Jerome, on Eccl 4:13

“Better is a child that is poor and wise, than a king that is old and foolish, who knoweth not to foresee for hereafter.”

“"Better is a poor but wise youth, than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to take care of himself; because from the prison-house he emerged to reign, while even in his reign he was born poor. I saw all the living that wander beneath the sun throng to the succeeding youth that steps into his place. There is no end to the entire nation, to all that was before them; similarly the ones that come later will not rejoice in him. For this too is futility and a vexation of the spirit." Symmachus translates this passage in this way: "better a poor man who has wisdom, than an old and foolish king who does not know to beware of change". For the one leaves the body to reign in heaven, and the other indeed, although he had been born a king, is restricted by poverty. I saw all men living, who grow up under the sun in propitious adolescence, which increases in them. Each and every nation that was before is unending, and those that come after do not rejoice in the previous. But this too is empty and a vexation of the spirit. My Hebrew tutor, whose teachings I often refer to, bore witness while he was reading Ecclesiastes with me, that Bar Akiba wrote these things above the present passage, and he is greatly admired by other scholars: better is the inner part of man, which arises in us after the fourteenth year of puberty, than the outer, physical man, who is born from his mother's womb, and he does not know how to abstain from vice because it comes to this that he rules over his vices from the house of chains, that is from his mother's womb. For he is made poor because of his power and by carrying out all wicked deeds. I saw those men, who lived as those former men, and were changed afterwards into that second man, in him that has been born in place of the former. And I understood that all men sinned in that prior manhood, before the second is born, when they become two men. But once these men have changed for the better, and after the learning of philosophers, they leave the left path and hurry towards the right, and they follow the second man, that is the newest man, and do not rejoice in him that is the former. The apostle agrees with these two types of men [Cfr Rom, 7, 15.] and Leviticus also mentioned them: "Man, man" [Cfr Lev. 17, 13; 19, 20; 21, 17. etc.] who desired this or that. That saintly man Gregorius Pontus the bishop, to whom Origen preached, understands the passage in the following way in his" Metaphrasis of Ecclesiastes:" "I however prefer a youth who is poor yet is growing wise, to an old king who is foolish, to whom it never occurs that it is possible for someone from those whom he has conquered, will leave the body to reign in heaven; and then he destroys himself from his unjust power. For it happens though that those who were growing wise at the time of youth are without sadness; but that they changed before the time of becoming an old king. For those that have been born afterwards, since they do not know the wickedness that has gone before, they are not able to praise youth, which arises afterwards, and are led astray by perverse ideas and by the force of the opposing arguments." [Grego. Neocaesar. Metaphr. In Eccl. -PG 10, 1000 A] Laodicenus has asserted that great matters are expressed in this short passage, and he wrote here in his accustomed fashion: "Ecclesiastes now speaks about the change of good men into wicked, expressing the foolish man as he who tries, and who not thinking of the future, enjoys the transient and failing things as if they are great and perpetual. And after the many things which usually happen (or change) to men in their life, he asserts something of a general opinion of death, since the great number perishes and little by little is consumed and pass across, with each one leaving the other in his place, and another's successor dying." [Apollinarius Laodic.] Origines and Victorinus [Origenes. Victorinus Poetouion] did not think very differently on this matter. After the general statement that reveals to all that the poor yet wise youth is better than an old king who is foolish, and that it often happens that the lad leaves the prison of the king because of his wisdom, and commands in place of a cruel dictator, and as a foolish king loses all his power, which he had obtained. They saw this passage in relation to Christ and the devil, because they wished to view the poor and wise boy as Christ. The poor boy is the same as that one in "it is great for you to be called my boy" [Is. 49, 6. According to LXX], but the poor man, since he has been made poor [cfr II Cor. 8, 9.], when once he was rich and wise, because "he was proficient in age and wisdom and thankful to God and men." [Luc. 2, 52.] That man is born in the reign of an old man and therefore he says, "if this was my rule in the world, that my servants struggle on my behalf so that I am not handed over to the Jews. But now it is not my rule." [Ioh. 18, 36.] So in the reign of that foolish old man who displays all the rule of the whole world and his glory, the most excellent boy comes from the house of chains, about which Jeremiah speaks in Lamentations, saying, "so that he lowers to the feet of that man all those who have been conquered in the world." [Thren. 3, 34.] And that boy goes on to rule and goes away to a far off region, and as king after some time is turned against those, who do not want to rule. So with some insight Ecclesiastes saw that all men who are alive and who are able to be part of youth, say, "I am life" [Ioh. 14, 6.], having left behind them that old foolish king, to follow Christ. At the same time the two nations of Israel are to be understood here. The first, which was before the arrival of the Lord, and the next, which will support the Antichrist in place of Christ, for the first is not deep down despondent, since the first church was formed from Jews and the apostles; and in the end the Jews, who will support the Antichrist, will not rejoice in Christ.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.