a dawning · conjunction + definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
vanity
הָֽבֶלHa.vel
H1892
emptiness or vanity · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness i…
2 Timothy 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Ecclesiastes 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no ple…
Job 20:11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
Psalms 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether v…
Psalms 90:7-11 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 11:7–end
Here is an admonition both to old people and to young people, to think of dying, and get ready for it. Having by many excellent precepts taught us how to live well, the preacher comes now, towards the close of his discourse, to teach us how to die well and to put us in mind of our latter end.
I. He applies himself to the aged, writes to them as fathers, to awaken them to think of death, Ecc 11:7, Ecc 11:8. Here is, 1. A rational concession of the sweetness of life, which old people find by experience: Truly the light is sweet; the light of the sun is so; it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold it. Light was the first thing made in the formation of the great world, as the eye is one of…
sorrow--that is, the lusts that end in "sorrow," opposed to "rejoice," and "heart cheer thee" (Ecc 11:9), Margin, "anger," that is, all "ways of thine heart"; "remove," &c., is thus opposed to "walk in," &c. (Ecc 11:9).
flesh--the bodily organ by which the sensual thoughts of the "heart" are embodied in acts.
childhood--rather, "boyhood"; the same Hebrew word as the first, "youth" in Ecc 11:9. A motive for self-restraint; the time is coming when the vigor of youth on which thou reliest, will seem vain, except in so far as it has been given to God (Ecc 12:1).
youth--literally, the dawn of thy days.
Next: Ecclesiastes Chapter 12
John Gill on Ecclesiastes 11:10
Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart,.... Worldly sorrow, as opposed to lawful mirth and cheerfulness, and especially to spiritual joy: or "anger" (z), as the word may be rendered, and often is; either at the providence of God, or at the correction of friends; all perturbations of the mind; all fierceness of spirit, and fiery passions, to which youthful age is subject: or all those things, as Jarchi observes, that provoke God to anger; sinful lusts and pleasures, the end and issue of which also is sorrow to men; and which agrees with our version;
and put away evil from thy flesh; or body; such as intemperance and uncleanness, to which young men are addicted: the advice is much the same, i…
Put sorrow far from thy flesh, and sadness from thy thoughts; save only that for thy sins thou shouldst be constant in sadness. Cease not from labour, not even though thou be rich, for the slothful man gains manifold guilt by his idleness.
Therefore, if anger has held out with most shameful boldness in the heart of any one of you until these holy days, now at least let it depart. [Thus] your prayer may proceed in peace and … may not stumble, tremble, or become mute under the pricking of conscience when it has come to that passage where it must say, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive also our debtors."
In Scripture the spirit is continuously called "heart."The passage therefore means: Even if we sometimes are caught up in anger, this "anger" should not be allowed into the "heart," so that the anger does not become a permanent condition. And when suddenly a desire comes up in the part of the soul which deals with desire, this desire should not be transferred to the spirit and to the part of the soul that deals with reason. Otherwise it becomes a permanent condition and not just an affect or a precondition for this affect, but simply evil.… If "anger is banished from your heart," you will not do evil through the members of your body. Whoever is caught by anger often fights and may even decide to kill. Thus, if you "banish anger from your heart," then evil, which comes about through deeds, will vanish as well.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Staves (Long Poles) · SYMBOLI — SYMBOLI
Vanity · Childhood and youth are — Childhood and youth are
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 11:10–end
"And remove sorrow from thy heart, and banish evil from thy flesh: for youth and age, not yet grown to grey hairs, are vain." Jerome translates: aufer iram a corde tuo, and remarks in his Comm.: in ira omnes perturbationes animi comprehendit; but כּעס (R. כס, contundere, confringere) does not signify anger, but includes both anger and sorrow, and thus corresponds to the specific ideas, "sadness, moroseness, fretfulness." The clause following, Jerome translates: et amove malitiam a carne tua, with the remark: in carnis malitia universas significat corporis voluptates; but רעה is not taken in an ethical, but in a physical sense: כעס is that which brings sorrow to the heart; and רעה, that which…
Youth, like life itself, is beneficial and enjoyable but ultimately meaningless, a fleeting vapor that passes away without apparent significance or lasting purpose.
Rashi on Ecclesiastes 11:10
Therefore banish anger. [Banish] anything that causes anger to the Omnipresent.
And remove evil. The evil inclination.
From your flesh. That you should have a heart of flesh.26Alternatively, if your flesh desires to indulge in anything that is evil, remove those desires from your flesh. (Metsudas Dovid)
And youth. שַׁחֲרוּת refers to] youth, because [the hair on] a person’s head is black שָׁחוֹר in his youth.27Alternatively, שחר [=dawn] refers to youth which is the dawn of one’s life.
