Worthy.Bible » STRONG » Ecclesiastes » Chapter 6 » Verse 11

Ecclesiastes 6:11 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

11 Seeing there be H3426 many H7235 things H1697 that increase H7235 vanity, H1892 what is man H120 the better? H3148

Cross Reference

Psalms 73:6 STRONG

Therefore pride H1346 compasseth them about as a chain; H6059 violence H2555 covereth H5848 them as a garment. H7897

Ecclesiastes 1:6-9 STRONG

The wind H7307 goeth H1980 toward the south, H1864 and turneth about H5437 unto the north; H6828 it whirleth about continually, H1980 and the wind H7307 returneth again H7725 according to his circuits. H5439 All the rivers H5158 run H1980 into the sea; H3220 yet the sea H3220 is not full; H4392 unto the place H4725 from whence the rivers H5158 come, H1980 thither they return H7725 again. H3212 All things H1697 are full of labour; H3023 man H376 cannot H3201 utter H1696 it: the eye H5869 is not satisfied H7646 with seeing, H7200 nor the ear H241 filled H4390 with hearing. H8085 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done H6213 is that which shall be done: H6213 and there is no new H2319 thing under the sun. H8121

Ecclesiastes 1:17-18 STRONG

And I gave H5414 my heart H3820 to know H3045 wisdom, H2451 and to know H3045 madness H1947 and folly: H5531 I perceived H3045 that this H1571 also is vexation H7475 of spirit. H7307 For in much H7230 wisdom H2451 is much H7230 grief: H3708 and he that increaseth H3254 knowledge H1847 increaseth H3254 sorrow. H4341

Ecclesiastes 2:3-11 STRONG

I sought H8446 in mine heart H3820 to give H4900 myself H1320 unto wine, H3196 yet acquainting H5090 mine heart H3820 with wisdom; H2451 and to lay hold H270 on folly, H5531 till I might see H7200 what was that good H2896 for the sons H1121 of men, H120 which they should do H6213 under the heaven H8064 all H4557 the days H3117 of their life. H2416 I made me great H1431 works; H4639 I builded H1129 me houses; H1004 I planted H5193 me vineyards: H3754 I made H6213 me gardens H1593 and orchards, H6508 and I planted H5193 trees H6086 in them of all kind of fruits: H6529 I made H6213 me pools H1295 of water, H4325 to water H8248 therewith the wood H3293 that bringeth forth H6779 trees: H6086 I got H7069 me servants H5650 and maidens, H8198 and had servants born H1121 in my house; H1004 also I had great H7235 possessions H4735 of great H1241 and small cattle H6629 above all that were in Jerusalem H3389 before H6440 me: I gathered H3664 me also silver H3701 and gold, H2091 and the peculiar treasure H5459 of kings H4428 and of the provinces: H4082 I gat H6213 me men singers H7891 and women singers, H7891 and the delights H8588 of the sons H1121 of men, H120 as musical instruments, H7705 H7705 and that of all sorts. So I was great, H1431 and increased H3254 more than all that were before H6440 me in Jerusalem: H3389 also my wisdom H2451 remained H5975 with me. And whatsoever mine eyes H5869 desired H7592 I kept H680 not from them, I withheld H4513 not my heart H3820 from any joy; H8057 for my heart H3820 rejoiced H8056 in all my labour: H5999 and this was my portion H2506 of all my labour. H5999 Then I looked H6437 on all the works H4639 that my hands H3027 had wrought, H6213 and on the labour H5999 that I had laboured H5998 to do: H6213 and, behold, all was vanity H1892 and vexation H7469 of spirit, H7307 and there was no profit H3504 under the sun. H8121

Ecclesiastes 3:19 STRONG

For that which befalleth H4745 the sons H1121 of men H120 befalleth H4745 beasts; H929 even one thing H259 befalleth H4745 them: as the one dieth, H4194 so dieth H4194 the other; H2088 yea, they have all one H259 breath; H7307 so that a man H120 hath no preeminence H4195 above a beast: H929 for all is vanity. H1892

