Глава 7

Eccl.7:1. A good name is better than an expensive suit, and the day of death is better than the day of birth. A good name is better than good oil, and the day of death is better than the day of his birth. O man, he says, look at the shortness of your days, and since soon, as soon as your body is destroyed, you will cease to exist: then preserve a more lasting glory for yourself, so that, just as incense delights the sense of smell with its smell, so all descendants would delight in your name. Symmachus clearly translated this with the words: “better is a good name than fragrant ointment,” since the Jews usually call oil a good ointment, and with the words: “and the day of death is better than the day of his birth,” he shows either that it is better to leave the world and be freed from the troubles and vicissitudes of life, than to endure all this when entering the world; or the fact that at death we know what we will be like, but at the beginning, at birth, we do not know what we will be like; or that birth binds the freedom of the soul with the body, and death allows it. Eccl.7:2. It is better to go to a house of mourning for the dead than to go to a house of feasting; for this is the end of every man, and the living will apply it to his heart. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, in which is the end of every man: and he who lives will put it to his heart. It is more beneficial to go to a funeral than to a feast house, because there, from the corpse presented, we are taught about our lot and human frailty, and in the joy of the feast we lose that share of fear that we apparently had. Symmachus translated the last part of the verse more clearly, saying: “and whoever lives will apply it to his mind.” From this it is clear that where above he apparently approved of food and drink, he does not prefer pleasure to everything, as some unjustly think, but only says that in comparison with stinginess and excessive frugality, it is better if someone, even for a short time or even for a moment, uses his property. For he would never prefer the boredom of crying to the joy of a feast if he valued eating and drinking at all. Eccl.7:3. Lamentation is better than laughter; because with a sad face the heart becomes better. Anger is better than laughter, for in a sad face the heart will improve. Laughter morally relaxes the laugher: anger corrects and improves. We will be angry at ourselves if, when we sin, we will also be angry at others. For the sadness of the face will make the spirit better, as Symmachus translated. And therefore, “woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25). Eccl.7:4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the heart of fools is in the house of joy. “Blessed,” says the Savior, “are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). Samuel also mourned King Saul all the days of his life (1 Samuel 16) and Paul says that he wept for those who, after various sins, did not want to repent (2 Cor. 12:21). So, let the heart of a wise man go to the house of such a man who, having sinned, reproaches himself; let him go, so that he will bring him to tears, excite him to cry about his sins, and let him not go to the house of fun, where the teacher flatters and deceives, where he seeks not the conversion of the listeners, but applause and praise. Such a teacher is told of grief: rich in speech, abundant in words, he, like one who is already satiated, receives his consolation for this (Luke 6:24). The following verses also correspond to this interpretation. For he says: Eccl.7:5–6. It is better to listen to the reproof of a wise man than to listen to the songs of fools; because the laughter of fools is the same as the crackling of thorn brush under a cauldron. And this is vanity! It is better to hear the admonition of the wise than to listen to the songs of fools. For, like the crackling of thorns under a cauldron, so is the laughter of a fool. Yes, and this is vanity. It is better to receive reproaches from a wise man than to be deceived by the caresses of a flatterer. This is also similar to this: “better are the wounds of a friend than the voluntary kisses of an enemy” (Prov. 27:6). For just as the crackling of thorns burning under a cauldron makes an unpleasant sound, so the words of a flattering teacher who instills worldly concerns in his listeners (which are meant by the word “thorns”) or prepares them for the future fire are of no use. Symmachus, instead of what we put: for, “like the crackling of thorns under a cauldron, so is the laughter of a fool,” conveying the same meaning that we derived, he put: “for by the words of the inexperienced everyone is bound in bonds,” that is, from the words of such teachers the listener is even more entangled, when already everyone is bound by the bonds of his sins. Eccl.7:7. By oppressing others, the wise become foolish, and gifts spoil the heart. Resentment angers a wise man, and his heart loses its strength. Here understand the wise one who is improving, in accordance with him: “Reprove the wise, and he will love you” (Prov. 9:8). For a wise man who has become perfect no longer needs any reproof, and is not embarrassed by any insult. Let us use this verse if we sometimes see that a righteous and wise person