pessimistic criticism of the female sex, Ecc 7:26-28, so far as the author is concerned, falls into the background, since eudaemonism, the other side of his view of the world, predominates. The accus. designation of time, “through all the days of the life of thy vanity (i.e., of thy transient vain life),” is like Ecc 6:12, cf. Ecc 7:15. It is repeated in “all the days of thy vanity;” the repetition is heavy and unnecessary (therefore omitted by the lxx, Targ., and Syr.); probably like והדרך, Psa 45:5, a ditto; Hitzig, however, finds also here great emphasis. The relative clause standing after the first designation of time refers to “the days which He (האלהים, Ecc 9:7) has granted under the sun.” Hu in Ecc 9:9 refers attractionally to חלקך (Jerome: haec est enim parts), as at Ecc 3:22; Ecc 5:17, cf. Ecc 7:2; היא of the Babyl. is therefore to be rejected; this enjoyment, particularly of marriage joys, is thy part in life, and in thy work which thou accomplishest under the sun, i.e., the real portion of gain allotted to thee which thou mayest and oughtest to enjoy here below.
Verse 10
The author, however, recommends no continual dolce far niente, no idle, useless sluggard-life devoted to pleasure, but he gives to his exhortation to joy the converse side: “All that thy hand may reach (i.e., what thou canst accomplish and is possible to thee, 1Sa 10:7; Lev 12:8) to accomplish it with thy might, that do.” The accentuation is ingenious. If the author meant: That do with all might (Jerome: instanter operare), then he would have said bechol-kohhacha (Gen 31:6). As the words lie before us, they call on him who is addressed to come not short in his work of any possibility according to the measure of his strength, thus to a work straining his capacity to the uttermost. The reason for the call, 10b, turns back to the clause from which it was inferred: in Hades, whither thou must go (iturus es), there is no work, and reckoning (vid., Ecc 7:25), and knowledge (דּעתו)[1] and no wisdom. Practice and theory have then an end. Thus: Enjoy, but not without working, ere the night cometh when no man can work. Thus spake Jesus (Joh 9:4), but in a different sense indeed from Koheleth. The night which He meant is the termination of this present life, which for Him, as for every man, has its particular work, which is either accomplished within the limits of this life, or is not accomplished at all.
- ↑ Not ודעת, because the word has the conjunctive, not the disjunctive accent, vid., under Psa 55:10. The punctuation, as we have already several times remarked, is not consistent in this; cf. דּעתו, Ecc 2:26, and וערב, Psa 65:9, both of which are contrary to the rule (vid., Baer in Abulwalîd's Rikma, p. 119, note 2).
