19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes the life glad; and money is the answer for all things.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
literally, For merriment they make a feast (bread), and wine gladdens the living, and money supplies all things.
A feast is made for laughter - The object of it is to produce merriment, to banish care and concern of every kind. But who are they who make and frequent such places? Epicures and drunkards generally; such as those of whom Horace speaks:
Nos numerus sumus, et fruges consumere nati.
Epist. lib. i., ep. 2, ver. 27.
"Those whose names stand as indications of men, the useless many; and who appear to be born only to consume the produce of the soil."
But money answereth all - This saying has prevailed everywhere.
Scilicet uxorem cum dote, fidemque, et amicos,
Et genus, et formam Regina Pecunia donat;
Ac bene nummatum decorat Suadela, Venusque.
Hor. Ep. lib. i., ep. 6, ver. 36.
"For gold, the sovereign Queen of all below,
Friends, honor, birth, and beauty, can bestow.
The goddess of persuasion forms her train;
And Venus decks the well-bemonied swain."
Francis.
A feast is made for laughter,.... Or, "who make bread for laughter" (i). Not bakers, who make bread for common use, and for all sorts of persons, sorrowful ones as others; but luxurious men, particularly such princes as are before described; they "make bread", that is, a feast, as the phrase is used, Daniel 5:1; not for mere refreshment, but to promote mirth and gaiety to an excessive degree; being attended with rioting and drunkenness, chambering and wantonness, with revellings and dancing;
and wine maketh merry; or, "and they prepare wine" (k); which is provided in plenty at feasts; and which is sometimes put for a feast itself, and called a banquet of wine, Esther 7:2; which wine makes merry, and men drink of it till they become drunk with it, at such profuse feasts: or, "which maketh life cheerful" (l); as it does, when moderately used: "cheers the living"; so Aben Ezra;
but money answereth all things; is in the room of all things, and by it men obtain everything they want and wish for; it answers the requests of all, and supplies them with what they stand in need of, or can desire: particularly such expensive feasts, and sumptuous entertainments, are made by means of money; and, in this luxurious way, the coffers of princes are drained, and they are obliged to raise new levies, and impose new taxes upon their subjects, to the oppression of them. Or else the sense may be, that princes should consider, and not be so profuse in their manner of living, but be more frugal and careful of the public money, and lay it up against a time of need; since it is that that answers all things, is the sinew of war when that arises, and will procure men and arms, to secure and protect them from their enemies, and obtain peace and safety for them and their subjects, which otherwise they cannot expect.
(i) "ad risum facientes panem", Montanus; "faciunt panem", Paganinus, Mercerus, Piscator. (k) "et vinum, repete, parant", Piscator. (l) "et vitam exhilaret", Tigurine version; "exhilarare solet vitam", Mercerus; "quod exhilarare debebat vitam", so some in Rambachius.
Referring to Ecclesiastes 10:18. Instead of repairing the breaches in the commonwealth (equivalent to "building"), the princes "make a feast for laughter (Ecclesiastes 10:16), and wine maketh their life glad (Psalm 104:15), and (but) money supplieth (answereth their wishes by supplying) all things," that is, they take bribes to support their extravagance; and hence arise the wrongs that are perpetrated (Ecclesiastes 10:5-6; Ecclesiastes 3:16; Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 5:23). MAURER takes "all things" of the wrongs to which princes are instigated by "money"; for example, the heavy taxes, which were the occasion of Rehoboam losing ten tribes (1-Kings 12:4, &c.).
"Meals they make into a pleasure, and wine cheereth the life, and money maketh everything serviceable." By עשׂים, wicked princes are without doubt thought of-but not immediately, since Ecclesiastes 10:16 is too remote to give the subject to Ecclesiastes 10:19. The subject which 'osim bears in itself (= 'osim hēm) might be syntactically definite, as e.g., Psalm 33:5, אהב, He, Jahve, loves, thus: those princes, or, from Ecclesiastes 10:18 : such slothful men; but 'osim is better rendered, like e.g., omrim, Exodus 5:16 (Ewald, 200a), and as in the Mishna we read קורין and the like with gramm. indefin. subj.: they make, but so that by it the slothful just designated, and those of a princely rank are meant (cf. a similar use of the inf. abs., as here of the part. in the historical style, Isaiah 22:13). Ginsburg's rendering is altogether at fault: "They turn bread and wine which cheereth life into revelry." If עשׁה and לחם as its object stand together, the meaning is, "to prepare a feast," Ezekiel 4:15; cf. 'avad lehēm, Daniel 5:1. Here, as there, 'osim lěhěm signifies coenam faciunt (parant). The ל of לשׂ is not the sign of the factitive obj. (as leēl, Isaiah 44:17), and thus not, as Hitz. supposes, the conditioning ל with which adv. conceptions are formed, - e.g., Lamentations 4:5, האך למע, where Jerome rightly translates, voluptuose (vid., E. Gerlach, l.c.), - but, which is most natural and is very appropriate, it is the ל of the aim or purpose: non ad debitam corporis refectionem, sed ad hera ludicra et stulta gaudia (Geier). שׂחוק is laughter, as that to which he utters the sentence (Ecclesiastes 2:2): Thou art mad. It is incorrect, moreover, to take lěhěm veyaim together, and to render yesammahh hayaim as an attribut. clause to yain: this epitheton ornans of wine would here be a most unsuitable weakening of the figure intended. It is only an apparent reason for this, that what Psalm 104:15 says in praise of wine the author cannot here turn into a denunciatory reproach. Wine is certainly fitted to make glad the heart of a man; but here the subject of discourse is duty-forgetting idlers, to whom chiefly wine must be brought (Isaiah 5:12) to cheer their life (this sluggard-life spent in feasting and revelry). The fut. ישׂמּח is meant in the same modal sense as יגבּר, Ecclesiastes 10:10: wine must accomplish that for them. And they can feast and drink, for they have money, and money ־הכּל... יע. Luther hits the meaning: "Money must procure everything for them;" but the clause is too general; and better thus, after Jerome, the Zrich Bible: "unto money are all things obedient." The old Jewish interpreters compare Hosea 2:23., where ענה, with accus. petentis, signifies, "to answer a request, to gratify a desire." But in the passage before us הכּל is not the obj. accus. of petentis, but petiti; for 'anah is connected with the accus. of that to which one answers as well as of that which one answers, e.g., Job 40:2, cf. Ecclesiastes 9:3. It is unnecessary, with Hitzig, to interpret יענה as Hiph.: Money makes all to hear (him who has the money), - makes it that nothing is refused to his wish. It is the Kal: Money answers to every demand, hears every wish, grants whatever one longs for, helps to all; as Menander says: "Silver and gold, - these are, according to my opinion, the most useful gods; if these have a place in the house, wish what thou wilt (εὖξαι τί βούλει), all will be thine;" and Horace, Epod. i. 6. 36 s.:
"Scilicet uxorem cum dote fidemque et amicos
Et genus et formam regina pecunia donat."
The author has now described the king who is a misfortune and him who is a blessing to the land, and princes as they ought to be and as they ought not to be, but particularly luxurious idle courtiers; there is now a warning given which has for its motive not only prudence, but also, according to Ecclesiastes 8:2, religiousness.
*More commentary available at chapter level.