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denotes a poor man, as one who desires that which is indispensable to the support of life; the caper is accordingly called aviyonah, as being appetitiva, i.e., exciting to appetite for food, and the meaning will not be that the old man is like a caper-berry which, when fully ripe, bursts its husks and scatters its seed (Rosenm., Winer in his R. W., Ewald, Taylor, etc.), as also the lxx, Symm. (καὶ διαλυθῇ ἡ ἐπίπονος, i.e., as Jerome translates it,et dissolvetur spiritus fortitudo, perhaps ἐπίτονος, the strength or elasticity of the spirit), and Jerome understand the figure; but since it is to be presupposed that the name of the caper, in itself significant, will also be significant for the figure: capparis est irrita sive vim suam non exerit (ותפר as inwardly trans. Hiph. of פרר, to break in pieces, frustrate), i.e., even such means of excitement as capers, these appetite-berries, are unable to stimulate the dormant and phlegmatic stomach of the old man (thus e.g., Bullock). Hitzig, indeed, maintains that the cessation of the enjoyment of love in old age is not to be overlooked; but (1) the use of artificial means for stimulating this natural impulse in an old man, who is here described simply as such, without reference to his previous life and its moral state, would make him a sensualist; and (2) moral statistics show that with the decay of the body lust does not always (although this would be in accordance with nature, Gen 17:17; Rom 4:19) expire; moreover, the author of the Book of Koheleth is no Juvenal or Martial, to take pleasure, like many of his interpreters, in exhibiting theres venereae.
And in view of the clause following, the ceasing from nourishment as the last symptom of the certain approach of death is more appropriate than the cessation from sexual desire: “For,” thus the author continues after this description of the enfeebled condition of the hoary old man, “man goeth to his everlasting habitation, and the mourners go about the streets.” One has to observe that the antequam of the memento Creatoris tui in diebus junvetutis tuae is continued in Ecc 12:6 and Ecc 12:7. The words 'ad asher lo are thrice repeated. The chief group in the description is subordinated to the second 'ad asher lo; this relation is syntactically indicated also in Ecc 12:4 by the subjective form ויקום, and continues logically in Ecc 12:5, although without any grammatical sign, for ינאצו and ותפר are indicative. Accordingly the clause with כּי, Ecc 12:5, will not be definitive; considerately the accentuation does not begin a new verse with כּי: the symptoms of marasmus already spoken of are here explained by this, that man is on his way to the grave, and, as we say, has already one foot in it.