Ecclesiastes
12:5
Also when they shall be afraid of [that which is]
high
Not of the most high God, before whose tribunal they must shortly
appear, as some; but rather of high places, as high hills,
mountains, towers which aged persons are afraid to go up, because
of the feebleness and weakness of their limbs, their difficulty
of breathing, and the dizziness of their heads; and fears
[shall be] in the way;
they do not care: to go abroad, being afraid of every little
stone that lies in the way, lest they should stumble at it, and
fall: some understand this of their fears of spirits, good or
bad; but the former sense is best; and the almond tree
shall flourish;
which most interpret of the hoary head, which looks like an
almond tree in blossom; and which, as it comes soon in the
spring, whence it has its name of haste in the Hebrew language;
see ( Jeremiah
1:11 Jeremiah
1:12 ) ; and is a sure sign of its near approach; so gray
hairs, or the hoary head, sometimes appear very soon and
unexpected, and are a sure indication of the approach of old age;
which Cicero F8 calls "aetas praecipitata",
``age that comes hastily on;''
though the hoary head, like the almond tree, looks very beautiful,
and is venerable, especially if found in the way of righteousness,
(
Leviticus
19:32 ) (
Proverbs
16:31 ) ;
and the grasshopper shall be a
burden;
meaning either, should a grasshopper, which is very light, leap
upon an aged person, it would give him pain, the least burden being
uneasy to him; or, should he eat one of these creatures, the
locusts being a sort of food in Judea, it would not sit well, on
his stomach: or the grasshopper, being a crumpled and lean
creature, may describe an old man; his legs and arms emaciated, and
his shoulders, back, and lips, crumpled up and bunching out; and
the locust of this name has a bunch on its backbone, like a camel
F9: Bochart
F11 says, that the head of
the thigh, or the hip bone, by the Arabians, is called "chagaba",
the word here used for a locust or grasshopper; which part of the
body is of principal use in walking, and found very troublesome and
difficult to move in old men; and Aben Ezra interprets it of the
thigh: the almond tree, by the Rabbins, as Jarchi says, is
interpreted of the hip bone, which stands out in old age: and the
Targum, of this and the preceding clause, is,
``and the top of thy backbone shall bunch out, through leanness,
like the almond; and the ankles of thy feet shall be swelled.''
Some, as Ben Melech observes, understand it of the genital member,
and of coitus, slighted and rejected, because of the weakness of
the body; all desires of that kind being gone, as follows;
and desire shall fail;
the appetite, for food, for bodily pleasures, and carnal delights;
and particularly for venery, all the parts of the body for such
uses being weakened, The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and
Arabic versions, render it, "the caper tree shall be dissipated",
or "vanish", or "[its fruit] shall shrink"; so Dr. Smith, who
understands it of the decrease of the fluids, as he does the former
clause of the solid parts of the body; and the berries of this tree
are said to excite both appetite and lust
F12: and so
Munster
F13 interprets the word of the berries of
the caper tree;
because man goeth to his long
home;
the grave, as the Targum, the house appointed for living, where he
must lie till the resurrection morn; his eternal house, as Cicero
calls it
F14; and so it may be rendered here, "the
house of the world", common to all the world, where all mankind go:
or, "to the house of his world"
F15; whether of bliss or woe,
according as his state and character be, good or bad: Theognis
F16 calls it the dark house of "hades",
or the invisible state; and then this must be understood with
respect to his separate soul, and the mansion of it; and Alshech
says, every righteous man has a mansion to himself; see (
John 14:2 ) ;
and the
mourners go about the streets;
the relations of the deceased; or those that go to their houses to
comfort them; or the mourning men and women, hired for that
purpose.