VI. Whatever has been? ’tis just the same as will be; and whatever has been done? ’tis just the same as will be done. So there is nothing altogether new within this work-day world.
(9.) What is that which has been? it is the same which will be; and what is that which has been done? it is the same which will be done (so the LXX., literally following the Heb. text), and there is nothing all new under the sun. The Authorized Version understands by this ‘no new thing;’ but the peculiar position of this word ‘all’ seems to imply that ‘nothing’ must be taken with some slight qualification,——nothing morally new. The next verse admits material novelty.
10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
VII. [No doubt] there occurs a matter such that people say, See, now this is really new. The present was it once in some age before our time.
(10.) There is (יש, which is so far different from היה that it assumes the existence as a fact, ‘There really are matters which are called new’) a matter which one says (contracted relative joined to the verb, and giving an emphasis to it, equivalent therefore to our ‘of which it may be said, indeed’) see this new it is (emphatic) the present (כבר occurs eight times, viz., i. 10, ii. 12, 16, iii. 15 twice, iv. 2, vi. 10, and ix. 6, 7——in Ecclesiastes only; it is a technical word used to denote the present state of things, that part of the עלם or ‘age’ which is now in existence. In the later Hebrew and Syriac it is used as an adverb, ‘already,’ but that is not its use here. This remark is the more important because it is one of those so-called Aramaic words, the occurrence of which is supposed to indicate the late period of this book’s composition. A careful observance of its real import will throw considerable light on several very obscure passages. Generally, it may be taken for granted that if Koheleth uses a new word or form not known in other parts of the Scriptures, it is because he desires to indicate a new idea.) It was to the ages which (full relative, referring back, therefore, to the whole sentence) were from before us (as we have ages in the plural, followed by a singular verb, היה, the meaning is some one of the ages). This thing which is said to be new is really one of those forgotten matters which existed in one or other of the eras which were before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.