Pengkhotbah 2:12-14

Wisdom is Better than Folly

2:12 Next, I decided to consider ¹  wisdom, as well as foolish behavior and ideas. ² 

For what more can the king’s successor do than what the king ³  has already done?

2:13 I realized that wisdom is preferable to folly, ⁴ 

just as light is preferable to darkness:

2:14 The wise man can see where he is going, ⁵  but the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I also realized that the same fate ⁶  happens to them both. ⁷ 

[2:12]  ¹ tn Heb “and I turned to see.”

[2:12]  ² sn See 1:17 for the same expression. Throughout 2:1-11, Qoheleth evaluated the merits of merrymaking (2:1-3), accomplishing grand things (2:4-6), amassing great wealth (2:7-8), and secular acquisitions and accomplishments (2:9-10). Now, he reflects on the benefit in life in living wisely and not giving oneself over to frivolous self-indulgence.

[2:12]  ³ tc The Hebrew text reads עָשׂוּהוּ (’asuhu, “they have done it”; Qal perfect 3rd person masculine plural from עָשַׂה [’asah] + 3rd person masculine singular suffix). However, many medieval Hebrew mss read עָשָׂהוּ (’asahu, “he has done”; Qal perfect 3rd person masculine singular from עָשַׂה), reflected in the LXX and Syriac. The error was caused by dittography (ו, vav, written twice) or by orthographic confusion between ו and ה (hey) in הוו (confused as והוו) at the end of 2:12 and beginning of 2:13. The 3rd person masculine singular referent of עָשׂוּהוּ “what he has done” is the king, that is, Qoheleth himself. The referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “and I saw that there is profit for wisdom more than folly.”

[2:14]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ sn The common fate to which Qoheleth refers is death.

[2:14]  ⁷ 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).