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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 10:16 - 10:16
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“Woe to thee, O land, whose king is a child, and whose princes sit at table in the early morning! Happy art thou, O land, whose king is a noble, and whose princes sit at table at the right time, in manly strength, and not in drunkenness!” Regarding אִי. Instead of שֶׁםַ ןַ, the older language would rather use the phrase מַלְכּוֹ נַעַר אֲשֶׁר; and instead of na'ar, we might correctly use, after Pro 30:22, 'ěvěd; but not as Grätz thinks, who from this verse deduces the reference of the book of Herod (the “slave of the Hasmonean house,” as the Talm. names him), in the same meaning. For na'ar, it is true, sometimes means - e.g., as Ziba's by-name (2Sa 19:18 [17]) - a servant, but never a slave as such, so that here, in the latter sense, it might be the contrast of בֶּן־חוֹרִים; it is to be understood after Isa 3:12; and Solomon, Bishop of Constance, understood this woe rightly, for he found it fulfilled at the time of the last German Karolingian Ludwig III.
(Note: Cf. Büchmann's Feglügelte Worte, p. 178, 5th ed. (1868).)
Na'ar is a very extensively applicable word in regard to the age of a person. King Solomon and the prophets Jeremiah and Zechariah show that na'ar may be used with reference to one in a high office; but here it is one of few years of age who is meant, who is incapable of ruling, and shows himself as childish in this, that he lets himself be led by bad guides in accordance with their pleasure. In 16b, the author perhaps thinks of the heads of the aristocracy who have the phantom-king in their power: intending to fatten themselves, they begin their feasting with the break of day. If we translate yochēēlu by “they eat,” 16b sounds as if to breakfast were a sin, - with us such an abbreviation of the thought so open to misconception would be a fault in style, but not so with a Hebrew.
(Note: Vid., Gesch. d. jüd. Poesie, p. 188.f.)
אֲכֹל (for לֶחֶם אֲכֹל, Psa 14:4) is here eating for eating's sake, eating as its own object, eating which, in the morning, comes in the place of fresh activity in one's calling, consecrated by prayer. Instead of אַשְׁ, Ecc 10:17, there ought properly to have been אַשְׁרֶיךְ; but (1) אַשְׁרֵי has this peculiarity, to be explained from its interjectional usage, that with the suff. added it remains in the form of the st. constr., for we say e.g., אַשְׁרֶיךָ for אֲשָׁרֶיךָ; (2) the sing. form אֶשֶׁר, inflected אַשְׁרִי, so substitutes itself that אַשְׁרֵיךָ, or, more correctly, אַשְׁרֵךְ, and אַשְׁרֵהוּ, Pro 29:19, the latter for אֲשָׁרָיו, are used (vid., under Son 2:14).
Regarding běn-hhorim, the root-word signifies to be white (vid., under Gen 40:16). A noble is called hhor, Isa 34:12; and one noble by birth, more closely, or also merely descriptively (Gesen. Lehrgeb. p. 649), běn-hhorim, from his purer complexion, by which persons of rank were distinguished from the common people (Lam 4:7). In the passage before us, běn-hhorim is an ethical conception, as e.g., also generosus becomes such, for it connects with the idea of noble by birth that of noble in disposition, and the latter predominates (cf. Son 7:2, nadiv): it is well with a land whose king is of noble mind, is a man of noble character, or, if we give to běn-hhorim the Mishnic meaning, is truly a free man (cf. Joh 8:36). Of princes after the pattern of such a king, the contrary of what is said 16b is true: they do not eat early in the morning, but ba'et, “at the right time;” everywhere else this is expressed by be'itto (Ecc 3:11); here the expression - corresponding to the Greek ἐν καιρῷ, the Lat. in tempore - is perhaps occasioned by the contrast baboqěr, “in the morning.” Eating at the right time is more closely characterized by bighvurah velo vashshethi. Jerome, whom Luther follows, translates: ad reficiendum et non ad luxuriam. Hitz., Ginsb., and Zöckl., “for strengthening” (obtaining strength), not: “for feasting;” but that beth might introduce the object aimed at (after Hitz., proceeding from the beth of exchange), we have already considered under Ecc 2:4. The author, wishing to say this, ought to have written lshty wl' lgbwrh. Better, Hahn: “in strength, but not in drunkenness,” - as heroes, but not as drunkards (Isa 5:22). Ewald's “in virtue, and not in debauchery,” is also thus meant. But what is that: to eat in virtue, i.e., the dignity of a man? The author much rather represents them as eating in manly strength, i.e., as this requires it (cf. the plur. Psa 71:16 and Psa 90:10), only not bashti (“in drunkenness - excess”), so that eating and drinking become objects in themselves. Kleinert, well: as men, and not as gluttons. The Masora makes, under bashti,' the note לית, i.e., שֲׁתי has here a meaning which it has not elsewhere, it signifies drunkenness; elsewhere it means the weft of a web. The Targ. gives the word the meaning of weakness (חַלָּשׁוּת), after the Midrash, which explains it by בִּתְשִׁישׁוּ (in weakness); Menahem b. Saruk takes along with it in this sense נשְׁתָה, Jer 51:30. The Talm. Shabbath 10a, however, explains it rightly by בִּשְׁתִיָּה שֶׁל־יַיִן.