Ecc 9:10-13 | KD | STEP | “Go, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for long ago hath God accepted thy work. Let thy garments be always white; and let not oil be wanting to thy head. Enjoy life with a wife whom thou lovest through all the days of thy vain life, which He hath given thee under the sun - through all thy vain days: for that is thy portion in life, and in thy labour wherewith thou weariest thyself under the sun. All that thy hand may find to do with thy might, that do; for there is not work, and calculation, and knowledge, and wisdom, in the under world, whither thou shalt go.” Hengstenberg perceives here the counterpart of the spirit; on the contrary, Oetinger, Mendelssohn, and others, discover also here, and here for the first time rightly, the utterance of an epicurean thought. But, in fact, this לך down to שׁ הולך is the most distinct personal utterance of the author, his ceterum censeo which pervades the whole book, and here forms a particularly copious conclusion of a long series of thoughts. We recapitulate this series of thoughts: One fate, at last the same final event, happens to all men, without making any distinction according to their moral condition, - an evil matter, so much the more evil, as it encourages to wickedness and light-mindedness; the way of man, without exception, leads to the dead, and all further prospect is cut off; for only he who belongs to the class of living beings has a joyful spirit, has a spirit of enterprise: even the lowest being, if it live, stands higher in worth, and is better, than the highest if it be dead; for death is the end of all knowledge and feeling, the being cut off from the living under the sun. From this, that there is only one life, one life on this side of eternity, he deduces the exhortation to enjoy the one as much as possible; God Himself, to whom we owe it, will have it so that we enjoy it, within the moral limits prescribed by Himself indeed, for this limitation is certainly given with His approbation. Incorrectly, the Targ., Rashi, Hengst. Ginsb., and Zöckl. explain: For thy moral conduct and effort have pleased Him long ago - the person addressed is some one, not a definite person, who could be thus set forth as such a witness to be commended. Rather with Grotius and others: Quia Deus favet laboribus tuis h. e. eos ita prosperavit, ut cuncta quae vitam delectant abunde tibi suppetant . The thought is wholly in the spirit of the Book of Koheleth; for the fruit of labour and the enjoyment of this fruit of labour, as at ; , etc., is a gift from above; and besides, this may be said to the person addressed, since 7 a presupposes that he has at his disposal heart-strengthening bread and heart-refreshing wine. But in these two explanations the meaning of כּבר is not comprehended. It was left untranslated by the old translators, from their not understanding it. Rightly, Aben Ezra: For God wills that thou shouldst thus to [indulge in these enjoyments]; more correctly, Hitzig: Long ago God has beforehand permitted this thy conduct, so that thou hast no room for scruples about it. How significant כבר is for the thought, is indicated by the accentuation which gives to it Zakef: from aforetime God has impressed the seal of His approbation on this thy eating with joy, this thy drinking with a merry heart. - The assigning of the reason gives courage to the enjoyment, but at the same time gives to it a consecration; for it is the will of God that we should enjoy life, thus it is self-evident that we have to enjoy it as He wills it to be enjoyed.

