Chapter 6
Chapter VI.
Thirdly, he denounces avarice, because riches are frequently transferred to strangers.
There is also another evil, etc. Above he showed that riches are to be despised, both because they do not enrich their possessors, and because they are frequently not transmitted to posterity. Here thirdly he shows they are to be despised, because they are frequently transferred to strangers: this indeed he does in this order. First indeed is indicated the transfer of hoarded riches: second, the detestation of miserliness, at: If anyone should beget, etc.; third is subjoined the reason for the detestation, at: In vain therefore he came, etc.
(Vers. 1. 2.). First therefore Ecclesiastes considered the vanity attending the rich and proposes it, assumes it, and concludes. He proposes, saying: There is also another evil, which I saw under the sun: and he aggravates it from the circumstance: And which is frequent among men, that is, among the weak lovers of the world and the rich, of whom the Psalm says: "O sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek after falsehood?" etc.
And he assumes the vanity, which is observed in this, that one hoards riches and another devours them: therefore he says: A man, to whom God has given riches, as regards movable goods; and wealth, as regards immovable goods; and honors, as regards exalted things. For all things are from God: riches are from God: Proverbs 3: "Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory." And wealth is from God, especially that of which Sirach 13 says: "Good is the wealth for which there is no sin on the conscience." Likewise honor is from God: whence in Daniel 5, Daniel said to Belshazzar: "O king! The Most High God gave kingdom and magnificence and honor to your father." And to complete the perfect abundance of the goods of fortune, he subjoins: And nothing is lacking to his soul of all that he desires, because he has sufficiently. He calls soul here the carnal life, of which John 12 says: "He who loves his soul shall lose it." Thus he has abundance for possessing, and yet he has avarice for retaining, which takes away from him the power of enjoying: therefore he subjoins: Nor does God grant him the power to eat of it, because he continually hoards it, and in vain: whence Sirach 14: "For the covetous and miserly man, wealth is without purpose; and for the envious man, of what use is gold?" Neither does he himself use it, nor his posterity, but strangers: whence he adds: But a stranger shall devour it: whence Sirach 14: "He who heaps up unjustly from his own soul gathers for others, and another shall revel in his goods"; and Proverbs 13: "The wealth of the sinner is stored up for the just." And from this he infers vanity: And this is vanity and a great misery: vanity, because he himself does not rejoice; misery, because, when another takes it away, he is grieved: Isaiah 1: "Your land — strangers devour it before your face," etc.
(Vers. 3.). If anyone should beget etc. Here is noted the detestation of miserliness by reason of the aforementioned transfer, and he reproves miserliness itself, however much successive prosperity he may have. Therefore he adds: If anyone should beget a hundred children, this is said hyperbolically, that is, many children, because the wicked frequently beget wicked children, in whom there is no joy, even if they are many: Sirach 16: "Do not rejoice in ungodly children; if they are multiplied, do not delight in them." To abound in children is temporal prosperity; and another temporal prosperity follows: And should live many years, that is, for many years; and should have more days of age, namely more than other men; and this indeed is temporal prosperity. The impious frequently have this prosperity; whence below in chapter seven: "For a long time the impious man lives in his impiety," if he has abounded in these prosperities. And his soul does not enjoy the goods of his substance, that is, he has been miserly and greedy in life; and lacks burial in death, according to what is said of Joachim in Jeremiah chapter twenty-two: "Joachim shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotting and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem."
With these conditions of prosperity and miserliness having been set forth, he subjoins the detestation: Concerning this I pronounce, as a judge of the earth, that an abortive is better than he, on account of the great misery and vanity which the abortive lacks; whence it is said in Job chapter three: "Why did I not die in the womb? Why, having come forth from the womb, did I not immediately perish? Why was I received upon the knees? Why was I suckled at the breasts?" And again in chapter ten: "Why did you bring me forth from the womb?"
(Vers. 4. 5. 6. 7.). For he comes in vain etc. Here is subjoined thirdly the reason for the detestation, namely that an abortive is better than one who is miserly in this manner, because, just as an abortive comes in vain and goes to darkness, since it immediately dies, so also does he; therefore it is said: For he comes in vain and goes to darkness, namely the miser himself: Job chapter three: "To a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has surrounded with darkness." And that in vain such a greedy and miserly man should come into this world, he shows both on account of the deletion of his name in death, and on account of the inexperience of good in life, and on account of the non-fulfillment of desire in both states. On account of the deletion of his name he says: And his name shall be blotted out by oblivion, that is, he shall endure neither in reality nor in name, according to what the Lord threatens against Babylon in Isaiah chapter fourteen: "I will destroy the name and remnants and offspring and posterity of Babylon, says the Lord"; and in Wisdom chapter two, in the person of the wicked: "Our name shall receive oblivion in time, and no one shall be mindful of our works."
