I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race [is] not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Ver. 11. That the race is not to the swift.] Here the Preacher proverb - what he had found true by experience - by the event of men's endeavours, often frustrated, that nothing is in our power, but all carried on by a Providence, which oft crosseth our likeliest projects, that God may have the honour of all. Let a man be as swift as Asahel or Atalanta, yet he may not get the goal or escape the danger. The battle of Terwin, in France, fought by our Henry VIII, was called the ‘Battle of Spurs,' because many fled for their lives, who yet fell (as the men of Ai did) into the midst of their enemies. a At Musselburgh Field, many of the Scots running away, so strained themselves in their race, that they fell down breathless and dead, whereby they seemed in running from their deaths to run to it, whereas two thousand of them that lay all day as dead, got away safely in the night. b
Nor the battle to the strong.] As we see in the examples of Gideon, Jonathan and his armourbearer, David in his encounter with Goliath, Leonidas, who with six hundred men worsted five hundred thousand of Xerxes' host. "They shall be holpen with a little help." Dan 11:34 And why a little? That through weaker means we may see God's greater strength. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." Zec 4:6 This Rabshakeh knew not, and therefore derided Hezekiah for trusting to his prayers. Isa 36:5 What can Hezekiah say to embolden him to stand out? What? I say, saith Hezekiah, "I have words of my lips" - that is, prayer. Prayer! saith Rabshakeh, those are empty words, an airy thing; for "counsel and strength are for the war"; so some read the words, and not in a parenthesis, as our translation hath it.
Neither yet bread to the wise.] To the worldlywise. Those "young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." Psa 34:10 Their daily bread day by day, panem demensi, "food convenient for them," Pro 30:8 they shall be sure of. "Dwell in the land, and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed," Psa 37:5 by virtue of a promise, and not by a providence only, as the young ravens are.
Nor yet riches to men of understandlng.] Plutus is said by the poets to be blind, and fortune to favour fools. Of Pope Clement V the French chronicler saith, Papa hic ditior fuit quam sapientior, This pope was rather rich than wise. c Aristides was so poor, that he brought a slur upon Justice, saith Plutarch, as if she were not able to maintain her followers. Phocian also, Pelopidas, Lamachus, Ephialtes, Socrates, those Greek sages, were very poor. d Epaminondas had but one garment, and that a sorry one too. e Lactantius had scarce a subsistence. Many wise men have been hard put to it. Paupertas est philosophiae vernacula, saith Apuleius.
Nor yet favour to men of skill.] Rara ingeniorum praemia, rara item est merces, saith one, f Wit and skill is little set by, small regard or reward is given to it; whereas popular men should esteem it as silver, said Aeneas Sylvius, noblemen as gold, princes as pearls.
But time and chance happeneth to them all,] i.e., Everything is done in its own time, and as God by his providence ordereth it, not as men will; much less by haphazard, for that which to us is casual and contingent, is by God Almighty foreappointed and effected, who must therefore be seen and sought unto in the use of means and second causes. And if things succeed not to our minds, but that we "labour in the fire," yet we must "glorify God in the fire," and live by faith.
“ Vivere spe vidi qui moriturus erat. ”
a Speed.
b Life of Edward VI, by Sir John Heywood.
c Epit. Hist. Gallic.
d Aelian., lib. ii.
e Ibid., lib. v.
f Rhodigin, lib. xxix. cap. 10.