(14.) I have seen (I have observed, that is) with respect to all actions (את is here emphatic as standing first) which are performed (niphal and contracted relative, hence having the meaning in so far as they are or may be done) under the sun (for without this limitation the above proposition would not be true), and behold (asserting a matter of fact patent to all) the whole (with the article and in its usual sense, see chapter i. 2) is a vanity (i.e. an instance of something evanescent) and a vexation of spirit (רעות, occurs seven times in this book, viz., chapters i. 14, ii. 11, 17, 26, iv. 4, 6, and vi. 9; רעיון occurs three times, i. 17, ii. 22, iv. 16. These words have usually been regarded as absolutely synonymous, and hitherto the difference of meaning has not been noticed; but there is a slight difference, as a comparison of places will show. The exact sense to be attached to them is a matter of dispute, and ‘a windy notion,’ ‘striving after the wind,’ have been proposed, but the rendering of the LXX., προαίρεσις, ‘distraction,’ represents the meaning best. With regard to רעות we may notice that it is formed quite regularly from רעה, which is ‘evil,’ in the sense of something that ‘hurts’ or ‘offends,’ and is in the nature of a collective plural; so do we account at once for the peculiar pointing and for the rendering of the LXX. On the other hand, רעיון has, as nouns with this termination usually have, a more subjective meaning; the distinction between the two is that between ‘vexations of’ and ‘vexing of’ spirit; thus in verse 17, where the trouble came from his own spirit, caused by his inability to explain the difficulty which confronted him in his argument, Koheleth uses the subjective form).
15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is [¹]wanting cannot be numbered.
[¹] Hebrew defect.
(3.) a perplexity which it is impossible to set right, (4.) a defect which it is equally impossible to account for.
(15.) A crookedness (occurs chapters vii. 13, xii. 3, and Amos viii. 5, whence it appears that the precise meaning is moral obliquity) not enabled to be set in order (occurs chapter i. 15, vii. 18, xii. 9, only), a defect (occurs here only, but see Deuteronomy xxviii. 48, 57, where the root is used of famine, and 1 Kings xvii. 16, to denote the failure of the oil) not enabled (repeated, hence we must render ‘it is equally impossible’) to be numbered (infinitive plural niphal). The meaning of this verse has been very much disputed, but if it be considered as the sequel to what went immediately before, the sense will be quite plain. We may discern in it a fourfold description of human life, in respect of its cares and anxieties and uncertainties, the first point being (i.) that this care is for something evanescent; (ii.) that it is vexatious; (iii.) and then this anxiety is useless, because life is so perverted as to be beyond the possibility of being set in order by any care of ours; (iv.) and so defective that no account can be given which would set it right: ‘which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?’
16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart [¹]had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
[¹] Hebrew had seen much.