SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:4
¶ Generación va, y generación viene; mas la tierra siempre permanece.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Ecclesiastes 1:4
Verse 4. One generation passeth away - Men succeed each other in unceasing generations: but the earth is still the same; it undergoes no change that leads to melioration, or greater perfection. And it will continue the same µlw[l leolam, during the whole course of time; till the end of all things arrives.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 4. [One] generation passeth away, and [another] generation cometh , etc.] This shows that a man can have no profit of all his labour under the sun, because of his short continuance; as soon almost as he has got anything by his labour, he must leave it: not only particular persons, but families, nations, and kingdoms; even all the inhabitants of the world, that are contemporaries, live together in the same age, in a certain period of time; these gradually go off by death, till the whole generation is consumed, as the generation of the Israelites in the wilderness were. Death is meant by passing away; it is a going out of time into eternity; a departure out of this world to another; a quitting of the earthly house of this tabernacle for the grave, the house appointed for all living; it is man’s going to his long home: and this is going the way of all the earth; in a short time a whole race or generation of men go off the stage of the world, and then another succeeds f16 ; they come in by birth; and men are described from their birth by such as “come into the world”; for which there is a set time, as well as for going out, ( John 1:9 Ecclesiastes 3:2); and these having been a while in the world, go off to make room for another generation; and so things have been from the beginning of the world, and will be to the end of it. Homer illustrates this by the succession of leaves of trees; as is the generation of trees, he says, such is that of men; some leaves, the wind sheds them on the ground; others the budding forest puts forth, and they grow in their room in the springtime; so is the generation of men; one is born, and another ceases. Now death puts an end to all a man’s enjoyments got by labour, his riches, honour, and natural knowledge; these all cease with him, and therefore he has no profit of all his labour under the sun; but the earth abideth for ever ; for a long time, until the dissolution of all things; and then, though that and all in it will be burnt up, yet it will rather be changed than destroyed; the form of it will be altered, when the substance of it will continue; it will not be annihilated, but renewed and refined. This is mentioned to show that the earth, which was made for man, of which he is the inhabitant and proprietor, is more stable than he himself; he soon passes off from it, but that continues; he returns to the earth, from whence he came, but that remains as it did; he dies, and leaves the earth behind him, and all his acquisitions in it; and therefore what profit has he of all his labours on it? Besides, that remains to have the same things transacted on it, over and over again, as has been already; God, that made it for men to dwell in, has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of men’s habitations in it; he has appointed who shall dwell on it, and where, in successive generations; and till all these men are born and gone off, age after age, the earth shall continue, and then pass through its last change. The Targum is, “the earth stands for ever, to bear the vengeance that is to come upon the world for the sins of the children of men.” The Midrash Tanchuma, as Jarchi observes, interprets it of all the righteous of Israel, called the earth; and he himself, of the meek that shall inherit the earth: says R. Isaac f18 , “one kingdom comes, and another goes, but Israel abideth for ever.”
Matthew Henry Commentary
Solomon shows that all human things are vain. (Eccl. 1:1-3) Man's toi and want of satisfaction. (Eccl. 1:4-8) There is nothing new. (Eccl 1:9-11) The vexation in pursuit of knowledge. (Eccl. 1:12-18)
Eccl. 1:1-3 Much is to be learned by comparing one part of Scriptur with another. We here behold Solomon returning from the broken an empty cisterns of the world, to the Fountain of living water; recordin his own folly and shame, the bitterness of his disappointment, and the lessons he had learned. Those that have taken warning to turn and live should warn others not to go on and die. He does not merely say all things are vain, but that they are vanity. VANITY OF VANITIES, ALL I VANITY. This is the text of the preacher's sermon, of which in thi book he never loses sight. If this world, in its present state, wer all, it would not be worth living for; and the wealth and pleasure of this world, if we had ever so much, are not enough to make us happy What profit has a man of all his labour? All he gets by it will no supply the wants of the soul, nor satisfy its desires; will not aton for the sins of the soul, nor hinder the loss of it: what profit wil the wealth of the world be to the soul in death, in judgment, or in the everlasting state?
Eccl. 1:4-8 All things change, and never rest. Man, after all his labour, is no nearer finding rest than the sun, the wind, or the current of the river. His soul will find no rest, if he has it not from God. The senses are soon tired, yet still craving what is untried.
Eccl. 1:9-11 Men's hearts and their corruptions are the same now as in former times; their desires, and pursuits, and complaints, still the same. This should take us from expecting happiness in the creature, an quicken us to seek eternal blessings. How many things and persons i Solomon's day were thought very great, yet there is no remembrance of them now!
Eccl. 1:12-18 Solomon tried all things, and found them vanity. He foun his searches after knowledge weariness, not only to the flesh, but to the mind. The more he saw of the works done under the sun, the more he saw their vanity; and the sight often vexed his spirit. He coul neither gain that satisfaction to himself, nor do that good to others which he expected. Even the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom discovere man's wickedness and misery; so that the more he knew, the more he saw cause to lament and mourn. Let us learn to hate and fear sin, the caus of all this vanity and misery; to value Christ; to seek rest in the knowledge, love, and service of the Saviour __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
דור 1755 הלך 1980 ודור 1755 בא 935 והארץ 776 לעולם 5769 עמדת׃ 5975
