(17.) And I saw (so I saw, the apodosis of the above) with respect to all the working of Divine providence, how that is not able (not is emphatic) humanity to the finding out of (‘or a discovery’ of) with regard to (the LXX. again write σὺν) the work (generic) which is done (or suffered, or endured, as being a niphal) under the sun, because of (בשל occurs Jonah i. 7 only) which toils humanity in order to seek it, and does not find it; and also if he says the wisdom (i.e. wisdom generically) to know it (‘that wisdom is given him to know it’) he is not able (or rather not enabled) to find it. בשל in this place is no doubt used to express a new idea, ‘for this,’ or ‘which cause.’ The object of man’s toil, i.e. the object he has in his labour, is to find out some method by which he may rectify what appears wrong in the course of God’s providence: in the strict sense of the term this is impossible. The principle which pervades Koheleth’s reasoning is, that enjoyment, as such, is God’s gift, and that toil is useless. Labour, however, which is distinguished from toil, is to be done in the fear of God, and the result left to his providence. The argument which is to follow further enforces this.
CHAPTER IX.
FOR all this [¹]I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
[¹] Hebrew I gave or set to my heart.
FOR with respect to all this, I have laid to my heart that which is to be deduced from it all, which is, that right and wisdom, and any service they can render, are in the hand of the Almighty, and whether [an event be an indication of His] love or displeasure either, no man knows from anything he sees before him,
IX. (1.) For with respect to all this, I have given it to (אל, not את, which the LXX. render by εἰς) my heart, and to sift out (occurs here only, but compare chapter iii. 18) with respect to all this (but the LXX., dividing the words differently, evidently read ולבי ראת כל זה, which would mean, ‘when that heart was seeing all this.’ The number of various readings——see Stier and Theile, Polyglot——show that this passage was early one of difficulty. The rendering of Symmachus, preserved by Jerome, ‘omnia ita statui [fort. ἔταξα] in corde meo ut ventilarem universa,’ conveys the meaning; which is, that Koheleth set to his heart that which is the result when the matter is entirely sifted) which is the righteous and the wise (generic and plural, all those things which are right or wise generally; ‘right and wisdom,’ as we speak, is the meaning) and their works (i.e. what they produce, or, better still, their ‘services’) are in the hand of the Deity, also love (in the abstract), also hatred (also abstract, and גם being repeated gives the idea of both love and hatred too) is nothing, knowing the man (the negative belongs to the noun, not to the verb, and so the meaning must be ‘there is no man who does know.’ Moreover, the two nominatives absolute, ‘love’ and ‘hatred,’ are the subjects of the whole sentence, ‘as to love or hatred either, there is no man who knows,’ or, better still, ‘to whom is made known,’ giving the import to the participle) the whole (generic) before them (distributive plural, any of them, equivalent then ‘to anything which is before them’).