Ecclesiastes 4:1-4 STRONG

So I returned, H7725 and considered H7200 all the oppressions H6217 that are done H6213 under the sun: H8121 and behold the tears H1832 of such as were oppressed, H6231 and they had no comforter; H5162 and on the side H3027 of their oppressors H6231 there was power; H3581 but they had no comforter. H5162 Wherefore I praised H7623 the dead H4191 which are already H3528 dead H4191 more than the living H2416 which are yet H5728 alive. H2416 Yea, better H2896 is he than both H8147 they, which hath not yet H5728 been, who hath not seen H7200 the evil H7451 work H4639 that is done H6213 under the sun. H8121 Again, I considered H7200 all travail, H5999 and every right H3788 work, H4639 that for this a man H376 is envied H7068 of his neighbour. H7453 This is also vanity H1892 and vexation H7469 of spirit. H7307

Ecclesiastes 4:8 STRONG

There is H3426 one H259 alone, and there is not a second; H8145 yea, he hath neither child H1121 nor brother: H251 yet is there no end H7093 of all his labour; H5999 neither is his eye H5869 satisfied H7646 with riches; H6239 neither saith he, For whom do I labour, H6001 and bereave H2637 my soul H5315 of good? H2896 This is also vanity, H1892 yea, it is a sore H7451 travail. H6045

Ecclesiastes 4:16 STRONG

There is no end H7093 of all the people, H5971 even of all that have been before H6440 them: they also that come after H314 shall not rejoice H8055 in him. Surely this also is vanity H1892 and vexation H7475 of spirit. H7307

Ecclesiastes 5:7 STRONG

For in the multitude H7230 of dreams H2472 and many H7235 words H1697 there are also divers vanities: H1892 but fear H3372 thou God. H430

Hosea 12:1 STRONG

Ephraim H669 feedeth H7462 on wind, H7307 and followeth H7291 after the east wind: H6921 he daily H3117 increaseth H7235 lies H3577 and desolation; H7701 and they do make H3772 a covenant H1285 with the Assyrians, H804 and oil H8081 is carried H2986 into Egypt. H4714

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Ecclesiastes 6

Commentary on Ecclesiastes 6 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verse 1

“There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and in great weight it lies upon man: a man to whom God giveth riches, and treasures, and honour, and he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he may wish, but God giveth him not power to have enjoyment of it, for a strange man hath the enjoyment: that is vanity and an evil disease.” The author presents the result of personal observation; but inasmuch as he relates it in the second tense, he generalizes the matter, and places it scenically before the eyes of the reader. A similar introduction with ישׁ , but without the unnecessary asher , is found at Ecclesiastes 5:12; Ecclesiastes 10:5. Regarding בּה , vid ., under Ecclesiastes 8:6; על does not denote the subj., as at Ecclesiastes 2:17 : it appears great to a man, but it has its nearest lying local meaning; it is a great (Ecclesiastes 2:21) evil, pressing in its greatness heavily upon man. The evil is not the man himself, but the condition in which he is placed, as when, e.g. , the kingdom of heaven is compared to a merchant (Matthew 13:45.), - not the merchant in himself, but his conduct and life is a figure of the kingdom of heaven.


Verse 2

To עשׁר וּנך , as at 2 Chronicles 1:11, וך and honour is added as a third thing. What follows we do not translate: “and there is nothing wanting ... ;” for that איננּוּ with the pleonastic suff. may mean: “there is not,” is not to be proved from Genesis 39:9, thus: and he spares not for his soul (lxx καὶ οὐκ κ . τ . λ ) what he always desires. חסר is adj. in the sense of wanting, lacking, as at 1 Samuel 21:1-15 :16; 1 Kings 11:22; Proverbs 12:9. לנפשׁו , “for his soul,” i.e. , his person, is = the synon. לעצמו found in the later usage of the language; מן (different from the min , Ecclesiastes 4:8) is, as at Genesis 6:2, partitive. The נכרי , to whom this considerable estate, satisfying every wish, finally comes, is certainly not the legal heir (for that he enters into possession, in spite of the uncertainty of his moral character, Ecclesiastes 2:19, would be in itself nothing less than a misfortune, yet perfectly in order, Ecclesiastes 5:13 [14]), but some stranger without any just claim, not directly a foreigner (Heiligst.), but, as Burger explains: talis qui proprie nullum habet jus in bona ejus cui נכרי dicitur (cf. נכריּה of the unmarried wife in the Book of Proverbs).

