Daniel 4:27

4:27 Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you. Break away from your sins by doing what is right, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps your prosperity will be prolonged.” ¹ 

Daniel 6:4-5

6:4 Consequently the supervisors and satraps were trying to find ²  some pretext against Daniel in connection with administrative matters. ³  But they were unable to find any such damaging evidence, ⁴  because he was trustworthy and guilty of no negligence or corruption. ⁵  6:5 So these men concluded, ⁶  “We won’t find any pretext against this man Daniel unless it is ⁷  in connection with the law of his God.”

Roma 13:1

Submission to Civil Government

13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, ⁸  and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

Roma 13:5

13:5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath of the authorities ⁹  but also because of your conscience. ¹⁰ 

Roma 13:1

Submission to Civil Government

13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, ¹¹  and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

Pengkhotbah 2:13-17

2:13 I realized that wisdom is preferable to folly, ¹² 

just as light is preferable to darkness:

2:14 The wise man can see where he is going, ¹³  but the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I also realized that the same fate ¹⁴  happens to them both. ¹⁵ 

2:15 So I thought to myself, “The fate of the fool will happen even to me! ¹⁶ 

Then what did I gain by becoming so excessively ¹⁷  wise?” ¹⁸ 

So I lamented to myself, ¹⁹ 

“The benefits of wisdom ²⁰  are ultimately ²¹  meaningless!”

2:16 For the wise man, like ²²  the fool, will not be remembered for very long, ²³ 

because ²⁴  in the days to come, both will already have been forgotten. ²⁵ 

Alas, ²⁶  the wise man dies – just like ²⁷  the fool!

2:17 So I loathed ²⁸  life ²⁹  because what

happens ³⁰  on earth ³¹  seems awful to me;

for all the benefits of wisdom ³²  are futile – like chasing the wind.

[4:27]  ¹ tn Aram “if there may be a lengthening to your prosperity.”

[6:4]  ² tn Aram “looking to find.”

[6:4]  ³ tn Aram “from the side of the kingdom.”

[6:4]  ⁴ tn Aram “pretext and corruption.”

[6:4]  ⁵ tn Aram “no negligence or corruption was found in him.” The Greek version of Theodotion lacks the phrase “and no negligence or corruption was found in him.”

[6:5]  ⁶ tn Aram “were saying.”

[6:5]  ⁷ tn Aram “unless we find [it] against him.”

[13:1]  ⁸ tn Grk “by God.”

[13:5]  ⁹ tn Grk “its wrath”; the referent (the governing authorities) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:5]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “because of (the) conscience,” but the English possessive “your” helps to show whose conscience the context implies.

[13:1]  ¹¹ tn Grk “by God.”

[2:13]  ¹² tn Heb “and I saw that there is profit for wisdom more than folly.”

[2:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “has his eyes in his head.” The term עַיִן (’ayin, “eye”) is used figuratively in reference to mental and spiritual faculties (BDB 744 s.v. עַיִן 3.a). The term “eye” is a metonymy of cause (eye) for effect (sight and perception).

[2:14]  ¹⁴ sn The common fate to which Qoheleth refers is death.

[2:14]  ¹⁵ tn The term כֻּלָּם (kullam, “all of them”) denotes “both of them.” This is an example of synecdoche of general (“all of them”) for the specific (“both of them,” that is, both the wise man and the fool).

[2:15]  ¹⁶ tn The emphatic use of the 1st person common singular personal pronoun אֲנִי (’ani, “me”) with the emphatic particle of association גַּם (gam, “even, as well as”; HALOT 195–96 s.v. גַּם) appears to emphasize the 1st person common singular suffix on יִקְרֵנִי (yiqreni) “it will befall [or “happen to”] me” (Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine singular + 1st person common singular suffix from קָרָה, qarah, “to befall; to happen to”); see GKC 438 §135.e. Qoheleth laments not that the fate of the wise man is the same as that of the fool, but that even he himself – the wisest man of all – would fare no better in the end than the most foolish.

[2:15]  ¹⁷ tn The adjective יוֹתֵר (yoter) means “too much; excessive,” e.g., 7:16 “excessively righteous” (HALOT 404 s.v. יוֹתֵר 2; BDB 452 s.v. יוֹתֵר). It is derived from the root יֶתֶר (yeter, “what is left over”); see HALOT 452 s.v. I יֶתֶר. It is related to the verbal root יתר (Niphal “to be left over”; Hiphil “to have left over”); see HALOT 451–52 s.v. I יתר. The adjective is related to יִתְרוֹן (yitron, “advantage; profit”) which is a key-term in this section, creating a word-play: The wise man has a relative “advantage” (יִתְרוֹן) over the fool (2:13-14a); however, there is no ultimate advantage because both share the same fate, i.e., death (2:14b-15a). Thus, Qoheleth’s acquisition of tremendous wisdom (1:16; 2:9) was “excessive” because it exceeded its relative advantage over folly: it could not deliver him from the same fate as the fool. He had striven to obtain wisdom, yet it held no ultimate advantage.