On account of the inexperience of good, he adds: he does not see the sun, in which namely there is delight and experience of good, according to what is said below in the eleventh chapter: "The light is sweet, and it is delightful for the eyes to see the sun." The avaricious man has not seen this, because he errs: Wisdom 5: "We have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice has not shone upon us, and the sun of understanding has not risen upon us," etc. And thus he has not seen the sun, that is, he has not had the light of knowledge; nor has he known the difference between good and evil, because namely he has not experienced it.
Therefore he says: Even if he should live two thousand years, because we do not have knowledge through length of time, but through experience: Sirach 34: "He who has not been tested knows few things," according to what the Philosopher says: "Experience produced art, inexperience produced chance." On account of the incompleteness of desire, he adds: Do not all things hasten to one place? As if to say: on the part of the body, they will pass into the earth; Sirach 41: "All things that are made from the earth shall be converted into earth"; and above in the third chapter: "All things are subject to vanity, and all things go to one place." On the part of the body, therefore, there is reduction to ashes, but on the part of the soul, there is the incompleteness of its desire.
For this reason he says: All the labor of man is in his mouth: the mouth is called the initiation of desire; for he who desires, as it were, opens his mouth. Therefore, for labor to be in the mouth is to labor toward the completion of desire; whence Proverbs 16: "The soul of the laborer labors for himself, because his mouth has compelled him." And although he does this toward fulfilling his desire, it is nevertheless not fulfilled; therefore he says: But his soul, namely that of the tenacious rich man, will not be filled with good things, as was said above in the fifth chapter: "The covetous man shall not be filled with money"; whence Habakkuk 2: "He has enlarged his soul like hell, and he himself like death shall not be filled." Thus it is true of the avaricious regarding money; so also regarding knowledge: 2 Timothy 3: "Always learning, and never arriving at the knowledge of the truth."
Questions.
I. There is a question concerning what he says: God did not give him the power to enjoy good things.
To the contrary: This is free will; but He gave free will; therefore also the power.
I respond: it must be said that he has the capacity for enjoying, namely by which he can enjoy; but by the just judgment of God he is impeded by some punishment, because he has incurred superfluous anxiety and fear and sorrow. And because power denotes an unimpeded capacity, and this has been impeded by just judgment, therefore, etc.
II. Likewise, there is a question concerning what he says, that nothing is lacking to his soul of all that it desires.
To the contrary: Above in the fifth chapter: The covetous man shall not be filled with money; and again Jerome: "The miser lacks both what he has and what he does not have." Therefore he speaks poorly when he says: And nothing is lacking.
I respond: it must be said that for something to be lacking, this can be in two ways: either with respect to sufficiency according to reality and nature, or according to opinion. I say therefore that a miser can indeed be so wealthy that nothing is lacking to him according to reality and nature; but nevertheless never so wealthy that something is not lacking to him according to his own estimation, because he always desires to have more, and thus it is lacking to him.
III. Likewise, concerning this it is asked why he prefers the stillborn to him. It seems that this is wrong:
1. Because the stillborn had knowledge of no things, but this man did; likewise, the miser, when he sins mortally, enjoys things that are meant to be used.
2. Likewise, how does he say that it did not know the difference between good and evil, unless it had fully enjoyed goods? Therefore it seems that the stillborn would be better than all who do not delight in present goods and who are not carnal: but this is heretical.
I respond: it must be said that according to that approach, if this is said in the person of the carnal man, the response is easy; maintaining nevertheless that he says this according to truth, I say that he prefers the stillborn to such a grasping rich man, because the former, although it did not experience goods, nevertheless did not endure evils; but the latter endured evils and did not taste goods; therefore the former is preferable, and it is in this respect that he means it.
To the objection based on reason, that he did not fully enjoy goods: it must be said that to enjoy in one way denotes love of something with rest in it; in another way, rest and delight. I say therefore that he who loves God possesses Him, as Augustine says in the book of Eighty-Three Questions, and therefore he who loves God delights in Him. But money or a temporal thing, when it is loved and not possessed according to one's desire, begets sorrow. Therefore there can be enjoyment of these things, that is, supreme love, and yet slight delight and great sorrow. Therefore it does not follow that, although such a miser sins, he rests in delight; but nevertheless he rests in love, because he loves for his own sake.
2. To the objection that it did not know the difference: it must be said that by simple knowledge, he who always has goods knows good and evil; similarly also he who always has evils; but not by knowledge of experience, unless he has both goods and evils. And because such a one always has evils, never goods; therefore, etc.
To the objection concerning the spiritual man, I say that he is not without spiritual delight, and therefore he sees the sun and knows the difference. But the grasping miser, because he is a sinner, does not have spiritual delight; because he is grasping, he does not have carnal delight; and therefore he does not know the difference between good and evil.
Art. 3. On the remedy against the vanity of imprudence, which is the acquisition of wisdom, which is explained in two parts.
What more does he have etc. He set forth above the remedy against the vanity of malice and against the vanity of avarice: here thirdly he sets forth the remedy against the vanity of imprudence . Against this, however, the supreme remedy is the acquisition of wisdom; and because no one can acquire wisdom unless he has the proper method of learning: therefore this part has two sections. In the first he gives the method, in the second he unfolds the teachings of wisdom, at the passage: Better is a good name etc.
First the method of acquiring wisdom is explained by a threefold reasoning.
The method of considering or learning for one who wishes to be wise is handed down in this way. First, that he should learn useful things: second, that he should leave aside hidden things: third, that he should not inquire into lofty things.
(Vers. 8.). First therefore he teaches to seek and consider useful things, and this is, how one may arrive at the life of glory. Therefore he asks: What more does the wise man have than the fool, and what does the poor man ? He rightly joins these two: poor and wise. For one is called poor through contempt of present things: whence Matthew 5: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"; wise, through the savor of eternal things and right estimation: concerning which Proverbs 3: "The wise shall possess glory: the exaltation of fools is disgrace." But the fool is called the worldly man, who on the contrary, despising eternal things, gapes after earthly things: concerning whom Job 5: "I saw the fool with a firm root, and I cursed his beauty at once." What more does the wise and poor man have than the fool in this life? supply: little. Except that he may go there, where life is, namely eternal life, to which man ought to aspire, not to temporal things, which cannot be held: on account of which he has little here in mortal life, because "the learned dies equally with the unlearned," above in chapter two: but in eternal life he has much more, because he will obtain delightful, abundant, secure being, all things in the open vision and enjoyment of the highest good: concerning which life John 17: "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God" etc. To this life the wise proceed, because they direct their eyes toward it, as is said above in chapter two: "The eyes of the wise man are in his head"; and therefore he follows Christ, the light, who, as is said in John 14, is "the way, the truth, and the life": but the fool does not proceed: whence below in chapter ten: "The labor of fools shall afflict them, because they do not know how to go to the city."
(Vers. 9.). To this life one cannot rightly arrive without knowledge: therefore he adds: It is better to see
what you desire, that is, to know the life which you long for: than to desire what you do not know, that is, to wish to arrive there in ignorance: and therefore one ought to direct one's consideration toward it: Proverbs 4: "Let your eyes look upon what is right, and let your eyelids go before your steps And indeed this is good to know, but to desire what one does not know is foolish. Therefore he adds: But this also is vanity and presumption of spirit, namely, to desire what man does not know, just as James and John desired and asked to sit at the right hand, and sought presumptuously: therefore it is said to them in Matthew 20: " You do not know what you ask ".
It can also be expounded as a commendation of the knowledge of useful things, so that the sense is that it is better to know desirable and useful things than to desire to know hidden things, which indeed he forbids to consider, because this is presumption of spirit, namely, to wish to know what God has disposed in his providence.
(Vers. 10. 11.). And indeed he forbids to scrutinize this, consequently saying: He who is to be etc. Here he calls back from scrutinizing hidden things, such as the divine disposition: on account of which he says: He who is to be, his name has already been called, with respect to eternal election; Romans 4: " Who calls those things which are not, as though they were ". And it is known that
he is man, with respect to the smallness of the duration of life: Genesis 3: " Dust you are, and to dust you shall return ". And he cannot contend in judgment against one stronger than himself, with respect to the condition of justice: for no one is so just that he can justify himself in judgment with God: Job 9: " I know that man is not justified when compared to God. If he should wish to contend with God, he cannot answer him one for a thousand "; therefore Job said: "How great then am I, that I should answer him "; and therefore it is added: because stronger: whence Job 9: " If strength is sought, he is most mighty; if equity of judgment, no one dares to bear witness for me ". Therefore this hidden disposition is said not to be scrutinized by us; because in our words little truth is found, especially when we wish to discuss those things which are hidden from us.
Therefore he adds: Words are very many, that is, few things are known: below, chapter 10: The fool multiplies words ". And having much vanity in disputing, and little truth, above, chapter 3: " He has delivered the world to their disputation, so that man may not find the work which God has wrought from the beginning even to the end "; and therefore those who wish to scrutinize these things become vain, according to that word of the Apostle in First Corinthians 3: " God knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain ".