No man has power over the spirit to restrain the spirit; and there is no powerfulness in the day of death; and there is no putting off the weapons in that warfare: but by no means will Impiety deliver those that resort to it.
(8.) There is nothing in (that is, There is not a single) man caused to have power (LXX. ἐξουσιάζων) with the spirit (the LXX. render with ἐν, ‘in’) to the restraint of (כלא——1 Samuel vi. 10; Jeremiah xxxii. 3——is used of restraint in prison) with respect to the spirit (את with the article, and the noun repeated, making it exceedingly emphatic, which the LXX. note by their customary σὺν: ‘to have any restraint with respect to that same spirit’ is the meaning) and there is no power (that is, ‘power to rule or direct’) in the day of death, and there is no discharge (occurs Psalms lxxviii. 49) in the warfare, and not delivers (this standing first is emphatic; it is equivalent to ‘but this does not deliver’) even impiety in respect of its lord (or, as our idiom would put it, ‘but impiety will not deliver those who resort to it’).
9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
With respect to all this I have observed, with regard to all the works which are done in this work-day world——and greatly am I impressed by it——a time when humanity has a power over itself to injure itself.
(9.) With respect to all this I have seen, (i.e. ‘observed’), and setting myself (infinitive absolute. Zöckler says the infinitive absolute with copula prefixed indicates an action contemporaneous with the main verb; hence the LXX. render ἔδωκα ... εἰς), with respect to my heart, to all the working which (full relative) is done (niphal) under the sun, the time which (the LXX. apparently take no notice of עת, but render as if they had read את אשר; but if we take עת as in apposition to תהת ה״, and notice that אשר is repeated, we shall see that the sense is ‘I mean with regard to that time when,’ etc.) rules (or has power) the man (mankind generally) by a man to an injury to him (not exactly with the meaning of one man injuring another, but rather, that when humanity has any power over itself in the person of other men, it uses this power to injury for the most part, an instance of which follows).
10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.