That wealth without enjoyment is nothing but vanity and an evil disease, the author now shows by introducing another historical figure, and thereby showing that life without enjoyment is worse than never to have come into existence at all:


Verse 3

“If a man begat an hundred, and lived many years, and the amount of the days of his years was great, and his soul satisfied not itself in good, and also he had no grave, then I say: Better than he is the untimely birth.” The accentuation of 3 a is like that of 2 a . The disjunctives follow the Athnach , as at 2 Kings 23:13, only that there Telisha Gedhola stands for Pazer . Hitzig finds difficulty with the clause לו ... וגם־ , and regards it as a marginal gloss to 5 a , taken up into the text at a wrong place. But just the unexpected form and the accidental nature, more than the inward necessity of this feature in the figure, leads us to conclude that the author here connects together historical facts, as conjecturally noted above, into one fanciful picture. מאה is obviously to be supplemented by ( ובנות ) בנים ; the Targ. and Midrash make this man to be Cain, Ahab, Haman, and show at least in this that they extend down into the time of the Persian kingdom a spark of historical intelligence. שׁן רבּ interchanges with שׁן הר , Ecclesiastes 11:8, as at Nehemiah 11:30. In order to designate the long life emphatically, the author expresses the years particularly in days: “and if it is much which (Heiligst.: multum est quod ) the days of his years amount to;” cf. ימי ויּהיוּ , in Gen 5. With venaphsho there follows the reverse side of this long life with many children: (1) his soul satisfies not itself, i.e. , has no self-satisfying enjoyment of the good ( min , as at Psalms 104:13, etc.), i.e. , of all the good things which he possesses, - in a word, he is not happy in his life; and (2) an honourable burial is not granted to him, but קב חם , Jeremiah 22:19, which is the contrary of a burial such as becomes a man (the body of Artaxerxes Ochus was thrown to the cats); whereupon Elster rightly remarks that in an honourable burial and an honourable remembrance, good fortune, albeit shaded with sadness, might be seen. But when now, to one so rich in children and so long-lived, neither enjoyment of his good fortune nor even this shaded glory of an honourable burial is allowed, the author cannot otherwise judge than that the untimely birth is better than he. In this section regarding the uncertainty of riches, we have already, Ecclesiastes 5:14, fallen on a reminiscence from the Book of Job; it is so much the more probable that here also Job 3:16 has an influence on the formation of the thought. נפל is the foetus which comes lifeless from the mother's womb.


