Pengkhotbah 6:8

6:8 So what advantage does a wise man have over a fool? ¹ 

And what advantage ²  does a pauper gain by knowing how to survive? ³ 

Pengkhotbah 6:2

6:2 God gives a man riches, property, and wealth

so that he lacks nothing that his heart ⁴  desires, ⁵ 

yet God does not enable ⁶  him to enjoy ⁷  the fruit of his labor ⁸  –

instead, someone else ⁹  enjoys ¹⁰  it! ¹¹ 

This is fruitless and a grave misfortune. ¹² 

1 Samuel 3:1

The Call of Samuel

3:1 Now the boy Samuel continued serving the Lord under Eli’s supervision. ¹³  Word from the Lord was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.

Mazmur 49:10

49:10 Surely ¹⁴  one sees ¹⁵  that even wise people die; ¹⁶ 

fools and spiritually insensitive people all pass away ¹⁷ 

and leave their wealth to others. ¹⁸ 

Ibrani 9:27

9:27 And just as people ¹⁹  are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment, ²⁰ 

[6:8]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “ What to the pauper who knows to walk before the living”; or “how to get along in life.”

[6:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “his appetite.”

[6:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “There is no lack in respect to his appetite”; or “his desire lacks nothing.”

[6:2]  ⁶ tn The verb שָׁלַט (shalat) in the Qal stem means “to domineer; to dominate; to lord it over; to be master of” and in the Hiphil stem “to give power to” (BDB 1020 s.v. שָׁלַט) and “to grant” (HALOT 1522 s.v. שׁלט). God must grant a person the ability to enjoy the fruit of his labor, otherwise a person will not be able to enjoy his possessions and wealth. The ability to partake of the fruit of one’s labor and to find satisfaction and joy in it is a gift from God (e.g., Eccl 2:24-26; 3:13; 5:18 [19]; 9:7).

[6:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “to eat of it.” The verb אָכַל (’akhal, “to eat”) functions as a metonymy of association, that is, the action of eating is associated with the enjoyment of the fruit of one’s labor (e.g., Eccl 2:24-26; 3:12-13, 22; 5:17-19; 8:15; 9:9).

[6:2]  ⁸ tn The phrase “the fruit of his labor” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “a stranger.” The Hebrew expression אִיש נָכְרִי (’ish nokhri, “stranger”) sometimes refers not to a foreigner or someone that the person does not know, but simply to someone else other than the subject (e.g., Prov 27:2). In the light of 6:3-6, it might even refer to the man’s own heirs. The term is used as a synecdoche of species (foreigner for stranger) in the sense of someone else other than the subject: “someone else” (BDB 649 s.v. נָכְרִי 3).

[6:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “eats.”

[6:2]  ¹¹ sn Instead, someone else enjoys it. A person may be unable to enjoy the fruit of his/her labor due to an unfortunate turn of events that robs a person of his possessions (5:13-14) or a miserly, lifelong hoarding of one’s wealth that robs him of the ability to enjoy what he has worked so hard to acquire (5:15-17). Qoheleth recommends the enjoyment of life and the fruit of one’s labor, as God enables (5:18-20). Unfortunately, the ability to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor is often thwarted by the obstacles described in 6:1-2 and 6:3-9.

[6:2]  ¹² tn Heb “an evil sickness.”

[3:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “before Eli.”

[49:10]  ¹⁴ tn The particle כִּי (ki) is understood here as asseverative (emphatic).

[49:10]  ¹⁵ tn The subject of the verb is probably the typical “man” mentioned in v. 7. The imperfect can be taken here as generalizing or as indicating potential (“surely he/one can see”).

[49:10]  ¹⁶ tn The imperfect verbal forms here and in the next line draw attention to what is characteristically true. The vav (ו) consecutive with perfect in the third line carries the same force.

[49:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “together a fool and a brutish [man] perish.” The adjective בַּעַר (ba’ar, “brutish”) refers to spiritual insensitivity, not mere lack of intelligence or reasoning ability (see Pss 73:22; 92:6; Prov 12:1; 30:2, as well as the use of the related verb in Ps 94:8).

[49:10]  ¹⁸ sn Death shows no respect for anyone. No matter how wise or foolish an individual happens to be, all pass away.

[9:27]  ¹⁹ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).

[9:27]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and after this – judgment.”