Ecc 8:3-5 | KD | STEP | The warning, corresponding to the exhortation, now follows: One must not thoughtlessly avoid the duty of service and homage due to the king: “Hasten not to go away from him: join not in an evil matter; for he executeth all that he desireth.” Regarding the connection, of two verbs with one idea, lying before us in תּלך ... אל־, as e.g. , at Zec 8:15; Hos 1:6, vid ., Gesen. §142. 3 b . Instead of this sentence, we might use אל־תבהל ללכת מפניו, as e.g. , Aboth v. 8: “The wise man does not interrupt another, and hastens not to answer,” i.e. , is not too hasty in answering. As with עם, to be with the king, = to hold with him, so here מפניו הלך means to take oneself away from him, or, as it is expressed in , to leave one’s station; cf. Hos 11:2 : “They (the prophets of Jahve) called to them, forthwith they betook themselves away from them.” It is possible that in the choice of the expression, the phrase נבהל מפני, “to be put into a state of alarm before any one,” , was not without influence. The indef. רע דּבר, ; , cf. ; , 2Ki 4:41, etc., is to be referred (with Rosenm., Knobel, Bullock, and others) to undertakings which aim at resisting the will of the king, and reach their climax in conspiracy against the king’s throne and life ( ). אל־תּעמד בּ might mean: persist not in it; but the warning does not presuppose that the entrance thereon had already taken place, but seeks to prevent it, thus: enter not, go not, engage not, like 'amad bederek, ; 'amad babrith, 2Ki 23:3; cf. ; Jer 23:18. Also the Arab. 'amada li = intendit, proposuit sibi rem , is compared; it is used in the general sense of “to make toward something, to stretch to something.” Otherwise Ewald, Elst., Ginsb., and Zöckl.: stand not at an evil word (of the king), provoking him to anger thereby still more, - against , where רע דבר, as generally (cf. ), means an evil thing, and against the close connection of בּ עמד, which is to be presupposed. Hitzig even: stand not at an evil command, i.e. , hesitate not to do even that which is evil, which the king commands, with the remark that here a servilismus is introduced as speaking, who, in saying of the king, “All that pleaseth him he doeth,” uses words which are used only of God the Almighty, Joh 1:14; , etc. Hengst., Hahn, Dale, and others therefore dream of the heavenly King in the text. But proverbs of the earthly king, such as , say the very same thing; and if the Mishna Sanhedrin ii. 2, to which Tyler refers, says of the king, “The king cannot himself be a judge, nor can any one judge him; he does not give evidence, and no evidence can be given against him,” a sovereignty is thus attributed to the king, which is formulated in 3b and established in the verse following.

‏ Ecclesiastes 8:3-5

The warning, corresponding to the exhortation, now follows: One must not thoughtlessly avoid the duty of service and homage due to the king: “Hasten not to go away from him: join not in an evil matter; for he executeth all that he desireth.” Regarding the connection, of two verbs with one idea, lying before us in תּלך ... אל־, as e.g., at Zec 8:15; Hos 1:6, vid., Gesen. §142. 3 b. Instead of this sentence, we might use אל־תבהל ללכת מפניו, as e.g., Aboth v. 8: “The wise man does not interrupt another, and hastens not to answer,” i.e., is not too hasty in answering. As with עם, to be with the king, Ecc 4:15 = to hold with him, so here מפניו הלך means to take oneself away from him, or, as it is expressed in Ecc 10:4, to leave one’s station; cf. Hos 11:2 : “They (the prophets of Jahve) called to them, forthwith they betook themselves away from them.” It is possible that in the choice of the expression, the phrase נבהל מפני, “to be put into a state of alarm before any one,” Job 23:15, was not without influence. The indef. רע דּבר, Deu 17:1; Deu 23:10, cf. Deu 13:12; Deu 19:20, 2Ki 4:41, etc., is to be referred (with Rosenm., Knobel, Bullock, and others) to undertakings which aim at resisting the will of the king, and reach their climax in conspiracy against the king’s throne and life (Pro 24:21). אל־תּעמד בּ might mean: persist not in it; but the warning does not presuppose that the entrance thereon had already taken place, but seeks to prevent it, thus: enter not, go not, engage not, like 'amad bederek, Psa 1:1; 'amad babrith, 2Ki 23:3; cf. Psa 106:23; Jer 23:18. Also the Arab. 'amada li = intendit, proposuit sibi rem, is compared; it is used in the general sense of “to make toward something, to stretch to something.” Otherwise Ewald, Elst., Ginsb., and Zöckl.: stand not at an evil word (of the king), provoking him to anger thereby still more, - against Ecc 8:5, where רע דבר, as generally (cf. Psa 141:4), means an evil thing, and against the close connection of בּ עמד, which is to be presupposed. Hitzig even: stand not at an evil command, i.e., hesitate not to do even that which is evil, which the king commands, with the remark that here a servilismus is introduced as speaking, who, in saying of the king, “All that pleaseth him he doeth,” uses words which are used only of God the Almighty, Joh 1:14; Psa 33:9, etc. Hengst., Hahn, Dale, and others therefore dream of the heavenly King in the text. But proverbs of the earthly king, such as Pro 20:2, say the very same thing; and if the Mishna Sanhedrin ii. 2, to which Tyler refers, says of the king, “The king cannot himself be a judge, nor can any one judge him; he does not give evidence, and no evidence can be given against him,” a sovereignty is thus attributed to the king, which is formulated in 3b and established in the verse following. Ecc 8:4 “Inasmuch as the word of a king is powerful; and who can say to him: What doest thou?” The same thing is said of God, Job 9:12; Isa 45:9; Dan 4:32, Wisd. 12:12, but also of the king, especially of the unlimited monarch of a despotic state. Baasher verifies as בּשׁ at Ecc 2:16; cf. Gen 39:9, Gen 39:23; Greek, ἐν ᾧ and ἐφ ̓ ᾧ. Burger arbitrarily: quae dixit (דּבּר for דּבר), rex, in ea potestatem habet. The adjectival impers. use of the noun shilton = potestatem habens, is peculiar; in the Talm. and Midrash, shilton, like the Assyr. siltannu, ^{▼▼Vid., Fried. Delitzsch’s Assyr. Stud. p. 129f.} means the ruler (vid., under Ecc 5:8). That which now follows is not, as Hitzig supposes, an opposing voice which makes itself heard, but as Ecc 8:2 is compared with Rom 13:5, so is Ecc 8:5 with Rom 13:3. Ecc 8:5 “Whoso remaineth true to the commandment will experience nothing evil; and the heart of the wise man will know a time and judicial decision.” That by מצוה is here to be understood not the commandment of God, at least not immediately, as at Pro 19:16 (Ewald), but that of the king, and generally an injunction and appointment of the superior authority, is seen from the context, which treats not of God, but of the ruler over a state. Knobel and others explain: He who observeth the commandment engageth not with an evil thing, and the wise mind knoweth time and right. But ידע is never thus used (the author uses for this, בּ עמד), and the same meaning is to be supposed for the repeated ידע: it means to arrive at the knowledge of; in the first instance: to suffer, Eze 25:14; cf. Isa 9:8; Hos 9:7; in the second, to experience, Jos 24:31; Psa 16:11. It may also, indeed, be translated after Ecc 9:12 : a wise heart knoweth time and judgment, viz., that they will not fail; but why should we not render ידע both times fut., since nothing stands in the way? We do not translate: a wise heart, a wise mind (Knobel), although this is possible, 1Ki 3:12 (cf. Psa 90:12), but: the heart of a wise man, which is made more natural by Ecc 10:2, Pro 16:23. The heart of a wise man, which is not hurried forward by dynastic oppression to a selfish forgetfulness of duty, but in quietness and hope (Lam 3:26) awaits the interposition of God, will come to the knowledge that there is an eth, a time, when oppression has an end, and a mishpat, when it suffers punishment. Well adapted to the sense in which eth is here used is the remark of Elia Levita in his Tishbi, that זמן corresponds to the German Zeit and the Romanic tempo, but עת to the German Ziel and the Romanic termino. The lxx translates καιρὸν κρίσεως; and, inf act, עת ום is a hendiadys, which, however, consists in the division of one conception into two. The heart of the wise man remaining true to duty will come to learn that there is a terminus and judicial decision, for everything has an end when it falls under the fate for which it is ripe, especially the sinner.