suffers offense and is embarrassed by the unrighteousness of the judgment, but God does not immediately appear to defend him. Instead of what was stated in the Seventy, in Aquila and Theodotion: the heart “loses” ευτονίας αυτού, that is, its “strength” or “vigor”. Symmachus put: “and loses the heart” “matthana”, “that is, a gift,” putting both the Hebrew word and its translation, and giving the thought that is stated elsewhere: “gifts blind the eyes of the wise” (Deut. 16:19). Eccl.7:8. The end of a thing is better than the beginning; patient is better than arrogant. The end of a speech is better than the beginning. Epilogues are better in speeches than introductions. For in those the efforts of the speaker end, and in this they begin. Or the meaning is this: whoever begins to listen to the speech and goes to the teacher is in the introduction, and whoever listens to the last lessons is finished and perfect. But we can also understand this: while we are in this world, then everything we know is the beginning; and when the perfect comes, we will be at the end and completion. The Jew explained this passage with the following verse as follows: it is better for you to look at the end of the matter than at the beginning, and to be patient than to be irritated with impatience. From this short maxim we also learn that there is no wisdom in people if it is better to remain silent than to speak out. It may also mean that at the end of the speech the listener thinks about what was said within himself, but when we just start speaking, he has not yet received any benefit. Better is he who is patient than he who is exalted in spirit. Since above he approved of anger, saying: “Better is anger than laughter”: so that we do not think that anger as a passion is approved, he now teaches that anger must be completely suppressed: there he understood anger in the sense of reproaching sinners and admonishing the imperfect, and here he curbs impatience. Patience is necessary not only in adversity, but also in favorable circumstances, so that we do not become more enthusiastic than we should be. It seems to me that the one who is exalted in spirit is contrasted here with the one who is poor in spirit in the Gospel, to whom bliss is promised. Eccl.7:9. Do not be hasty in your spirit to anger, because anger nests in the hearts of fools. Do not be in a hurry to be angry in your spirit, for anger nests in the bosom of fools. He says: “Do not be in a hurry to be angry in your spirit,” not because he does not allow you to get angry quickly, but because, while quick anger can be unbridled, anger that is restrained for a while is tamed more easily and can be suppressed. And since anger is always combined with pride and arouses to revenge: he said above that the patient is better than the one who exalts himself in spirit, and now he says that it also serves as a sign of foolishness: even if someone was considered both noble and wise, when angry, he denounces himself as foolish: “for anger nests in the bosom of fools.” Eccl.7:10. Do not say: “Why were the former days better than these?” for you are not asking this out of wisdom. Do not say why the former days are better than these, for you did not ask this question wisely. Do not prefer the previous age to the present one, because the Creator of both is the same - God. Virtues in a person's life make days good, and vices make days bad. Do not say that under Moses and under Christ the days were better than now. For even at that time there were a lot of unbelievers and their days were evil, and now there are many believers, about whom the Savior said: “They have seen no blessing and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Otherwise: you must live in such a way that the present days for you will always be better than the past, so that, with your gradual impoverishment in goodness, you will not be told: “Now it is good: who will forbid you not to repent of the truth?” (Gal.5:7) and again: “having been made strong in the spirit, you are now finished in the flesh” (Gal.3:3). Otherwise: Do not say that the times of Moses were once better than those of Christ now, of the law than of grace. If you want to assert this, then you are doing it unreasonably, not seeing how much superior the Gospel is to the Old Testament. Eccl.7:11–12. Wisdom with an inheritance is good, and especially for those who see the sun: because under its shadow is the same as under the shadow of silver; but the superiority of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who possess it. Wisdom with an inheritance is good, and most of all for those who see the sun, for as the shadow of wisdom, so is the shadow of silver: and what is even more, the knowledge of wisdom will revive the one who has it. A wise man with wealth is more glorious than a wise man alone. Some have no wisdom, and others wealth; and wise, but not rich, although he can teach good, but sometimes he cannot give what is required. That’s why he says: “as the shadow of wisdom, so is the shadow of silver,” that is, just as wisdom helps, so sometimes wealth helps. And so that it does not seem that he humiliates wisdom, subordinating it to the good of chance (for it is not in our power to have wealth, of which unrighteous people often have