anticipates the end. אל־תּב: do not overturn, hasten not, rush not, as at Ecc 5:1. Why the word בּרוּחך, and not בנפשך or בלבך, is used, vid., Psychol. pp. 197-199: passionate excitements overcome a man according to the biblical representation of his spirit, Pro 25:28, and in the proving of the spirit that which is in the heart comes forth in the mood and disposition, Pro 15:13. כּעוס is an infin., like ישׁון, Ecc 5:11. The warning has its reason in this, that anger or (כעס, taken more potentially than actually) fretfulness rests in the bosom of fools, i.e., is cherished and nourished, and thus is at home, and, as it were (thought of personally, as if it were a wicked demon), feels itself at home (ינוּח, as at Pro 14:33). The haughty impetuous person, and one speaking out rashly, thus acts like a fool. In fact, it is folly to let oneself be impelled by contradictions to anger, which disturbs the brightness of the soul, takes away the considerateness of judgment, and undermines the health, instead of maintaining oneself with equanimity, i.e., without stormy excitement, and losing the equilibrium of the soul under every opposition to our wish.
From this point the proverb loses the form “better than,” but tov still remains the catchword of the following proverbs. The proverb here first following is so far cogn., as it is directed against a particular kind of ka'as (anger), viz., discontentment with the present.
Verse 10
Ecc 7:10 “Say not: How comes it that the former times were better than these now? for thou dost not, from wisdom, ask after this.” Cf. these lines from Horace (Poet. 173, 4):“Difficilis, querulus, laudator temporis acti Se puero, censor castigatorque minorum.”
Such an one finds the earlier days - not only the old days described in history (Deu 4:32), but also those he lived in before the present time (cf. e.g., 2Ch 9:29) - thus by contrast to much better than the present tones, that in astonishment he asks: “What is it = how comes it that?” etc. The author designates this question as one not proceeding from wisdom: מח, like the Mishnic חכמה מתּוך, and על שׁאל, as at Neh 1:2; 'al-zeh refers to that question, after the ground of the contrast, which is at the same time an exclamation of wonder. The כי, assigning a reason for the dissuasion, does not mean that the cause of the difference between the present and the good old times is easily seen; but it denotes that the supposition of this difference is foolish, because in truth every age has its bright and its dark sides; and this division of light and shadow between the past and the present betrays a want of understanding
