highest enjoyment here below. In this sense the fruere vita here connects itself with the labora:
Verses 7-8
Ecc 11:7-8 “And sweet is the light, and pleasant it is for the eyes to see the sun; for if a man live through many years, he ought to rejoice in them all, and remember the days of darkness; that there will be many of them. All that cometh is vain.” Dale translates the copula vav introducing Ecc 11:7 by “yes,” and Bullock by “truly,” both thus giving to it a false colouring. “Light,” Zöckler remarks, stands here for “life.” But it means only what the word denotes, viz., the light of life in this world (Ps. 56:14; Job 33:30), to which the sun, as the source of it, is related, as מאור is to אור. Cf. Eurip. Hippol., ὧ λαμπρὸς αἰθὴρ κ.τ.λ, and Iphigen. in Aulis, 1218-19, μὴ μ ̓ ἀπολέσης κ.τ.λ: “Destroy not my youth; to see the light is sweet,” etc. The ל in לע has the short vowel Pattach, here and at 1Sa 16:7, after the Masora.[1]
The ki beginning Ecc 11:8 is translated by Knobel, Hitz., Ewald, and others by “ja” (yes); by Heiligstedt, as if a negative preceded by immo; but as the vav of Ecc 11:7 is copulative “and,” so here the ki is causal “for.” If it had been said: man must enjoy himself as long as he lives, for the light is sweet, etc., then the joy would have its reason in the opportunity given for it. Instead of this, the occasion given for joy has its reason in this, that a man ought to rejoice, viz., according to God's arrangement and ordinance: the light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun; for it ought thus to be, that a man, however long he may live, should continue to enjoy his fair life, especially in view of the night which awaits him. Ki im are not here, as at Ecc 3:12; Ecc 8:15, where a negative precedes, to be taken together; but ki assigns the reason, and im begins a hypothetical protasis, as at Exo 8:17, and frequently. Im, with the conclusion following, presents something impossible, as e.g., Psa 50:12, si esurirem, or also the extreme of that which is possible as actual, e.g., Isa 7:18, si peccata vestra sint instar coccini. In the latter case, the clause with the concessive particle may be changed into a sentence with a concessive conjunctive, as at Isa 10:22 : “for though thy people, O Israel, be as numerous as the sand of the sea;” and here: “though a man may live ever so many years.” The second ki after ויז is the explicat. quod, as at Ecc 2:24; Ecc 4:4; Ecc 8:17, etc.: he must remember the days of darkness, that there shall be many of them, and, at all events, not fewer than the many years available for the happy enjoyment of life. In this connection kol-shebba'
