(25.) I turned round (to do something, as this formula always implies), I and my heart (for we have here a confession) to know and to investigate (that is in order to know, etc., the prepositions being repeated) and seek (without a preposition; the distinction seems to be that the seeking is to be the consequence of the above investigation) wisdom and device (חשבון is exclusively a Koheleth word, and occurs verse 27, ix. 10, only, it is thus not easy to determine its precise meaning, but it is probably, as Moses Stuart points out, the opposite of הללות; and if so, it will be something reasonable, in the sense of wise or well-formed and successful plan, as its opposite is an ill-formed and disappointing one; thus השבונות——occurs only here, verse 29, and 2 Chronicles xxvi. 15, where it is used to denote Asa’s engines of war——is evidently ‘efficient contrivances.’ To know wisdom and a device, then, in this sense, is ‘wisdom how to obtain a reasonable or proper result; and, on the other hand, to discover the opposite.’ With this accords what follows), and to know (as this is repeated it is equivalent to, and so to know) wickedness (as) folly (כֶסֶל——the only instance of the occurrence of this form in Ecclesiastes——compare Job viii. 14, xxxi. 24, where we find that ‘expectation’ is the meaning, though not necessarily in a bad sense, yet clearly so here. The LXX. render ἀσεβοῦς ἀφροσύνην [which E. X. alter to εὐφροσύνην], ‘the folly of a wicked person’) and the false wisdom (plural form in ות——with the article) follies (הוללות, as we have seen, compare chapter i. 17, of the disappointing kind. The LXX. render here ὀχληρίαν, ‘trouble,’ and περιφοράν, ‘madness,’ with καὶ ‘and,’ which is so far wrong, as there is no conjunction in the original. The meaning of this passage it is no doubt difficult to discover, but if we are right in the above analysis the interpretation must be as follows: ‘I turned myself round, I and my heart——(or, my own personal experience) to know and to investigate, and so seek, wisdom and well-formed plans: and so to recognise a wicked folly; and , ‘to know the wickedness of the fool, and folly and adultery,’ which coincides with the above; a reason for the peculiar rendering ‘adultery’ will appear presently). 26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: [¹]whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