more), he shows that wisdom is higher, saying: “and what’s more, the knowledge of wisdom will revive the one who has it.” In this way, he says, wisdom is greater than wealth, because even without any possessions it revives the one who has it. Some people interpret this place this way. Ecclesiastes put inheritance, they say, instead of a good life, through which we are made heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Therefore, Ecclesiastes wants to teach how those who are worthy to see the Sun of Truth and who have wisdom are superior to those who, without wisdom, care only about life and its relationships. Daniel also shows this when he says: “those who understand my words will shine like the lights of heaven” (Dan. 12:3), or, as Theodotion translated: “those who understand my words will shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who fulfill my words are like the stars of heaven.” And under the canopy of silver, or money, in a mysterious sense, we must understand that canopy from which talents and mines are gathered in the Gospel parables (Matthew 25:13–30, Luke 19:12–27) so that when we are under the canopy of wisdom and under the canopy of such silver, “in the days the sun” does not scorch us, “lower than the moon in the night” ( Ps.121:6). We can also say that the canopy is our life on earth: “the spirit of our countenance is anointed by the Lord, about whom we say: in his canopy we will live among the nations” (Lam. 4:20). Every defense we have on this earth is like a shadow, either the shadow of wisdom or the aforementioned silver, until the day expires and the shadows are removed. Symmachus, according to his custom, translated it more clearly here too, saying: “as wisdom helps, so money helps.” The next verse clearly encourages the acquisition of knowledge. Eccl.7:13. Look at the working of God: for who can make straight what He has made crooked? Look at the works of God: for who can straighten him whom God has crooked? Symmachus translated this passage as follows: “learn the works of God, for no one can correct what He has limited.” That is, let it be enough for you to know and understand created things from the Holy Scriptures, or from the very contemplation of the world; but do not look for reasons and reasons why one or the other was created this way, and do not say that it should be otherwise than as it was created, for example, if someone wanted to ask why God said to Moses: “Who made dumb and deaf, and seeing and blind; Isn’t I the Lord God” (Ex. 4:11) and would say: why were the blind, deaf and dumb created like this, and so on, so forth. Regarding this place, one should keep in mind the testimony of the seventeenth psalm, which says to the Lord: “with the holy you will be holy, and with the depraved you will be depraved” (Ps. 17:27), and accept that the Lord is holy with the one who is holy, and that the one who was corrupted by his own will is depraved before Him - accept in accordance with what is written in the book of Leviticus: “if they walk to Me wrongly, then I will also walk to My wrath turned him wrong” (Lev. 26:27–28), which may also explain why God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. For just as the same action of the sun melts wax and makes clay hard, and wax melts and clay hardens due to its own properties, so the same performance of miracles in Egypt both softened the hearts of believers and hardened the unbelievers, who, due to their hardness of heart and unrepentant heart, from these miracles, seeing which they did not believe, stored up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath. Eccl.7:14. In days of prosperity, take advantage of the good, and in days of misfortune, reflect: God did both so that man could not say anything against Him. On the day of prosperity, be good, and on the day of evil, see. For God created this accordingly in order to say that man would not find anything behind Him. I remember hearing these verses explained in church by a man who was reputed to be knowledgeable in the Scriptures. “While you are in the present age and can do something from good deeds, work so that later on the day of judgment, you can look at the torment of others with peace of mind for yourself. For God created both the present age, in which we can prepare for ourselves the fruit of good deeds, and the future, in which we are not given the opportunity to do good deeds.” He seemed to convince his listeners of his opinion; but it seems to me that there is a different meaning here, which was expressed in the translation by Symmachus, who said: “On a good day, be in good hands; but look also at the evil day. For God created this too in a similar way, so that man would not find anything to complain about against Him.” Be patient, he says, with both the good and the bad, as befalls you, and do not think that everything in the world is either only good or only bad: this world consists of various opposites - warm and cold, dry and wet, hard and soft, dark and light, bad and good. And God created this so that there would be wisdom in choosing good and avoiding evil, and so that man’s free will would be preserved, so that he would not say that God made him insensitive and unreasonable; but God created various things so that man could not