Clarke's Bible Commentary - Ecclesiastes 1:5
Verse 5. and 6. These verses are confused by being falsely divided. The first clause of the sixth should be joined to the fifth verse. "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he ariseth; going to the south, and circulating to the north."
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 5. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose .] The sun rises in the morning and sets at evening in our hemisphere, according to the appearance of things; and then it makes haste to go round the other hemisphere in the night: it “pants”, as the word signifies; the same figure is used by other writers f20 ; like a man out of breath with running; so this glorious body, which rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race, and whose circuit is from one end of the heavens to the other, ( Psalm 19:5,6); is in haste to get to the place where he rose in the morning, and there he makes no stop, but pursues his course in the same track again. By this instance is exemplified the succession of the generations of men one after another, as the rising and setting of the sun continually follows each other; and also sets forth the restless state of things in the world, which, like the sun, are never at a stand, but always moving, and swiftly taking their course; and likewise the changeable state of man, who, like the rising sun, and when at noon day, is in flourishing circumstances, and in the height of prosperity, but as this declines and sets, so he has his declining times and days of adversity. Moreover, like the rising sun, he comes into this world and appears for a while, and then, like the setting sun, he dies; only with this difference, in which the sun has the preference to him, as the earth before had; the sun hastens and comes to its place from whence it arose, but man lies down and rises not again till the heavens be no more, and never returns to his place in this world, that knows him no more, ( Job 7:10 14:12). The Jews say, before the sun of one righteous, man sets, the sun of another righteous man rises.
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
וזרח 2224 השׁמשׁ 8121 ובא 935 השׁמשׁ 8121 ואל 413 מקומו 4725 שׁואף 7602 זורח 2224 הוא 1931 שׁם׃ 8033
