Pengkhotbah 6:7-9

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.

[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.