complain about his nature. With this understanding, this passage will be consistently connected with the previous words, in which it says: who can straighten what God has crooked? Eccl.7:15. I have seen enough of everything in my vain days: the righteous perish in his righteousness; the wicked live long in his wickedness. I saw everything in the days of my vanity. It happens that the righteous perish in his righteousness, and it happens that the wicked lives long in his iniquity. The Savior said something similar to this in the Gospel: “he who finds his soul will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). The Maccabees apparently died in their righteousness, for the law of God and truth, as well as the martyrs who shed blood for Christ; and vice versa, those who in Old Testament times ate pork meat and after the coming of the Lord made sacrifices to idols, these apparently lived and remained long-lived in this world because of their iniquity. But God's patience is a mystery; Now He subjects the saints to trials so that they accept evil in their lives, and He does not visit sinners for their iniquity, but, as it were, preserves them for sacrifice, in order to both bestow eternal blessings on the first and subject the latter to endless disasters. The Jews suspect the sons of Aaron of the righteous who perish in their righteousness - that considering themselves to be doing righteousness, they brought alien fire; and Manasseh is recognized as wicked, long-lasting in his iniquity, who, after captivity, was again elevated to the kingdom, and then lived for a long time. Eccl.7:16. Don't be too strict, and don't pretend to be too wise; why would you ruin yourself? Don't be too fair and don't seek more, so as not to go crazy. If you see that someone is harsh and cruel to all the misdeeds of his brothers, so that he does not forgive either someone who has sinned in a word, or someone who is slow due to natural laziness, then know that such a person is more just than how much is fair. For if the Savior commands: “Judge not, lest ye be judged” (Luke 6:37), and there is no one without sin, even if he lives one day: then justice that does not forgive the weakness of human nature is inhuman. And so, do not be too just, for great scales and small scales are an abomination to the Lord. Therefore, among philosophers, virtues are placed in the middle, and everything excessive, whether good or bad, is considered a defect. “Seek no more, lest you become confused or go mad.” He knows our mind, which cannot embrace perfect wisdom, and commands that we must know the extent of our limitations. And Paul asked the one who was asking more than what a person could know, saying: “Why does He still reproach Him, for who can resist His will?” - answered: “O man, whoever you are against answering God” (Rom. 9:19-20). For if the one who is introduced by the questioner heard from the apostle the solution to his question, then perhaps he would fall into a frenzy and think that grace is useless for him. For there is also a gift, according to the same apostle, that does not benefit the one to whom it is given. The Jews interpret this commandment, that is, “do not be too just,” in relation to Saul, who had mercy on Agag, whom the Lord commanded to kill (1 Samuel 15). But this verse can also be applied to that servant from the Gospel (Matthew 18:23–35), whom the Lord forgave and who himself did not want to forgive another slave because he was too fair. Eccl.7:17. Do not indulge in sin, and do not be mad: why should you die at the wrong time? Do not act wickedly and do not be foolish; Why should you die at the wrong time? For the Lord says: “I do not want the sinner to die, but to turn to him and live” (Ezek. 18:32). Let it be enough to sin once; after a fall, we must restore ourselves! For if, according to naturalists, the swallow knows how to give sight to its chicks through chelidonium, and wounded goats look for star anise, then why don’t we want to know that the medicine of repentance has been given for those who sin? Regarding the words: “so as not to die at the wrong time,” we know that Korah, Dathan and Abiron were instantly devoured by the opening of the earth for their indignation against Moses and Aaron, and that for the admonition of others, many were condemned before the day of judgment even in this life. So, the meaning of these words is this: do not add sins to sins, so as not to incite God to punish you in this life. Eccl.7:18. It’s good if you stick to one and don’t take your hands off the other; because whoever fears God will escape all this. It’s good for you to stick to it; but for this reason do not lower your hand; for he who fears God will be in time for everything. It is good to do good to the righteous; but it is not unfair to do good to sinners. It is good to support those around you in the faith, but it is commanded to give to everyone who asks. For he who fears God and imitates his Creator, who rains on the just and the unjust, hastens to do good to everyone, regardless of their faces. Otherwise: since this calamitous life is constantly subject to various vicissitudes, either for good or for bad, then let the spirit of the righteous prepare itself and pray for the mercy of the Lord in order to complacently