[2:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And why was I wise (to) excess?” The rhetorical question is an example of negative affirmation, expecting a negative answer: “I gained nothing!” (E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 949).

[2:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “So I said in my heart.”

[2:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and also this,” referring to the relative advantage of wisdom over folly.

[2:15]  ²¹ tn The word “ultimately” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:16]  ²² tn The preposition עִם (’im, “with”) may occasionally function in a comparative sense, meaning “together with; even as; like” (e.g., Eccl 1:11; 2:16; 7:11; Job 9:26; 1 Chr 14:10: 20:6; 25:8; see HALOT 839 s.v. עִם 2). When used to describe a common lot, it connotes “together with” (Gen 18:23, 25; 1 Chr 24:5; Job 3:14, 15; 30:1; Pss 26:9; 28:3; 69:29; Isa 38:11), hence “like” (Pss 73:5; 106:6; Eccl 2:16; see BDB 767–68 s.v. עִם 1.e).

[2:16]  ²³ tn As HALOT 798–99 s.v. עוֹלָם and BDB 762-64 s.v. עוֹלָם note, עוֹלָם (’olam) has a wide range of meanings: (1) indefinite time: “long time; duration,” (2) unlimited time: “eternal; eternity,” (3) future time: “things to come,” and (4) past time: “a long time back,” that is, the dark age of prehistory. The context here suggests the nuance “a long time.”

[2:16]  ²⁴ tn The preposition בְּ (bet) on בְּשֶׁכְּבָר (bÿshekkÿvar, the adverb כְּבָר [kÿvar,“already”] + relative pronoun שֶׁ [she] + preposition בְּ) is probably best classified as causal: “Because…already.”

[2:16]  ²⁵ tn The verb נִשְׁכָּח (nishkakh) is a future perfect – it describes an event that is portrayed as a past event from the perspective of the future: “they will have been forgotten.” The emphasis of the past perfect is not simply that the future generations will begin to forget him, but that he will already have been forgotten long ago in the past by the time of those future generations. This past perfect situation is brought out by the emphatic use of the temporal adverb כְּבָר (kÿvar) “already” (HALOT 459 s.v. I כְּבָר; BDB 460 s.v. I כְּבָר); see, e.g., Eccl 1:10; 2:12, 16; 3:15; 4:2; 6:10; 9:6-7.

[2:16]  ²⁶ tn The particle אֵיךְ (’ekh, “Alas!”) is an exclamation of lamentation and mourning (e.g., 2 Sam 1:19; Isa 14:4, 12; Jer 2:21; 9:18; Ezek 26:17; Mic 2:4); see HALOT 39 s.v. אֵיךְ 5; BDB 32 s.v. אֵיךְ 2; also E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 955.

[2:16]  ²⁷ tn The preposition עִם (’im, “with”) may occasionally function in a comparative sense, meaning “together with; even as; like” (e.g., Eccl 1:11; 2:16; 7:11; Job 9:26; 1 Chr 14:10: 20:6; 25:8); see HALOT 839 s.v. עִם 2. When used to describe a common lot, it connotes “together with” (Gen 18:23, 25; 1 Chr 24:5; Job 3:14, 15; 30:1; Ps 26:9; 28:3; 69:29; Isa 38:11), hence “like” (Pss 73:5; 106:6; Eccl 2:16); see BDB 767–68 s.v. עִם 1.e.

[2:17]  ²⁸ tn Or “I hated.”

[2:17]  ²⁹ tn The term הַחַיִּים (hakhayyim, “life”) functions as a metonymy of association, that is, that which is associated with life, that is, the profitlessness and futility of human secular achievement.

[2:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the deed that is done.” The root עָשָׂה (’asah, “to do”) is repeated in הַמַּעֲשֶׂה שֶׁנַּעֲשָׂה (hamma’aseh shenna’asah, “the deed that is done”) for emphasis. Here, the term “deed” does not refer to human accomplishment, as in 2:1-11, but to the fact of death that destroys any relative advantage of wisdom over folly (2:14a-16). Qoheleth metaphorically describes death as a “deed” that is “done” to man.

[2:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “under the sun.”

[2:17]  ³² tn Heb “all,” referring here to the relative advantage of wisdom.