Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 1:10 - 1:10

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 1:10 - 1:10


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

“Is there anything whereof it may be said: See, this is new? - it was long ago through the ages (aeons) which have been before us.” The Semit. substantive verb יֵשׁ (Assyr. isu) has here the force of a hypothetical antecedent: supposing that there is a thing of which one might say, etc. The זֶה, with Makkeph, belongs as subject, as at Ecc 7:27, Ecc 7:29 as object, to that which follows. כְּבָר (vid., List, p. 193) properly denotes length or greatness of time (as כִּבְרָה, length of way). The ל of לְעֹ is that of measure: this “long ago” measured (Hitz.) after infinitely long periods of time. מִלְּ, ante nos, follows the usage of מִלְּףָ, Isa 41:26, and l|paa', Jdg 1:10, etc.; the past time is spoken of as that which was before, for it is thought of as the beginning of the succession of time (vid., Orelli, Synon. der Zeit u. Ewigkeit, p. 14f.). The singular הָיָה may also be viewed as pred. of a plur. inhumanus in order; but in connection, Ecc 2:7, Ecc 2:9 (Gesen. §147, An. 2), it is more probable that it is taken as a neut. verb. That which newly appears has already been, but had been forgotten; for generations come and generations go, and the one forgets the other.