(iv.) How sweet is the sleep of the slave, if a little, or if much he eats: but a sufficiency to one who is enriched——does not cause rest to him so that he sleeps.
(12.) Sweet (but the participial form of the noun must not be overlooked, nor the feminine termination, equivalent to a ‘sweetness,’) is the sleep of the slave (‘of the toiler,’ with the article), if a little, or if the much he eats (there is a peculiar force in contrasting ‘the much,’ הרבה, with the article, with מעט without it; even if he should eat to the much [i.e. as large a quantity as he can] it will do him no harm: no nightmare will trouble him who has earned his hearty meal by his hard work), but the satisfaction (as contrasted with הרבה) to the enriched it is not that which is causing rest (hiphil participle) to him (emphatic) to sleep (an equivoke here is to be found in השבע and לעשיר, remembering that שבע, ‘seven,’ is used so commonly for ‘completeness,’ and עשר, ‘ten,’ as ‘rich’ and ‘overflowing;’ seven with ten has a peculiar meaning in the symbolism of numbers).
13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
(v.) There is this evil infirmity which I have observed in this work-day world: Riches kept by an owner to his own injury;
(13.) There is an evil (abstract, a particular kind of evil), a sickness (another abstract) I have seen under the sun——wealth keeping to (i.e. being kept by) its possessors to their hurt.
14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.