Pengkhotbah 3:14

God’s Sovereignty

3:14 I also know that whatever God does will endure forever;

nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken away from it.

God has made it this way, so that men will fear him.

Pengkhotbah 7:13-14

Wisdom Acknowledges God’s Orchestration of Life

7:13 Consider the work of God:

For who can make straight what he has bent?

7:14 In times of prosperity ¹  be joyful,

but in times of adversity ²  consider this:

God has made one as well as the other, ³ 

so that no one can discover what the future holds. ⁴ 

Pengkhotbah 9:1

Everyone Will Die

9:1 So I reflected on all this, ⁵  attempting to clear ⁶  it all up.

I concluded that ⁷  the righteous and the wise, as well as their works, are in the hand of God;

whether a person will be loved or hated ⁸  –

no one knows what lies ahead. ⁹ 

[7:14]  ¹ tn Heb “the day of good.”

[7:14]  ² tn Heb “the day of evil.”

[7:14]  ³ tn Less probable renderings of this line are “God hath made the one side by side with the other” (ASV) and “God has set the one alongside the other” (NEB).

[7:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “anything after him.” This line is misinterpreted by several versions: “that man may not find against him any just complaint” (Douay); “consequently, man may find no fault with Him” (NJPS); “so that man cannot find fault with him in anything” (NAB).

[9:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “I laid all this to my heart.”

[9:1]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn The words “I concluded that” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “whether love or hatred.”

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