‏ Ecclesiastes 9:10-13

Ecc 9:7-10 “Go, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for long ago hath God accepted thy work. Let thy garments be always white; and let not oil be wanting to thy head. Enjoy life with a wife whom thou lovest through all the days of thy vain life, which He hath given thee under the sun - through all thy vain days: for that is thy portion in life, and in thy labour wherewith thou weariest thyself under the sun. All that thy hand may find to do with thy might, that do; for there is not work, and calculation, and knowledge, and wisdom, in the under world, whither thou shalt go.” Hengstenberg perceives here the counterpart of the spirit; on the contrary, Oetinger, Mendelssohn, and others, discover also here, and here for the first time rightly, the utterance of an epicurean thought. But, in fact, this לך down to שׁ הולך is the most distinct personal utterance of the author, his ceterum censeo which pervades the whole book, and here forms a particularly copious conclusion of a long series of thoughts. We recapitulate this series of thoughts: One fate, at last the same final event, happens to all men, without making any distinction according to their moral condition, - an evil matter, so much the more evil, as it encourages to wickedness and light-mindedness; the way of man, without exception, leads to the dead, and all further prospect is cut off; for only he who belongs to the class of living beings has a joyful spirit, has a spirit of enterprise: even the lowest being, if it live, stands higher in worth, and is better, than the highest if it be dead; for death is the end of all knowledge and feeling, the being cut off from the living under the sun. From this, that there is only one life, one life on this side of eternity, he deduces the exhortation to enjoy the one as much as possible; God Himself, to whom we owe it, will have it so that we enjoy it, within the moral limits prescribed by Himself indeed, for this limitation is certainly given with His approbation. Incorrectly, the Targ., Rashi, Hengst. Ginsb., and Zöckl. explain: For thy moral conduct and effort have pleased Him long ago - the person addressed is some one, not a definite person, who could be thus set forth as such a witness to be commended. Rather with Grotius and others: Quia Deus favet laboribus tuis h. e. eos ita prosperavit, ut cuncta quae vitam delectant abunde tibi suppetant. The thought is wholly in the spirit of the Book of Koheleth; for the fruit of labour and the enjoyment of this fruit of labour, as at Ecc 2:24; Ecc 3:13, etc., is a gift from above; and besides, this may be said to the person addressed, since 7 a presupposes that he has at his disposal heart-strengthening bread and heart-refreshing wine. But in these two explanations the meaning of כּבר is not comprehended. It was left untranslated by the old translators, from their not understanding it. Rightly, Aben Ezra: For God wills that thou shouldst thus to [indulge in these enjoyments]; more correctly, Hitzig: Long ago God has beforehand permitted this thy conduct, so that thou hast no room for scruples about it. How significant כבר is for the thought, is indicated by the accentuation which gives to it Zakef: from aforetime God has impressed the seal of His approbation on this thy eating with joy, this thy drinking with a merry heart. - The assigning of the reason gives courage to the enjoyment, but at the same time gives to it a consecration; for it is the will of God that we should enjoy life, thus it is self-evident that we have to enjoy it as He wills it to be enjoyed. Ecc 9:11 “Further, I came to see under the sun, that the race belongs not to the swift, and the war not to the heroes, and also not bread to the wise man, and not riches to the prudent, and not favour to men of knowledge; for time and chance happeneth to them all.” The nearest preceding רא, to which this ורב ורא suitably connects itself, is at Ecc 8:17. Instead of redii et videndo quidem = rursus vidi (cf. Ecc 8:9 and under Ecc 9:1), we had at Ecc 4:1 the simpler expression, redii et vidi. The five times repeated ל is that of property, of that, viz., by virtue of which one is master of that which is named, has power over it, disposes of it freely. The race belongs not to the swift (מרוץ, masc. to מרוּצה, only here), i.e., their fleetness is yet no guarantee that on account of it they will reach the goal. Luther freely: “To be fleet does not help in running,” i.e., running to an object or goal. “The war belongs not to the heroes,” means that much rather it belongs to the Lord, 1Sa 17:47. - God alone gives the victory (Psa 33:16). Even so the gaining of bread, riches, favour (i.e., influence, reputation), does not lie in wisdom, prudence, knowledge of themselves, as an indispensable means thereto; but the obtaining of them, or the not obtaining of them, depends on times and circumstances which lie beyond the control of man, and is thus, in the final result, conditioned by God (cf. Rom 9:16); ^{▼▼But not Jer 9:22; this passage, referred to by Bernstein, is of a different nature.} time and fate happen to all whose ability appears to warrant the issue, they both time and fate encounter them and bar to them the way; they are in an inexplicable manner dependent on both, and helplessly subject to them. As the idea of spiritual superiority is here expressed in a threefold manner by הח (whence לה of the plur., also with the art. Ecc 9:1; Exo 36:4; Est 1:13), 'הן, and היּ, so at Isa 11:2, the gifts of “wisdom,” “counsel,” and “knowledge” follow each other. 'Eth is here “time” with its special circumstances (conjunctures), and pega', “accident,” particularly as an adversity, disappointment of the word is used also without any addition (1Ki 5:18) of misfortune (cf. שיר פגעים, Psa 3:1-8; 91). The masc. יק is regulated after וף; 'eth can, however, be used in the masc., Sol 2:12; Böttch. §648, viz., “with the misapprehension of its origin” (v. Orelli).

