For he seeth [that] wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
Ver. 10. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool] This to be a truth, etiam muta clamant cadavera, the dead corpses of both do preach and proclaim, by a dumb kind of eloquence. Death maketh no difference; Pallida mors aequo, &c. It is appointed for all men once to die. It lieth as a man's lot, as the word αποκειται signifieth, Hebrews 9:27, and all men can say, We are all mortal; but, alas, we say it for most part, magis usu quam sensu, more of custom than feeling; for we live as if our lives were riveted upon eternity, and we should never come to a reckoning.
Heu vivunt heroines tanquam mors nulla sequatur,
Aut velut infernus fabula vana foret.
And the brutish person perish ] His life and his hopes ending together. But it would be considered, that wise men die as well as fools, good men die as well as bad, yea, good men oft before the bad, Isaiah 57:1 . Jeroboam's best son died before the rest, because there was some good found in him ( ωκυμοροι οι θεοριλεις ).
And leave their wealth to others ] Nec aliis solum, sed et alienis, to mere strangers; this Solomon sets forth as a great vanity. It was therefore a good speech of a holy man once to a great lord, who had showed him his stately house and pleasant gardens: You had need make sure of heaven, or else when you die you will be a very great loser.