endure everything no matter what happens, for he who fears God is neither exalted from happiness, nor does he lose heart from misfortune. Eccl.7:19–20. Wisdom makes a wise man stronger than the ten rulers who are in the city. There is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin; Wisdom will strengthen the wise more than ten rulers who are in the city: for there is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin. Wisdom therefore strengthens the wise and surpasses the strength of all the rulers of the city, because although someone is righteous, however, while he is in this flesh, he is subject to vices and sins and requires great help. Otherwise: the ten rulers who are in the city are angels who have reached the perfect tenth number and help the human race. But if one goes through all the auxiliary powers, then the greatest of them is the auxiliary power of wisdom, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ. For after the angels said: “By the physicians of Babylon, and you will not be healed: let us leave her and go each to his own land” (Jer. 51:9), the teacher of doctors himself came down, and we, bloodied and covered with the bloody uncleanness of sins, healed us, who had wasted all our property on doctors, with the touch of the hem of his robe (Luke 8:43–48); healed in the city, that is, in this world, and strengthened the wise, or, as the Seventy translated, “helped” the wise. For to everyone who has, more will be given to him, and more will be added to him. And since man, who was in sin and immersed in the defilements of hell, required more help, therefore Wisdom Herself came. Otherwise: I said above that one should do good to one’s own and to others; but someone could object: if I want to do good to everyone, then I have nothing to do it with, and a righteous person cannot have so much wealth, which sinners usually possess more. Therefore, now he says: whoever you cannot help with deeds, help with advice, ease with consolation. For to those in difficult circumstances, wisdom can be of more benefit than any greatest wealth. But do this with prudence, for the scales of truth are great, and you need to look at who, and how much, and for how long, and what to give by deed or advice. Eccl.7:21–22. therefore, do not pay attention to every word that is spoken, lest you hear your servant when he curses you; for your heart knows many cases when you yourself have slandered others. And do not turn your heart to all the words that will be spoken, lest you hear your servant slander you. For your heart knows that you have often slandered others. Do what is commanded, and strengthened by the help of wisdom, prepare your heart for both good and bad, and do not worry about what your enemies say about you, what strangers think about you. For just as a prudent man does not listen to the whisperings of his servants and does not put his curious ear to know what is being said in his absence, because if he does this, he will always be worried and irritated by the gossip of the servants: so a wise man is guided by the instructions of wisdom and does not pay attention to empty rumors. But he also convinces us with another proof that a just person should not care about what people say: since, he says, your conscience knows that you yourself have spoken about many and often slandered others: then you must forgive others who slander. At the same time, it inspires that one should not judge lightly, and having a beam in one’s eye, one should not talk about the bitch of another. Eccl.7:23–24. I have experienced all this through wisdom; I said: “I will be wise”; but wisdom is far from me. Far is what was, and deep - deep: who will comprehend it? I experienced all this in wisdom and said: I will become wise, but it became farther from me, more than it was: and the depth is high, who will find it? He says that, as the books of Kings testify (1 Kings 3 and 1 Kings 4), he sought wisdom more than all people and tried to achieve it to the end, but the more he sought, the less he found, and plunged into deep darkness, was surrounded by the darkness of ignorance. Otherwise: a man who studies in the Scriptures, the more knowledgeable he is in them, the more their darkness is constantly revealed to him. Otherwise: the contemplation of wisdom in this life is presented in a dark glass and image; Therefore, when I think that in the future her knowledge will be revealed face to face, I will clearly understand that now I am far from her knowledge. Eccl.7:25–26. I turned my heart to know, explore and seek wisdom and understanding, and to know the wickedness of stupidity, ignorance and madness - and I found that a woman is more bitter than death, because she is a snare, and her heart is a snare, her hands are fetters; the good before God will be saved from it, and the sinner will be caught by it. I also went around my heart to learn and contemplate and explore wisdom and understanding, and to know the wickedness of the fool and the error of the foolish. And I find that woman is more bitter than death: she is a snare, and a snare is her heart, and fetters are her hands. The good before God will escape from it, and the sinner will be caught by it. Instead of what was written by the Seventy: “I went around my heart