactly the same thesis occur in Job.

(_Cf_. A.V. Job xxviii. 21, 22.)

[273] He cannot answer even for his own sentiments, completely though they may seem to be under his sway.

[274] _I.e._, without ethical distinctions between the good and the bad.

[275] It is curious to note that a comparison strikingly similar to this occurs in the ancient Indian collection of fables ent.i.tled "Pantschatantra." (Ed. Kosegarten, p. 105.)