5:1 For every high priest is taken from among the people 1 and appointed 2 to represent them before God, 3 to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
2:14 The wise man can see where he is going, 7 but the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I also realized that the same fate 8 happens to them both. 9
1 tn Grk “from among men,” but since the point in context is shared humanity (rather than shared maleness), the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) has been translated “people.”
2 tn Grk “who is taken from among people is appointed.”
3 tn Grk “appointed on behalf of people in reference to things relating to God.”
4 sn The overseer is another term for the same official position of leadership as the “elder.” This is seen in the interchange of the two terms in this passage and in Acts 20:17, 28, as well as in the parallels between these verses and 1 Tim 3:1-7.
5 tn Grk “as God’s steward.”
6 tn Grk “before eternal ages.”
7 tn Heb “has his eyes in his head.” The term עַיִן (’ayin, “eye”) is used figuratively in reference to mental and spiritual faculties (BDB 744 s.v. עַיִן 3.a). The term “eye” is a metonymy of cause (eye) for effect (sight and perception).
8 sn The common fate to which Qoheleth refers is death.
9 tn The term כֻּלָּם (kullam, “all of them”) denotes “both of them.” This is an example of synecdoche of general (“all of them”) for the specific (“both of them,” that is, both the wise man and the fool).