Verse 4-5

The comparison of an untimely birth with such a man is in favour of the former: “For it cometh in nothingness and departeth in darkness; and with darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it hath not seen the sun, and hath not known: it is better with it than with that other.” It has entered into existence, בּהבל , because it was a lifeless existence into which it entered when its independent life should have begun; and בּהשׁך , it departeth, for it is carried away in all quietness, without noise or ceremony, and “with darkness” its name is covered, for it receives no name and remains a nameless existence, and is forgotten as if it had never been. Not having entered into a living existence, it is also ( gam ) thus happy to have neither seen the sun nor known and named it, and thus it is spared the sight and the knowledge of all the vanities and evils, the deceptions and sorrows, that are under the sun. When we compare its fate with the long joyless life of that man, the conclusion is apparent: מ ... נחת , plus quietis est huic quam illi , which, with the generalization of the idea of rest (Job 3:13) in a wider sense, is = melius est huic quam illi ( זה ... זה , as at Ecclesiastes 3:19). The generalization of the idea proceeds yet further in the Mishn. נוח לו , e.g. : “It is better ( נוח לו לאדם ) for a man that he throw himself into a lime-kiln than that ( ואל ), etc.” From this usage Symm. renders מ ... נחת as obj. to ידע לא , and translates: οὐδὲ ἐπειράθη διαφορᾶς ἑτέρου πράγματος πρὸς ἓτερον ; and Jerome: neque cognovit distantiam boni et mali , - a rendering which is to be rejected, because thus the point of the comparison in which it terminates is broken, for 5 b draws the facit. It is true that this contains a thought to which it is not easy to reconcile oneself. For supposing that life were not in itself, as over against non-existence, a good, there is yet scarcely any life that is absolutely joyless; and a man who has become the father of an hundred children, has, as it appears, sought the enjoyment of life principally in sexual love, and then also has found it richly. But also, if we consider his life less as relating to sense: his children, though not all, yet partly, will have been a joy to him; and has a family life, so lengthened and rich in blessings, only thorns, and no roses at all? And, moreover, how can anything be said of the rest of an untimely birth, which has been without motion and without life, as of a rest excelling the termination of the life of him who has lived long, since rest without a subjective reflection, a rest not felt, certainly does not fall under the point of view of more or less, good or evil? The saying of the author on no side bears the probe of exact thinking. In the main he designs to say: Better, certainly, is no life than a joyless life, and, moreover, one ending dishonourably. And this is only a speciality of the general clause, Ecclesiastes 4:2., that death is better than life, and not being born is better than both. The author misunderstands the fact that the earthly life has its chief end beyond itself; and his false eudaemonism, failing to penetrate to the inward fountain of true happiness, which is independent of the outward lot, makes exaggerated and ungrateful demands on the earthly life.


Verse 6

A life extending to more than even a thousand years without enjoyment appears to him worthless: “And if he has lived twice a thousand years long, and not seen good - Do not all go hence to one place?” This long period of life, as well as the shortest, sinks into the night of Sheol, and has advantage over the shortest if it wants the ראות ט , i.e. , the enjoyment of that which can make man happy. That would be correct if “good” were understood inwardly, ethically, spiritually; but although, according to Koheleth's view, the fear of God presides over the enjoyment of life, regulating and hallowing it, yet it remains unknown to him that life deepened into fellowship with God is in itself a most real and blessed, and thus the highest good. Regarding אלּוּ (here, as at Esther 7:4, with perf. foll.: etsi vixisset, tamen interrogarem: nonne , etc.); it occurs also in the oldest liturgical Tefilla , as well as in the prayer Nishmath ( vid ., Baer's Siddur, Abodath Jisrael , p. 207). פּ ... אלף , a thousand years twice, and thus an Adam's life once and yet again. Otherwise Aben Ezra: 1000 years multiplied by itself, thus a million, like פּעמים עשׂרים , 20 x 20 = 400; cf. Targ. Isaiah 30:26, which translates שׁבעתים by 343 = 7 x 7 x 7. Perhaps that is right; for why was not the expression שׁנה אלפּים directly used? The “one place” is, as at Ecclesiastes 3:20, the grave and Hades, into which all the living fall. A life extending even to a million of years is worthless, for it terminates at last in nothing. Life has only as much value as it yields of enjoyment.


Verse 7

“All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet his soul has never enough;” or, properly, it is not filled, so that it desires nothing further and nothing more; נמלא used as appropriately of the soul as of the ear, Ecclesiastes 1:8; for that the mouth and the soul are here placed opposite to one another as “organs of the purely sensual and therefore transitory enjoyment, and of the deeper and more spiritual and therefore more lasting kind of joys” (Zöck.), is an assertion which brings out of the text what it wishes to be in it, - נפשׁ and פּה stand here so little in contrast, that, as at Proverbs 16:26; Isaiah 5:14; Isaiah 29:8, instead of the soul the stomach could also be named; for it is the soul longing, and that after the means from without of self-preservation, that is here meant; נפשׁ היפה , “beautiful soul,” Chullin iv. 7, is an appetite which is not fastidious, but is contented. גּמו , καὶ ὃμως ὃμως δέ , as at Ecclesiastes 3:13; Psalms 129:2. All labour, the author means to say, is in the service of the impulse after self-preservation; and yet, although it concentrates all its efforts after this end, it does not bring full satisfaction to the longing soul. This is grounded in the fact that, however in other respects most unlike, men are the same in their unsatisfied longing.


