, ‘What is the usefulness,’ ‘gratification,’ or ‘delight’? It seems then as if the translators of this version recognised a play upon the words מה הולל, ‘what a folly,’ and מהולל, ‘befooled,’——this being one of those equivokes in which Koheleth delights. The LXX. render verbatim, as is their custom, τὶ τοῦτο ποῖεις; ‘why doest thou this?’ but possibly with the same intention.)
Koheleth next tries material enjoyment. The meaning of the following passage has been much disputed; we shall follow the rendering suggested by the LXX., which gives clear and intelligible sense.
3 I sought in mine heart [¹]to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven [²]all the days of their life.
[¹] Hebrew to draw my flesh with wine.
[²] Hebrew the number of the days of their life.
I tried with my heart to allure as wine does one’s flesh (that heart, however, being conducted with wisdom), and so get a hold over false wisdom, so that I might see thereby where lies the real good to the children of men, when they are working in this world, as the tale of their daily lives. [Accordingly]
(3.) I investigated with my heart (or in my heart; but the former makes better sense. His heart was the medium through which the investigation was made. He wanted to see if material enjoyment would satisfy his heart, i.e. the emotional part of his nature) in order to a drawing with wine (the LXX. render ὡς οἶνον, ‘as wine,’ but they probably did not read otherwise than our present text, for this as represents the את which follows) as to my flesh (the meaning of the Hebrew is that he drew or enticed with wine with respect to his flesh, and that hence his object in using the wine was to entice the flesh. The rendering of the LXX. is ad sensum, preserving also a rendering of each word), and my heart led (i.e. as a man leads an animal, Psalm lxxx. 1, Isaiah xi. 6. As ‘heart’ is repeated, we have the meaning ‘that same heart’) with wisdom (because unless he enjoyed wisely he would not enjoy at all) and (repeated in the same clause, equal therefore to ‘and so’) to lay hold of false wisdom (סכלוּת, occurs chapters ii. 3, 12, 13, vii. 25, x. 1, 13, and is peculiar to this book. The LXX. render εὐφροσύνην ‘pleasure,’ which, however A² alters to ἀφροσύνη, ‘folly,’ the reason of which will appear presently. The meaning of the root סכל is to ‘play,’ or ‘act the fool,’ and in this respect differs from כסל, which has the idea of ‘stupidity,’ and in the hiphil form, ‘made stupid,’ or ‘befooled.’ In all the ten places in which the root סכל occurs in other parts of Scripture, we find the meaning of elaborateness and subtilty as well as folly; compare 1 Samuel xiii. 13, Saul’s burnt-offering in the absence of Samuel; 2 Samuel xxiv. 10; 1 Chronicles xxi. 8, David’s numbering the people; 2 Chronicles xvi. 9, Asa’s reliance on Syria; 2 Samuel xv. 31, Ahithophel’s counsel; similarly Isaiah xliv. 25, where knowledge is said to be misused; so also סָכָל, occurs Jeremiah iv. 22, v. 21, has evidently the same shade of meaning. It is hard to find a single word which will render it; ‘foolish wisdom’ or ‘clever follies’ are the best combinations that occur. It will be seen also, in referring to the lexicon, that the LXX., who translate by εὐφροσύνη, apparently use the word occasionally in a sinister aspect, see Proverbs xxx. 32, Sira xiii. 8. The Syriac here reads
