SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:9
¶ ¿Qué es lo que fue? Lo mismo que será. ¿Qué es lo que ha sido hecho? Lo mismo que se hará; y nada hay nuevo debajo del sol.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Ecclesiastes 1:9
Verse 9. The thing that hath been - Every thing in the whole economy of nature has its revolutions; summer and winter, heat and cold, rain and drought, seedtime and autumn, with the whole system of corruption and generation, alternately succeed each other, so that whatever has been shall be again. There is really, physically, and philosophically, nothing absolutely new under the sun, in the course of sublunary things. The same is the case in all the revolutions of the heavens.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 9. The thing that hath been, it [is that] which shall be , etc.] The thing that has been seen and heard is no other than what shall be seen and heard again; so that what is now seen and heard is only what has been seen and heard before; it is but the same thing over again; and that is the reason why the eye and ear are never satisfied; the same objects, as the visible heavens and earth, and all therein, which have been from the beginning, these are they which shall be, and there is nothing else to be seen and heard, and enjoyed; and that which is done, [is] that which shall be done ; what is done in the present age, nay, in this year, month, or day, shall be done over again in the next; and [there is] no new [thing] under the sun ; which is to be understood of things natural, as the works of creation, which were finished from the beginning of the world, and continue as they were ever since, ( Hebrews 4:3 2 Peter 3:4); the various seasons of day and night, of summer and winter, of spring and autumn, of heat and cold, of seed time and harvest, come in course, as they always did; these ordinances never fail, ( Genesis 8:22 Jeremiah 31:35,36 33:20,21). The things before mentioned, the constant succession of men on earth, who are born into the world and die out of it, just as they always did; the sun rises and sets at its appointed time, as it did almost six thousand years ago; the winds whirl about all the points of the compass now as formerly; the rivers have the same course and recourse, and the sea its ebbing and flowing, they ever had; the same arts and sciences, trades and manufactures, obtained formerly as now, though in some circumstances there may be an improvement, and in others they grow worse; (see Genesis 4:2,20-22) ( Exodus 31:3-5); and even such things as are thought of new invention, it may be only owing to the ignorance of former times, history failing to give us an account of them; thus the art of printing, the making of gunpowder, and the use of guns and bombs, and of the lodestone and mariner’s compass, were thought to be of no long standing; and yet, according to the Chinese histories, that people were in possession of these things hundreds of years before; the circulation of the blood, supposed to be first found out by a countryman of ours in the last century, was known by Solomon, and is thought to be designed by him in ( Ecclesiastes 12:6); and the like may be observed of other things. The emperor Mark Antonine has the very phrase ouden kainon , “nothing new”: so Seneca f33 , “nothing new I see, nothing new I do.” This will likewise hold good in moral things; the same vices and virtues are now as ever, and ever were as they are; men in every age were born in sin, and were transgressors from the womb; from their infancy corrupt, and in all the stages of life; there were the same luxury and intemperance, and unnatural lusts, rapine and violence, in the days of Noah and Lot, as now; in Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the old world, as in the present age; and there were some few then, as now, that were men of sobriety, honesty, truth, and righteousness. There is nothing to be excepted but preternatural things, miraculous events, which may be called new, unheard of, and wonderful ones; such as the earth’s opening and swallowing men alive at once; the standing still of the sun and moon for a considerable time; the miracles wrought by the prophets of the Old and the apostles of the New Testament, and especially by Christ; and particularly the incarnation of Christ, or his birth of a virgin, that new thing made in the earth; these and such like things are made by the power of, he divine Being, who dwells above the sun, and is not bound by the laws of nature. Spiritual things may also be excepted, which are the effects of divine favour, or the produce of efficacious grace; and yet these things, though in some sense new, are also old; or there have been the same things for substance in former ages, and from the beginning, as now; such as the new covenant of grace; the new and living way to God; new creatures in Christ; a new name; the New Testament, and the doctrines of it; new ordinances, and the new commandment of love; and yet these, in some sense, are all old things, and indeed are the same in substance: there is nothing new but what is above the sun, and to be enjoyed in the realms of bliss to all eternity; and there are some things new f34 , new wine in Christ’s Father’s kingdom, new glories, joys, and pleasures, that will never end.
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
מה 4100 שׁהיה 1961 הוא 1931 שׁיהיה 1961 ומה 4100 שׁנעשׂה 6213 הוא 1931 שׁיעשׂה 6213 ואין 369 כל 3605 חדשׁ 2319 תחת 8478 השׁמשׁ׃ 8121
