Pengkhotbah 3:13

3:13 and also that everyone should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all his toil,

for these things ¹  are a gift from God.

Pengkhotbah 5:17

5:17 Surely, he ate in darkness every day of his life, ² 

and he suffered greatly with sickness and anger.

Pengkhotbah 6:6

6:6 if he should live a thousand years twice, yet does not enjoy his prosperity.

For both of them die! ³ 

[3:13]  ¹ tn Heb “for it.” The referent of the 3rd person feminine singular independent person pronoun (“it”) is probably the preceding statement: “to eat, drink, and find satisfaction.” This would be an example of an anacoluthon (GKC 505-6 §167.b). Thus the present translation uses “these things” to indicate the reference back to the preceding.

[5:17]  ² tn Heb “all his days.” The phrase “of his life” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:6]  ³ tn Heb “Do not all go to the same place?” The rhetorical question is an example of erotesis of positive affirmation, expecting a positive answer, e.g., Ps 56:13 [14] (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 947). It affirms the fact that both the miserly rich man who lives two thousand years, as well as the stillborn who never lived one day, both go to the same place – the grave. And if the miserly rich man never enjoyed the fruit of his labor during his life, his fate was no better than that of the stillborn who never had opportunity to enjoy any of the blessings of life. In a sense, it would have been better for the miserly rich man to have never lived than to have experienced the toil, anxiety, and misery of accumulating his wealth, but never enjoying any of the fruits of his labor.