CHAPTER 8
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
21 For on the earth there is no just person who does good and sins not. 22 But do not apply your heart to all words that are spoken, lest perhaps you hear your servant reviling you. 23 For your conscience knows that you also have often spoken evil of others.
24 I have tried all things in wisdom. I have said: I will be wise, and it departed further from me, 25 much more than it was. It is a great depth. Who will find it out? 26 I have surveyed all things with my mind to know and consider and seek out wisdom and reason, and to know the wickedness of the fool and the error of the imprudent.
27 And I have found more bitter than death a woman, who is the hunter's snare, and her heart is a net and her hands are bands. The person who pleases God will escape from her, but the person who is a sinner will be caught by her. 28 Behold, this I have found, said Ecclesiastes, weighing one thing after another, that I might find out the reason 29 which my soul still seeks. And I have not found it.
One man among a thousand I have found. A woman among them all I have not found. 30 Only this have I found, that God made human beings right, and they have entangled themselves in an infinity of questions. Who is as the wise person? And who has known the resolution of the word?
CHAPTER 8
1 The wisdom of people shine on their countenance, and the most mighty will change their face. 2 I observe the mouth of the king, and the commandments of the oath of God. 3 Do not be hasty to depart from his face, and do not continue in an evil work, for he will do all that pleases him. 4 And his word is full of power. Neither can any one say to him: Why do you do this? 5 The person who keeps the commandment will find no evil. The heart of a wise person understands time and answer.
INTRODUCTION
6 There is a time and opportunity for every business, and great affliction for men and women,7 who are ignorant of things past, and things to come they cannot know by any messenger. 8 It is not in a people's dominion to stop the spirit. Neither have they power on the day of death. Neither are they suffered to rest when war is at hand. Neither will wickedness save the wicked.
9 All these things I have considered, and I applied my heart to all the works that are done under the sun. Sometimes one person rules over another to his own hurt. 10 I saw the wicked buried, who also when they were yet living were in the holy place and were praised in the city as people of just works. But this also is vanity.
11 For since sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, men and women commit evils without any fear.
12But though a sinner does wrong a hundred times, and by patience be borne with, I know that it will be well with those who fear God, who dread his face. 13 But let it not be well with the wicked. Neither let their days be prolonged, but as a shadow let those pass away who fear not the face of the Lord. 14 There is also another vanity, which is done upon the earth. There are just people to whom evils happen, as though they had done the works of the wicked.
And there are wicked people, who are as secure as though they had done the deeds of the just. But this also I judge most vain.
15 Therefore, I commended mirth, because there was no good for people under the sun, but to eat and drink, and that they should take nothing else with them of their labors in the days of their lives, which God has given them under the sun.
16 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to understand the spread of things that are upon the earth. For there are some who day and night take no sleep with their eyes.
ST. BONAVENTURE'S COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES
17 And I understand that a human being can find no reason for all those works of God that have been done under the sun. And the more human beings shall labor to seek, so much the less will they find. Yea, though the wise shall say that they know it, they will not be able to find it. All these things I considered in my heart, that I might carefully understand them.
CHAPTER 9
1 There are just and wise people, and their works are in the hand of God. And yet men and women do not know whether they be worthy of love or hatred. 2 But all things are kept uncertain for the time to come, because all things equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean, to persons who offer holocausts and victims and to those who despise sacrifices. As the good is, so also the sinner. As the perjurer, so he also who swears truth. 3 This is a very great evil among all things that are done under the sun, that the same things happen to all people, whereby also the hearts of men and women are filled with evil and contempt while they live. And afterwards they will be brought down to hell. 4 There is no one who lives always or who hopes for this thing. A living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, for the dead know nothing more. Neither have they a reward anymore, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love also, and their hatred, and their envy have all perished. Neither have they a part in this world and in the work that is done under the sun.
7 Go, then, and eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with gladness, because your works please God. 8 At all times let your garments be white, and let not oil depart from your head.