[¹] Hebrew shadow.
for the shelter of wisdom is just as the shelter of money: but the profit of knowledge is, the wisdom that enables its possessor to live.
(12.) For in shadow of the wisdom is in shadow of the silver. (The sentence, whichever way we take it, is enigmatical, as indeed the form shows. The LXX. render ad sensum, ‘Because in her shadow, wisdom is as the shadow of silver,’ but very probably not because they read differently, this rendering merely gives the equivoke; for the literal meaning of the sentence, as it stands in the text, is, ‘Because in the shadow of wisdom generically, is the same as to be in the shadow of money.’ The idea of shadow arises naturally from that of sunshine, spoken of above; for we must remember that in the East, shadow is always desired, and it is to the natives of southern Europe and Asia the symbol of pleasant refreshment. Shadow and sun are cognate ideas——see Psalms xci. 1, Isaiah xxxii. 2. Again, the root כסף has the meaning to desire earnestly——see Job xiv. 15, Psalms xvii. 12; hence the further play upon the words.) And a profit of a knowledge of the wisdom? (generic, this special wisdom, but the passage might also be rendered, and a ‘profit of knowledge, it is wisdom which,’ etc.) it enlivens its possessor. (The Masorets, by accenting דַּ֔עַת with zakeph, separate it from what follows, and so render as above. Thus the meaning is——‘and there is this advantage in the knowledge of wisdom, it makes its possessor live,’ or gives him life: but not absolutely so; this appears from what follows.)
13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
Consider then, with regard to the working of the Almighty, that none is able to explain with regard to what He has made complex.
(13.) See (as the verb stands first, this is the emphatic word in the sentence, equivalent, therefore, to ‘observe, however’) with respect to the working of the Deity, for who is enabled to set in order (occurs chapters i. 15, xii. 9 only, and is a word peculiar to Ecclesiastes; it is used in the technical sense of ‘resolve,’ or ‘account for,’ a providential mystery) with respect to that which (the LXX. give the force of this את here by the rendering ὃν ἂν ὁ Θεὸς) He hath involved it? (עות, in hithpael, occurs Job xix. 6, chapters i. 15, and xii. 3. The cognate עוה occurs nearly as often, and with the same signification, which is the exact opposite of תקן, ‘to involve,’ ‘make complex.’ ‘Who can resolve that with respect to which He has determined that it shall be involved?’ is the precise meaning given by the suffix to the verb.)