Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth [are] vanity.
Ver. 10. Therefore remove sorrow from thine heart.] One would have thought that he should have said rather, considering the premises, remove joy from thy heart, "Let thy laughter be turned to mourning, and thy joy into heaviness," Jam 4:9 turn all the streams into that channel that may drive that mill that may grind the heart. But by sorrow here, or indignation, as Tremellius renders it, the Preacher means sin, the cause of sorrow; and so he interprets himself in the next words, "Put away evil from thy flesh," - i.e., mortify thy lusts.
For childhood and youth are vanity.] The Septuagint and Vulgate render it, Youth and pleasure are vain things. They both will soon be at an end.