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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 11:2 - 11:2
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“Divide the portion into seven, yea, eight (parts); for thou knowest not what evil shall happen on the earth.” With that other interpretation, עָלֶיךָ was to be expected instead of 'al-haarets; for an evil spreading abroad over the earth, a calamity to the land, does not yet fall on every one without exception; and why was not the רָעָה designated directly as personal? The impression of the words לִשְׁם ... תֶּן־, established in this general manner, is certainly this, that on the supposition of the possibility of a universal catastrophe breaking in, they advise a division of our property, so that if we are involved in it, our all may not at once be lost, but only this or that part of it, as Jacob, Gen 32:9, says. With reference to 1a, it is most natural to suppose that one is counselled not to venture his all in one expedition, so that if this is lost in a storm, all might not at once be lost (Mendelss., Preston, Hitz., Stuart); with the same right, since 1a is only an example, the counsel may be regarded as denoting that one must not commit all to one caravan; or, since in Ecc 11:2 לחמך is to be represented not merely as a means of obtaining gain, that one ought not to lay up all he has gathered in one place, Jdg 6:11; Jer 41:8 (Nachtigal); in short, that one ought not to put all into one business, or, as we say literally, venture all on one card. חֵלֶק is either the portion which one possesses, i.e., the measure of the possession that has fallen to him (Psa 16:5), or חֵלֶק נָתַן means to make portions, to undertake a division. In the first case, the expression לְ ... נתן follows the scheme of Gen 17:20 : make the part into seven, yea, into eight (parts); in the second case, the scheme of Jos 18:5 : make division into seven, etc. We prefer the former, because otherwise that which is to be divided remains unknown; חֵלֶק is the part now in possession: make the much or the little that thou hast into seven or yet more parts. The rising from seven to eight is as at Job 5:19, and like the expression ter quaterque, etc. The same inverted order of words as in Ecc 11:2 is found in Est 6:3; 2Ki 8:12.