‘all that is before him is vanity, all just as that which is to all,’ combining, therefore, both readings together. Thus it appears that the variation in the texts was a very ancient one. If this reading be adopted, then combining it with the words which follow) as (or like this same) to all (the meaning will be ‘transitoriness is exactly the same to all,’ or ‘all alike are equally transitory.’ If, however, we retain the Masoretic text and pointing, a good sense is made. ‘The whole is as it were to all,’ namely) a happening which is one to the righteous, and to the impious, to the good (the LXX. add here to the bad), to the clean, and to the unclean, to the sacrificer, and to one who has not sacrificed; as is the good so the sinner (but general, including things as well as persons), the forsworn as one who an oath fears.
3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
This evil is in all which is performed in this work-day world: that there is but one event to all, and so the heart of the human race overflows with wrong, and foolish anticipations are in their inmost hearts while they live, and what succeeds——it belongs to the dead.
(3.) This wrong is in all which is done (niphal, and therefore objective; men both do and suffer as though this were so) under the sun, how a happening which is one (i.e. the same) to all (the force of this reasoning is made apparent by what follows, as there is no visible reward to these righteous persons as compared with the wicked, wicked men presume); and moreover, the heart of the sons of Adam is full of (‘overflows with’ would represent the idea) evil, and false expectations (הוללות occurs chapter i. 17——see references; the meaning deduced exactly suits this passage; it is the false hope begotten of an evil action, a crime worse than a blunder, to invert a celebrated aphorism) in their hearts (לבב is ‘the inmost heart’——see Concordance, sub voce, for the shade of difference between לב and לבב), in their lives, and their future (i.e. what comes afterwards) belongs to (the preposition is אל, which the LXX. note, and render by πρὸς) the dead (generic, with the article).
4 ¶ For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For whoever he may be, he chooses altogether as regarding the living, this being his anticipation: for to a dog alive it is indeed better than the lion when he is dead.