Pengkhotbah 5:18

Enjoy the Fruit of Your Labor

5:18 I have seen personally what is the only beneficial and appropriate course of action for people: ¹ 

to eat and drink, ²  and find enjoyment in all their ³  hard work ⁴  on earth ⁵ 

during the few days of their life which God has given them,

for this is their reward. ⁶ 

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, ⁷  but cannot enjoy his prosperity –

even if he were to live forever ⁸  –

I would say, “A stillborn child ⁹  is better off than he is!” ¹⁰ 

Pengkhotbah 8:8

8:8 Just as no one has power over the wind to restrain it, ¹¹ 

so no one has power over the day of his ¹²  death.

Just as no one can be discharged during the battle, ¹³ 

so wickedness cannot rescue the wicked. ¹⁴ 

Pengkhotbah 9:1

Everyone Will Die

9:1 So I reflected on all this, ¹⁵  attempting to clear ¹⁶  it all up.

I concluded that ¹⁷  the righteous and the wise, as well as their works, are in the hand of God;

whether a person will be loved or hated ¹⁸  –

no one knows what lies ahead. ¹⁹ 

[5:18]  ¹ tn Heb “Behold, that which I have seen, I, good which is beautiful.” The phrase “for people” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:18]  ² sn The phrase “to eat and to drink” is a common idiom in Ecclesiastes for a person enjoying the fruit of his labor (e.g., 2:24; 3:13).

[5:18]  ³ tn Heb “his,” and three times later in the verse.

[5:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “the toil which one toils.”

[5:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “under the sun.”

[5:18]  ⁶ tn The term חֵלֶק (kheleq, “lot”) has a wide range of meanings: (1) “share of spoils” (Gen 14:24; Num 31:36; 1 Sam 30:24), (2) “portion of food” (Lev 6:10; Deut 18:8; Hab 1:16), (3) “portion [or tract] of land” (Deut 10:9; 12:12; Josh 19:9), (4) “portion” or “possession” (Num 18:20; Deut 32:9), (5) “inheritance” (2 Kgs 9:10; Amos 7:4), (6) “portion” or “award” (Job 20:29; 27:13; 31:2; Isa 17:14) or “profit; reward” (Eccl 2:10, 21; 3:22; 5:17-18; 9:6, 9); see HALOT 323 s.v. II חֵלֶק; BDB 324 s.v. חֵלֶק. Throughout Ecclesiastes, the term is used in reference to man’s temporal profit from his labor and his reward from God (e.g., Eccl 3:22; 9:9).

[6:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “the days of his years are many.”

[6:3]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ sn The point of 6:3-6 is that the futility of unenjoyed wealth is worse than the tragedy of being stillborn.

[8:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “There is not a man who has mastery over the wind to restrain the wind.”

[8:8]  ¹² tn The word “his” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[8:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “There is no discharge in war.”

[8:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “its owners.”

[9:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I laid all this to my heart.”

[9:1]  ¹⁶ tn The term וְלָבוּר (velavur, conjunction + Qal infinitive construct from בּוּר, bur, “to make clear”) denotes “to examine; to make clear; to clear up; to explain” (HALOT 116 s.v. בור; BDB 101 s.v. בּוּר). The term is related to Arabic baraw “to examine” (G. R. Driver, “Supposed Arabisms in the Old Testament,” JBL 55 [1936]: 108). This verb is related to the Hebrew noun בֹּר (bor, “cleanness”) and adjective בַּר (bar, “clean”). The term is used in the OT only in Ecclesiastes (1:13; 2:3; 7:25; 9:1). This use of the infinitive has a connotative sense (“attempting to”), and functions in a complementary sense, relative to the main verb.

[9:1]  ¹⁷ tn The words “I concluded that” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “whether love or hatred.”

[9:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “man does not know anything before them.”