As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
Solomon had said (Ecc 8:5) that a wise man's heart discerns time and judgment, that is, a man's wisdom will go a great way, by the blessing of God, in moral prognostications; but here he shows that few have that wisdom, and that even the wisest may yet be surprised by a calamity which they had not any foresight of, and therefore it is our...
Commenting on Ecclesiastes 8:6-8
There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit,.... Which is not to be understood of the wind, which the word used sometimes signifies, and of men's having no power to restrain that, or hinder it from blowing; for to what purpose should Solomon mention this?
spirit--"breath of life" (Ecc 3:19), as the words following require. Not "wind," as WEISS thinks (Pro 30:4). This verse naturally follows the subject of "times" and "judgment" (Ecc 8:6-7). discharge--alluding to the liability to military service of all above twenty years old (Num 1:3), yet many were exempted (Deu 20:5-8). But in that war (death) there is no exemption. those . . . given to--literally, the master of it.