(14.) And the elaborate fool multiplies words, not knowing (i.e. when there is no knowing by) the man (humanity generally) what it is which will be (but the Alexandrine and Vatican read apparently שהיה, γενόμενον, which A². E. X. alter to γενησόμενον, ‘which shall be.’ The Syriac supports the LXX., but Symmachus reads τὰ προγενόμενα ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ τὰ ἐσόμενα——‘the things which were before, but not those which come after’——which the Vulgate follows. Jerome, however, follows the LXX. against the Vulgate; nevertheless we should not be inclined to alter the text, but would rather regard the reading of the LXX. as ad sensum——the object being to give the difference between the contracted and full relative and the subjunctive meaning attaching to this form. Thus שיהיה is that which is or exists, the τὸ ὄν——‘he does not know then the real state of things’——is the meaning; for with this agrees what follows), and which (full relative) is (or will be) from after him (but there is no reason why מאחריו should not be considered as a participial noun, as the LXX. make it, and then we must render the ‘future’ in the sense of what occurs in the future) who tells to him (emphatic). The meaning of the passage is——‘That the elaborate fool multiplies reasonings, which are sure to have an evil tendency, as they are intended to promote his elaborate folly, although man generally neither understands the meaning of the present, nor can divine the future.’ The difficulty of the sentence arises from the play between מה־שיהיה and מאחריו.
15 The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.
A toil of fools will weary them each one, who has altogether lost his way.
(15.) The toil (i.e. ‘anxious care,’ which is the meaning of this word) of the foolish ones wearies him (another distributive plural; the result of these various fools’ labour is weariness to each of them. It is also to be noticed that the verb is feminine, and yet עמל is usually masculine. Several nouns are, Stuart observes, masculine or feminine ad libitum scriptoris. There is however, we suspect, a perceptible difference in the meaning in these cases. The stricter agreement denotes closer union between the verb and its nominative; and if this be so, the idea of the passage may be rendered by ‘the toil of the fools is self-weariness’), which (full relative, equivalent therefore to ‘because’ he does) not know (or is instructed) to (in order to) go towards (אל, LXX. εἰς) a city (not the city, as is usually rendered.) The obvious meaning would surely be, that the fool had lost his way, and hence as he is going wrong he has simply his trouble for his pains.
16 ¶ Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!
Ah! woe to thee, O country, whose king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning.