CHAPTER 3
INTRODUCTION
18 Again I hated all my application wherewith I had earnestly labored under the sun. I would have an heir after me 19 and do not know whether he would be a wise person or a fool. And he will have rule over all the labors with which I have labored and have been solicitous. Is there anything so vain? 20 Wherefore, I left off, and my heart renounced laboring any more under the sun. 21 For when a person labors in wisdom and knowledge and carefulness, he leaves what he has gotten to an idle person. So this also is vanity and a great evil. 22 For what profit will human beings have from all their labor and vexation of spirit, with which they have been tormented under the sun?
23 All their days are full of sorrows and miseries. Even in the night they do not rest in mind. And is this not vanity?
24 Is it not better to eat and drink and to show their souls good things from their labors? And this is from the hand of God. 25 Who will so feast and abound in delights as I? 26 God has given to a person who is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and understanding, but to the sinner he has given vexation and superfluous care to heap up and to gather together and to give to the person who has pleased God. But this also is vanity and a fruitless solicitude of the mind.
CHAPTER 3
1 All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under the sun.
2 A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up what has been planted.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to destroy and a time to build.
4 A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather. A time to embrace and a time to be far from embraces.
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
6 A time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to cast away.
7 A time to rend and a time to sew. A time to keep silence and a time to speak.
8 A time of love and a time of hatred. A time of war and a time of peace.
9 What advantage do human beings have from their labor? 10 I have seen the trouble which God has given human beings to be exercised in it. 11 He has made all things good in their time and has delivered the world to their consideration, so that human beings cannot find out the work which God has made from the beginning to the end.
12 And I have known that there was no better thing than to rejoice and to do well in one's life. 13 For all, who eat and drink, see good in their labors. This is a gift from God.
14 I have learned that all the works which God has made continue forever. We cannot add anything, nor take away from those things which God has made with the result that God may be feared. 15 That which has been made, the same continues. Things that will be have already been.
And God restores what is past.
16 I saw under the sun in the place of judgment wickedness, and in the place of justice iniquity. 17 And I said in my heart: God will judge both the just and the wicked, and then will be the time of everything. 18 I said in my heart concerning the men and women that God would prove them and show them to be like beasts. 19 Therefore, the death of humans and of beasts is one, and the condition of them both is equal. As a human being dies, so they also die. All things breathe alike. And human beings have nothing more than beasts. All things are subject to vanity.
20 And all things go to one place. Of earth they were made, and into earth they return together. 21 Who knows if the spirit of the children of Adam ascends upward, and if the spirit of the beasts descends downward?
INTRODUCTION
22 And I have found that nothing is better than for people to rejoice in their work, and that this is their portion. For who will bring them to know the things that will be after them?
CHAPTER 4
1 I turned myself to other things, and I saw the oppressions that are done under the sun, and the tears of the innocent, and they had no comforter. They were not able to resist their violence, being destitute of all help. 2 And I praised the dead rather than the living. 3 And I judged that person happier than them both who is not yet born nor has seen the evils that are done under the sun.
4 Again I considered all the labors of men and women, and I remarked that their industries are exposed to the envy of their neighbors. So in this also is vanity and fruitless care. 5 Fools fold their own hands and eat their own flesh, saying: 6 Better is a handful with rest than both hands full with labor and vexation of mind.
7 Considering, I found also another vanity under the sun. 8 There is but one, and he has not a second, no child, no brother, and yet he ceases not to labor. Neither are his eyes satisfied with riches. Neither does he reflect, saying:
For whom do I labor and defraud my soul of good things?
In this also is vanity and a grievous vexation.
9 It is better, therefore, that two should be together than one, for they have the advantage of mutual companionship. 10 If one fall, he will be supported by the other.
Woe to the person who is alone, for when he falls, he has no one to lift him up. 11 And if two lie together, they shall warm one another. How will one alone be warmed? 12 And if a person prevail against one, two will withstand that person. A threefold cord is not easily broken.
13 Better is a child that is poor and wise than a king who is old and foolish, who knows not to foresee for here-
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
after. 14 Because out of prison and chains sometimes a person comes forth to a kingdom. And another, who is born king, is consumed with poverty. 15 I saw all the living who walk under the sun with the second young man, who will rise up in his place. 16 The number of all the people who were before him is infinite, and those who will come afterwards will not rejoice in him. But this too is vanity and vexation of spirit.
17 Guard your foot when you go into the house of God and draw near to hear. For much better is obedience than the victims of fools, who know not what evil they do.
CHAPTER 5
1 Do not speak anything rashly, and let not your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you upon the earth. Therefore, let your words be few.
2 Dreams follow many cares, and in many words will be found folly. 3 If you have vowed anything to God, do not defer to pay it. For an unfaithful and foolish promise displeases God. But whatsoever you have vowed, pay it. 4 And it is much better not to vow, than after a vow not to perform the things promised. 5 Give not your mouth to cause your flesh to sin, and do not say before the angel: There is no providence, lest God be angry at your words and destroy all the works of your hands. 6 Where there are many dreams, there are many vanities and words without number. But do you fear God. 7 If you shall see the oppressions of the poor and violent judgments and justice perverted in the province, do not wonder at this matter. For the person who is high has another higher, and there are others still higher than these.
8 Moreover, there is the king who reigns over all the land subject to him.
INTRODUCTION
9 A covetous person will not be satisfied with money, and the person who loves riches will reap no fruit from them. So this also is vanity.
10 Where there are great riches, there are also many to eat them. And what does it profit the owner, but that he sees the riches with his eyes? 11 Sleep is sweet to laborers, whether they eat little or much. But the fullness of the rich will not allow them to sleep. 12 There is also another grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: Riches kept to the harm of the owner.
13 For they are lost with very great affliction. He has begotten a son who will be in extremity of need. 14 As he came forth naked from his mother's womb, so shall he return and will take nothing away with him of his labor. 15 A most deplorable evil: As he came, so shall he return. What then does it profit him that he has labored for the wind?
16 All the days of his life he eats in darkness, and in many cares, and in misery and in sorrow. 17 This, therefore, seemed good to me that people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of their labors, wherewith they have labored under the sun, all the days of the lives which God has given them. And this is their portion. 18 And all to whom God has given riches and substance and has given them power to eat thereof and to enjoy their portion and to rejoice in their labors. This is a gift of God. 19 For they will not remember much of the days of their lives, because
God entertains their heart with delight.
CHAPTER 6
1 There is also another evil that I have seen under the sun, and that frequent among men and women. 2 A man, to whom God has given riches and substance and honor, and his soul wants nothing of all that he desires. Yet God does not give him power to eat thereof, but a stranger will eat them up. And this is vanity and a great misery.