This limitation of man in his efforts, in spite of all his capacity, has its reason in this, that he is on the whole not master of his own life: Ecc 9:12 “For man also knoweth not his time: like the fishes which are caught in an evil net, and like the birds which are caught in the snare - like them are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it suddenly breaks in upon them.” The particles גּם כּי are here not so clearly connected as at Ecc 8:12; Ecc 4:14, where, more correctly, the pointing should be גּם כּי (ki with the conjunct. accent); ki rules the sentence; and gam, as to its meaning, belongs to etḣ'itto. The particular has its reason from the general: man is not master of his own time, his own person, and his own life, and thus not of the fruits of his capabilities and his actions, in spite of the previously favourable conditions which appear to place the result beyond a doubt; for ere the result is reached of which he appears to be able to entertain a certainty, suddenly his time may expire, and his term of life be exhausted. Jerome translate 'itto (cf. Ecc 7:17) rightly by finem suum; עת, with the gen. following, frequently (vid., under Job 24:1) means the point of time when the fate of any one is decided, - the terminus where a reckoning is made; here, directly, the terminus ad quem. The suddenness with which men are frequently overtaken with the catastrophe which puts an end to their life, is seen by comparison with the fishes which are suddenly caught in the net, and the birds which are suddenly caught in the snare. With שׁן (that are caught) there is interchanged, in two variations of expression, האחזות, which is incorrectly written, by v. d. Hooght, Norzi, and others, האחזּ. ^{▼▼Vid., Ed. König, Gedanke, Laut u. Accent (1874), p. 72.} מצו, a net, - of which the plur. form Ecc 7:26 is used, - goes back, as does the similar designation of a bulwark (Ecc 9:14), to the root-conception of searching (hunting), and receives here the epithet “evil.” Birds, צפּרים (from a ground-form with a short terminal vowel; cf. Assyr. itṣtṣur, from itṣpur), are, on account of their weakness, as at Isa 31:5, as a figure of tender love, represented in the fem.

The second half of the verse, in conformity with its structure, begins with כּהם (which more frequently occurs as כּמוהם). יוּק .)כּ is part. Pu. for מיקּשׁים (Ewald, §170d); the particip. מ is rejected, and ק is treated altogether as a guttural, the impracticable doubling of which is compensated for by the lengthening of the vowel. The use of the part. is here stranger than e.g., at Pro 11:13; Pro 15:32; the fact repeating itself is here treated as a property. Like the fish and the birds are they, such as are caught, etc. Otherwise Hitz.: Like these are they caught, during the continuance of their life in the evil time ... ; but the being snared does not, however, according to the double figure, precede the catastrophe, but is its consequence. Rightly, Ginsb.: “Like these are the sons of men ensnared in the time of misfortune.” רעה might be adj., as at Amo 5:13; Mic 2:3; but since it lies nearer to refer כּשׁתּ to ra'ah than to 'eth, thus ra'ah, like the frequently occurring yom ra'ah (Ecc 7:14; cf. Jer 17:17 with Jer 15:11), may be thought of as genit. An example of that which is here said is found in the fatal wounding of Ahab by means of an arrow which was not aimed at him, so that he died “at the time of the going down of the sun,” 2Ch 18:33-34. Ecc 9:13 “Also this have I come to see as wisdom under the sun, and it appears great to me.” The Venet. construes falsely: “This also have I seen: wisdom under the sun;” as also Hitzig, who reads זה (neut. as at Ecc 7:27). There is no reason thus to break up the sentence which introduces the following experience. Zoh is connected with hhochmah, but not as Luther renders it: “I have also seen this wisdom,” which would have required the words הח זאת, but, as Jerome does: Hanc quoque sub sole vidi sapeintiam; this, however, since äæ־îâ, as at Ecc 5:15, cf. Ecc 9:18, is attractionally related to hhochmah as its pred., is = “also in this I saw wisdom,” as the lxx translates, or as Zöckl.: “also this have I seen - come to find out as wisdom,” - also this, viz., the following incident narrated, in which wisdom of exceeding greatness presented itself to me. As Mordecai is called “great among the Jews,” Est 10:3, so here Koheleth says that the wisdom which came to light therein appeared to him great (אלי, as elsewhere בּעיני or לפני).

Now follows an experience, which, however, has not merely a light side, but also a dark side; for wisdom, which accomplished so great a matter, reaped only ingratitude: