labour; cf. כּח, product, fruit, Gen 4:12; עבודה, effect, Isa 32:17.
How this man will be circumstanced who will have at his disposal that for which he has not laboured, is uncertain.
Verse 19
Ecc 2:19 “And who knoweth whether he shall be wise or foolish? and he will have power over all my labour with which had wearied myself, and had acted wisely, under the sun: this also is vain.” או...ה, instead of אם...ה, in the double question, as at Job 16:3. What kind of a man he will be no one can previously know, and yet this person will have free control (cf. שׁלט, p.641) over all the labour that the testator has wisely gained by labour - a hendiadys, for חכם with the obj. accus. is only in such a connection possible: “my labour which I, acting wisely, gained by labour.”
In view of this doubtful future of that which was with pains and wisely gained by him, his spirit sank within him.
Verse 20
Ecc 2:20 “Then I turned to give up my heart on account of = to despair of all the labour with which I wearied myself under the sun.” As at 1Sa 22:17., Sol 2:17; Jer 41:14, סבב has here the intrans. meaning, to turn about (lxx ἐπέστρεψα = ἐπεστρεψάμην). Hitzig remarks that פנה and שוב signify, “to turn round in order to see,” and סבב, on the contrary, “to turn round in order to do.” But פנה can also mean, “to turn round in order to do,” e.g., Lev 26:9; and סבב, “to turn in order to examine more narrowly,” Ecc 7:25. The distinction lies in this, that פנה signifies a clear turning round; סבב, a turning away from one thing to another, a turning in the direction of something new that presents itself (Ecc 4:1, Ecc 4:7; Ecc 9:11). The phrase, יאשׁ את־בלבּו,[1] closely corresponds to the Lat. despondet animum, he gives up his spirits, lets them sink, i.e., he despairs. The old language knows only נואשׁ, to give oneself up, i.e., to give up hope in regard to anything; and נואשׁ, given up, having no prospect, in despair. The Talm., however, uses along with nithyāēsh (vid., p. 638) not only noǎsh, but also יאשׁ, in the sense of despair, or the giving up of all hope (subst. יאוּשׁ), Mezîa 21b, from which it is at once evident that יאשׁ, is not to be thought of as causative (like the Arab. ajjasa and aiasa), but as simply transitive, with which, after the passage before us, לבו is to be thought of as connected. He turned round to give up all heart. He had no more any heart to labour.
- ↑ With Pathach under the yod in the text in Biblia Rabb. and the note ל Thus also in the ms. Parva Masora, and e.g., Cod. P.
