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the so-called fut. consecutivum, which has wholly disappeared from the Mishna-language, also here, notwithstanding the occasions for its frequent use, occurs only three times, twice in the unabbreviated form, Ecc 4:1, Ecc 4:7, and once in the form lengthened by the intentional ah, Ecc 1:17, which before its disappearance was in frequent use. It probably belonged more to the written than to the spoken language of the people (cf. the Sol 6:9). 3. The complexion of the language peculiar to the Book of Koheleth is distinguished also by this, that the designation of the person already contained in the verbal form is yet particularly expressed, and without there being a contrast occasioning this emphasis, by the personal pronoun being added to and placed after it, e.g., Ecc 1:16; Ecc 2:1, Ecc 2:11-13, Ecc 2:15, Ecc 2:18, Ecc 2:20; Ecc 3:17-18; Ecc 4:1, Ecc 4:4, Ecc 4:7; Ecc 5:17; Ecc 7:25; Ecc 8:15; Ecc 9:15. Among the more ancient authors, Hosea has the same peculiarity (cf. the Sol 5:5); but there the personal pronoun stands always before the verb, e.g., Ecc 8:13; Ecc 12:11. The same thing is found in Psa 39:11; Psa 82:6, etc. The inverse order of the words is found only at Ecc 2:14, after the scheme of Job 1:15, as also 2:15 follows the scheme of Gen 24:27. Mishna-forms of expressions such as מודרני, Nedarim i. 1, מקבּלני, Jebamoth xvi. 7, are not homogeneous with that manner of subordinating the personal pronoun (cf. Ecc 7:26; Ecc 4:2). Thus we have here before us a separation of the subject and the predicate, instead of which, in the language of the Mishna, the form אמר הייתי (אני) and the like (e.g., Berachoth i. 5) is used, which found for itself a place in the language of Koheleth, in so far as this book delights in the use of the participle to an extent scarcely met with in any other book of Scripture (vid., e.g., Ecc 1:6; Ecc 8:12; Ecc 10:19). 4. The use of the demonstrative pronoun זה bears also a Mishnic stamp. We lay no particular stress on the fact that the author uses it, as regularly as the Mishna, always without the article; but it is characteristic that he always, where he does not make use of the masculine form in a neuter sense (as Ecc 7:10, Ecc 7:18, Ecc 7:29; Ecc 8:9; Ecc 9:1; Ecc 11:6, keeping out of view cases determined by attraction), employs no other feminine form than זה, Mishnic זו, in this sense, Ecc 2:2; Ecc 5:15, Ecc 5:18; Ecc 7:23; Ecc 9:13. In other respects also the use of the pronouns approaches the Mishna language. In the use of the pronoun also in Ecc 1:10 and Ecc 5:18 there is an approach to the Mishnic זהוּ, nic est, and זהי, haec est. And the use of הוּא and המּה for the personal verb reaches in Ecc 3:18; Ecc 9:4 (vid., Comm.), the extreme.
The enumeration of linguistic peculiarities betokening a late