Pengkhotbah 3:22

3:22 So I perceived there is nothing better than for people ¹  to enjoy their work, ² 

because that is their ³  reward;

for who can show them what the future holds? ⁴ 

Pengkhotbah 6:3

6:3 Even if a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years –

even if he lives a long, long time, ⁵  but cannot enjoy his prosperity –

even if he were to live forever ⁶  –

I would say, “A stillborn child ⁷  is better off than he is!” ⁸ 

Pengkhotbah 7:26

7:26 I discovered this: ⁹ 

More bitter than death is the kind of ¹⁰  woman ¹¹  who is like a hunter’s snare; ¹² 

her heart is like a hunter’s net and her hands are like prison chains.

The man who pleases God escapes her,

but the sinner is captured by her.

[3:22]  ¹ tn Heb “man.”

[3:22]  ² tn Heb “his works.”

[3:22]  ³ tn Heb “his.”

[3:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “what will be after him” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV) or “afterward” (cf. NJPS).

[6:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “the days of his years are many.”

[6:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “he has no burial.” The phrase וְגַם־קְבוּרָה לֹא־הָיְתָה (vÿgam-qÿvurah lo’-haytah, “he even has no burial”) is traditionally treated as part of a description of the man’s sorry final state, that is, he is deprived of even a proper burial (KJV, NEB, RSV, NRSV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NJPS, MLB, Moffatt). However, the preceding parallel lines suggest that this a hyperbolic protasis: “If he were to live one hundred years…even if he were never buried [i.e., were to live forever]….” A similar idea occurs elsewhere (e.g., Pss 49:9; 89:48). See D. R. Glenn, “Ecclesiastes,” BKCOT, 990.

[6:3]  ⁷ tn The noun נֶפֶל (nefel) denotes “miscarriage” and by metonymy of effect, “stillborn child” (e.g., Ps 58:9; Job 3:16; Eccl 6:3); cf. HALOT 711. The noun is related to the verb נָפַל (nafal, “to fall,” but occasionally “to be born”; see Isa 26:18); cf. HALOT 710 s.v. נפל 5.

[6:3]  ⁸ sn The point of 6:3-6 is that the futility of unenjoyed wealth is worse than the tragedy of being stillborn.

[7:26]  ⁹ tn The word “this” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.

[7:26]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase “kind of” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity (see the following note on the word “woman”).

[7:26]  ¹¹ tn The article on הָאִשָּׁה (ha’ishah) functions in a particularizing sense (“the kind of woman”) rather than in a generic sense (i.e., “women”).

[7:26]  ¹² tn Heb “is snares.” The plural form מְצוֹדִים (mÿtsodim, from the noun I מָצוֹד, matsod, “snare”) is used to connote either intensity, repeated or habitual action, or moral characteristic. For the function of the Hebrew plural, see IBHS 120-21 §7.4.2. The term II מָצוֹד “snare” is used in a concrete sense in reference to the hunter’s snare or net, but in a figurative sense of being ensnared by someone (Job 19:6; Prov 12:12; Eccl 7:26).