to find out,” Symmachus translated: “I went through everything with my thoughts in order to know and learn and explore.” So, since Ecclesiastes said above that he re-examined everything in wisdom and the more he sought it, the further she ran away from him: now he says that he also examined other things in his wisdom, namely, what evil in human affairs surpasses all other phenomena of evil, and what object takes first place in wickedness, stupidity, error, madness - and says that he found that the head of all evil is woman, because death entered the world through her, and the precious souls of her husbands she catches. For all adulterers are like a furnace of their hearts, and women dry out the hearts of young men. And when it falls on the mind of the unhappy lover, it will drag him into the abyss; and is not satisfied seeing him at his feet, but entangles the young man’s heart like a net and snare. And the shackles of her hand. Instead, Aquila translated: “her hands are tied.” For she can persuade, but she cannot do violence and cannot attract to herself against her will. Whoever is righteous and good before God will escape from it, but the sinner will be caught and taken to death. Let us not think that Solomon without reason expressed such a verdict about the female sex: he says that he experienced it: for he angered God because he was deceived by women. - This is a literal interpretation. And in the spiritual sense, by woman we mean either great sin and wickedness in general, which in Zechariah, under the guise of a woman, sits on the talent of lead (Zechariah 5:7), or tropologically by woman we mean the devil, as weakening our strength, or idolatry, and, to come closer, the church of heretics, which invites to itself the unreasonable with the mind, so that, deceived by her, he accepts thieves' bread and thieves' water, that is, a false sacrament and a bad baptism. Eccl.7:27–29. This is what I found, said Ecclesiastes, testing one thing after another. What else has my soul sought and I have not found? “I found one man out of a thousand, but I didn’t find a woman among all of them.” Only this I found, that God created man upright, and people indulged in many thoughts. This is what I found, said Ecclesiastes: one by one, to find the number that my soul was still looking for, and I did not find. I found one man out of a thousand, but I did not find a woman among all of them. This is the only thing I found: that God created man upright, and the people themselves had many thoughts. Having examined everything, he says, carefully, I found that by sinning little by little and adding sins to sins, we accumulate for ourselves a huge sum of sins. For “esebon”, which everyone agrees translates with the word λογισμός, according to the reciprocity of the Hebrew word, we can translate “number” and “sum” and “reason” and “thought”. But even then, he says, my soul sought whether there was a right woman. And while I found hardly a few of the men who were kind, so that out of a thousand one could be found, of the women I could not find a good one at all. For everyone inclined me not to virtue, but to debauchery. And since the heart of man is “diligent” to be “diligent in evil from youth” (Gen. 8:21) and almost everyone has angered God: then in this decline of the human race, woman is more prone to fall. The pagan poet says about her: “Woman is ever changing here and there...” (Virg. IV. Aeneid. V. 35) and the apostle: “always learning and never able to come into the understanding of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). And so that it would not seem that he condemns the general nature of people and makes God the author of evil, he deliberately spoke about this, saying that we are created good by God, but since we are left to free will, through our own fault we fall into the worst when we achieve more and think about different things beyond our strength. Otherwise: constantly thinking about everything with myself, I could not find any thought that would not be outraged from the outside by a wrong thought. Out of a thousand people, I found one person who was created in the image of the Creator, and out of a thousand, not just any people, but out of a thousand men, among whom a woman could not be included - out of a thousand of those who did not get close to a woman and therefore remained the purest. But all this should be understood in a figurative sense - that in many researches, with the constant work of our thoughts, there is barely a bright thought worthy of the name of a husband. We can also understand by men thoughts, and by women deeds and explain in the sense that it is difficult to find a pure thought in anyone, and deeds, since they are accomplished through the body, are always associated with some kind of shortcoming. Instead of the above translation of the Hebrew words: “one by one, so that the “number” or “sum” or “foundation” or “thought” is found, Symmachus translated it more clearly: “one by one to find the number.” For what we usually put in the general and average form, for example. I was looking for this, I wanted to find this, the Jews put it in the feminine gender, as in the psalm: “I asked one” from the Lord, that “I will seek” (Ps. 26:4) instead of “one” and “that” that we have.