There is a sore evil [which] I have seen under the
sun
Or "an evil sickness" F13. A sinful disease in the person
with whom it is found, and very disagreeable to others to behold;
it is enough to make one sick to see it; and what he is about to
relate he himself was an eyewitness of: [namely], riches
kept for the owners thereof to their hurt;
laid up in barns and granaries, as the fruits of the earth; or in
chests and coffers, as gold and silver, for the use and service
of the owners of them; and which yet have been to their real
injury; being either used by them in a luxurious and intemperate
way, so have brought diseases on their bodies, and damnation to
their souls; or not used at all for their own good, or the good
of others, which brings the curse of God upon them, to their ruin
and destruction, both here and hereafter: and oftentimes so it
is, and which no doubt had fallen under the observation of
Solomon, that some who have been great misers, and have hoarded
up their substance, without using them themselves, or sharing
them with others, have not only been plundered of them, but, for
the sake of them, their lives have been taken away in a most
barbarous manner, by cutthroats and villains; sometimes by their
own servants, nay, even by their own children. Riches ill gotten
and ill used are very prejudicial to the owners; and if they are
well got, but ill used, or not used at all, greatly hurt the
spiritual and eternal state of men; it is a difficult thing for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, and a covetous man
cannot; if a professor, the word he hears is choked and made
unprofitable; he errs from the faith, and pierces himself through
with many sorrows now, and is liable to eternal damnation
hereafter. The Targum interprets it of a man that gathers riches,
and does no good with them; but keeps them to himself, to do
himself evil in the world to come.