Verse 8

“For what hath the wise more than the fool; what the poor who knoweth to walk before the living?” The old translators present nothing for the interpretation, but defend the traditional text; for Jerome, like the Syr., which translates freely, follows the Midrash (fixed in the Targ.), which understands החיים , contrary to the spirit of the book, of the blessed future. The question would be easier if we could, with Bernst. and Ginsburg, introduce a comparat. min before יודע ; we would then require to understand by him who knows to walk before the living, some one who acts a part in public life; but how strange a designation of distinguished persons would that be! Thus, as the text stands, יודע ,sdnat is attrib. to לעני , what preference hath the poor, such an one, viz., as understands ( vid ., regarding יודע instead of היודע , under Psalms 143:10); not: who is intelligent (Aben Ezra); יודע is not, as at Ecclesiastes 9:11, an idea contained in itself, but by the foll. הח ... לה (cf. Ecclesiastes 4:13, Ecclesiastes 4:14; and the inf . form, Exodus 3:19; Numbers 22:13; Job 34:23) obtains the supplement and colouring required: the sequence of the accents ( Zakeph , Tifcha , Silluk , as e.g. , at Genesis 7:4) is not against this. How the lxx understood its πορευθῆναι κατέναντι τῆς ζωῆς , and the Venet. it's ἀπιέναι ἀντικρὺ τῆς ζωῆς , is not clear; scarcely as Grätz, with Mendelss.: who, to go against ( נגד , as at Ecclesiastes 4:12) life, to fight against it, has to exercise himself in self-denial and patience; for “to fight with life” is an expression of modern coinage. הח signifies here, without doubt, not life, but the living. But we explain now, not as Ewald, who separates יודע from the foll. inf . להלך : What profit has then the wise man, the intelligent, patient man, above the fool, that he walks before the living? - by which is meant (but how does this interrog. form agree thereto?), that the wise, patient man has thereby an advantage which makes life endurable by him, in this, that he does not suffer destroying eagerness of desire so to rule over him, but is satisfied to live in quietness.Also this meaning of a quiet life does not lie in the words הח ... הלך . “To know to walk before the living” is, as is now generally acknowledged = to understand the right rule of life (Elst.), to possess the savoir vivre (Heiligst.), to be experienced in the right art of living. the question accordingly is: What advantage has the wise above the fool; and what the poor, who, although poor, yet knows how to maintain his social position? The matter treated of is the insatiable nature of sensual desire. The wise seeks to control his desire; and he who is more closely designated poor, knows how to conceal it; for he lays upon himself restraints, that he may be able to appear and make something of himself. But desire is present in both; and they have in this nothing above the fool, who follows the bent of his desire and lives for the day. He is a fool because he acts as one not free, and without consideration; but, in itself, it is and remains true, that enjoyment and satisfaction stand higher than striving and longing for a thing.


