Pengkhotbah 6:7-11

6:7 All of man’s labor is for nothing more than ¹  to fill his stomach ²  –

yet his appetite ³  is never satisfied!

6:8 So what advantage does a wise man have over a fool? ⁴ 

And what advantage ⁵  does a pauper gain by knowing how to survive? ⁶ 

6:9 It is better to be content with ⁷  what the eyes can see ⁸ 

than for one’s heart always to crave more. ⁹ 

This continual longing ¹⁰  is futile – like ¹¹  chasing the wind.

The Futile Way Life Works

6:10 Whatever has happened was foreordained, ¹² 

and what happens to a person ¹³  was also foreknown.

It is useless for him to argue with God about his fate

because God is more powerful than he is. ¹⁴ 

6:11 The more one argues with words, the less he accomplishes. ¹⁵ 

How does that benefit him? ¹⁶ 

[6:7]  ¹ tn The phrase “for nothing more than” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:7]  ² tn Heb “All man’s work is for his mouth.” The term “mouth” functions as a synecdoche of part (i.e., mouth) for the whole (i.e., person), substituting the organ of consumption for the person’s action of consumption (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 641-43), as suggested by the parallelism with נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “his appetite”).

[6:7]  ³ tn The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “desire; appetite”) is used as a metonymy of association, that is, the soul is associated with man’s desires and appetites (BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 5.c; 6.a).

[6:8]  ⁴ sn So what advantage does the wise man have over a fool? The rhetorical question in Hebrew implies a negative answer: the wise man has no absolute advantage over a fool in the sense that both will share the same fate: death. Qoheleth should not be misunderstood here as denying that wisdom has no relative advantage over folly; elsewhere he affirms that wisdom does yield some relative benefits in life (7:1-22). However, wisdom cannot deliver one from death.

[6:8]  ⁵ sn As in the preceding parallel line, this rhetorical question implies a negative answer (see the note after the word “fool” in the preceding line).

[6:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “ What to the pauper who knows to walk before the living”; or “how to get along in life.”

[6:9]  ⁷ tn The phrase “to be content with” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:9]  ⁸ tn The expression מַרְאֵה עֵינַיִם (mar’eh ’enayim, “the seeing of the eyes”) is a metonymy of cause (i.e., seeing an object) for effect (i.e., being content with what the eyes can see); see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 552-54.

[6:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “the roaming of the soul.” The expression מֵהֲלָךְ־נָפֶשׁ (mehalakh-nafesh, “the roaming of the soul”) is a metonymy for unfulfilled desires. The term “soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) is used as a metonymy of association for man’s desires and appetites (BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 5.c; 6.a). This also involves the personification of the roving appetite as “roving” (מֵהֲלָךְ); see BDB 235 s.v. הָלַךְ II.3.f; 232 I.3.

[6:9]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase “continual longing” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:9]  ¹¹ tn The term “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.

[6:10]  ¹² tn Heb “already its name was called.”

[6:10]  ¹³ tn Or “and what a person (Heb “man”) is was foreknown.”

[6:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he cannot contend with the one who is more powerful than him.” The referent of the “the one who is more powerful than he is” (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The words “with God about his fate” have been added for clarity as well.

[6:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The more the words, the more the futility.”

[6:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or “What benefit does man have [in that]?”