Verse 9

“Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the soul: also this is vain and windy effort.” We see from the fin. הל־ן interchanging with מר that the latter is not meant of the object (Ecclesiastes 11:9), but of the action, viz., the “rejoicing in that which one has” (Targ.); but this does not signify grassatio ,- i.e. , impetus animae appetentis , ὁρμὴ τῆς ψυχῆς (cf. Marcus Aurelius , iii. 16), which Knobel, Heiligst., and Ginsburg compare (for הלך means grassari only with certain subjects, as fire, contagion, and the life; and in certain forms, as יהלך for ילך , to which הלך = לכת does not belong), - but erratio , a going out in extent, roving to a distance (cf. הלך , wanderer), ῥεμβασμὸς ἐπιθυμίας , Wisd. 4:12. - Going is the contrast of rest; the soul which does not become full or satisfied goes out, and seeks and reaches not its aim. This insatiableness, characteristic of the soul, this endless unrest, belongs also to the miseries of this present life; for to have and to enjoy is better than this constant Hungern und Lungern hungering and longing. More must not be put into 9 a than already lies in it, as Elster does: “the only enduring enjoyment of life consists in the quiet contemplation of that which, as pleasant and beautiful, it affords, without this mental joy mingling with the desire for the possession of sensual enjoyment.” The conception of “the sight of the eyes” is certainly very beautifully idealized, but in opposition to the text. If 9 a must be a moral proverb, then Luther's rendering is the best: “It is better to enjoy the present good, than to think about other good.”


Verse 10

“That which hath been, its name hath long ago been named; and it is determined what a man shall be: and he cannot dispute with Him who is stronger than he.” According to the usage of the tense, it would be more correct to translate: That which (at any time) has made its appearance, the name of which was long ago named, i.e. , of which the What? and the How? were long ago determined, and, so to speak, formulated. This שׁ ... כּבר does not stand parallel to היה כבר , Ecclesiastes 1:10; for the expression here does not refer to the sphere of that which is done, but of the predetermination. Accordingly, אדם ... ונו is also to be understood. Against the accents, inconsistently periodizing and losing sight of the comprehensiveness of אדם ... אשׁר , Hitzig renders: “and it is known that, if one is a man, he cannot contend,” etc., which is impossible for this reason, that אדם הוא cannot be a conditional clause enclosed within the sentence יוכל ... אשׁר . Obviously ונודע , which in the sense of constat would be a useless waste of words, stands parallel to שׁמו נקרא , and signifies known, viz., previously known, as passive of ידע , in the sense of Zechariah 14:7; cf. Psalms 139:1. Bullock rightly compares Acts 15:18. After ידע , asher , like ki , which is more common, may signify “that,” Ecclesiastes 8:12; Ezekiel 20:26; but neither “that he is a man” (Knobel, Vaih., Luzz., Hengst., Ginsb.), nor “that he is the man” (Ewald, Elst., Zöckler), affords a consistent meaning. As mah after yada' means quid , so asher after it may mean quod = that which (cf. Daniel 8:19, although it does not at all stand in need of proof); and id quod homo est (we cannot render הוּא without the expression of a definite conception of time) is intended to mean that the whole being of a man, whether of this one or that one, at all times and on all sides, is previously known; cf. to this pregnant substantival sentence, Ecclesiastes 12:13. Against this formation of his nature and of his fate by a higher hand, man cannot utter a word.

The thought in 10b is the same as that at Isaiah 45:9; Romans 9:20. The Chethı̂b שׁהתּקּיף

(Note: With He unpointed, because it is omitted in the Kerı̂ , as in like manner in כּשׁה , Ecclesiastes 10:3, שׁה , Lamentations 5:18. In the bibl. Rabb., the ה is noted as superfluous.)

is not inadmissible, for the stronger than man is מנּהּ ... מרי . Also התקיף might in any case be read: with one who overcomes him, has and manifests the ascendency over him. There is indeed no Hiph . הת .hpiH found in the language of the Bible (Herzf. and Fürst compare הג , Psalms 12:5); but in the Targ., אתקף is common; and in the school-language of the Talm., הת is used of the raising of weighty objections, e.g. , Kamma 71 a . The verb, however, especially in the perf., is in the passage before us less appropriate. In לא־יוּכל lie together the ideas of physical (cf. Genesis 43:32; Deuteronomy 12:17; Deuteronomy 16:5, etc.) and moral inability.


Verse 11

“For there are many words which increase vanity: What cometh forth therefrom for man?” The dispute (objection), דּין , takes place in words; דּברים here will thus not mean “things” (Hengst., Ginsb., Zöckl., Bullock, etc.), but “words.” As that wrestling or contending against God's decision and providence is vain and worthless, nothing else remains for man but to be submissive, and to acknowledge his limitation by the fear of God; thus there are also many words which only increase yet more the multitude of vanities already existing in this world, for, because they are resultless, they bring no advantage for man. Rightly, Elster finds herein a hint pointing to the influence of the learning of the Jewish schools already existing in Koheleth 's time. We know from Josephus that the problem of human freedom and of God's absoluteness was a point of controversy between opposing parties: the Sadducees so emphasized human freedom, that they not only excluded ( Antt. xiii. 5. 9; Bell . ii. 8. 14) all divine predetermination, but also co-operation; the Pharisees, on the contrary supposed an interconnection between divine predetermination ( εἱμαρμένη ) and human freedom ( Antt. xiii. 5. 9, xviii. 1. 3; Bell . ii. 8. 14). The Talm. affords us a glance at this controversy; but the statement in the Talm. (in Berachoth 33 a , and elsewhere), which conditions all by the power of God manifesting itself in history, but defends the freedom of the religious-moral self-determination of man, may be regarded as a Pharisaic maxim. In Rom 9, Paul places himself on this side; and the author of the Book of Koheleth would subscribe this passage as his testimony, for the “fear God” is the “ kern und stern ” kernel and star of his pessimistic book.


Verse 12

Man ought to fear God, and also, without dispute and murmuring, submit to His sway: “For who knoweth what is good for man in life during the number of the days of his vain life, and which he spendeth like a shadow? No one can certainly show a man what shall be after him under the sun.” We translate אשׁר only by “ ja ” (“certainly”), because in Germ. no interrogative can follow “ dieweil ” (“because”). The clause with asher (as at Ecclesiastes 4:9; Ecclesiastes 8:11; Ecclesiastes 10:15; cf. Song, under Song of Solomon 5:2), according to its meaning not different from ki , is related in the way of proof to that beginning with ki . Man is placed in our presence. To be able to say to him what is good for him, - i.e. , what position he must take in life, what direction he must give to his activity, what decision he must adopt in difficult and important cases, - we ought not only to be able to penetrate his future, but, generally, the future; but, as Tropfen drops in the stream of history, we are poor Tröpfe simpletons, who are hedged up within the present. Regarding the accus. of duration, וגו מספּר , pointing to the brevity of human life, vid ., at Ecclesiastes 2:3. With הבלו , the attribute of breath-like transitiveness is assigned to life (as at Ecclesiastes 7:15; Ecclesiastes 9:9) (as already in the name given to Abel, the second son of Adam), which is continued by כּ ויע with the force of a relative clause, which is frequently the case after preceding part. attrib., e.g. , Isaiah 5:23. We translate: which he spendeth like the (1) shadow [in the nom.] (after Ecclesiastes 8:13; Job 14:2); not: like a shadow [in the accus.]; for although the days of life are also likened to a shadow, Psalms 144:4, etc., yet this use of עשׂה does not accord therewith, which, without being a Graecism (Zirkel, Grätz), harmonises with the Greek phrase, ποιεῖν χρόνον , Acts 15:33; cf. Proverbs 13:23, lxx (also with the Lat. facere dies of Cicero, etc.). Thus also in the Syr. and Palest.-Aram. lacad is used of time, in the sense of transigere . Aharav does not mean: after his present condition (Zöckl.); but, as at Ecclesiastes 3:22; Ecclesiastes 7:14 : after he has passed away from this scene. Luzz. explains it correctly: Whether his children will remain in life? Whether the wealth he has wearied himself in acquiring will remain and be useful to them? But these are only illustrations. The author means to say, that a man can say, neither to himself nor to another, what in definite cases is the real advantage; because, in order to say this, he must be able to look far into the future beyond the limits of the individual life of man, which is only a small member of a great whole.