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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 2:20 - 2:20
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“Then I turned to give up my heart on account of = to despair of all the labour with which I wearied myself under the sun.” As at 1Sa 22:17., Son 2:17; Jer 41:14, סבב has here the intrans. meaning, to turn about (lxx ἐπέστρεψα = ἐπεστρεψάμην). Hitzig remarks that פנה and שוב signify, “to turn round in order to see,” and סבב, on the contrary, “to turn round in order to do.” But פנה can also mean, “to turn round in order to do,” e.g., Lev 26:9; and סבב, “to turn in order to examine more narrowly,” Ecc 7:25. The distinction lies in this, that פנה signifies a clear turning round; סבב, a turning away from one thing to another, a turning in the direction of something new that presents itself (Ecc 4:1, Ecc 4:7; Ecc 9:11). The phrase, יִאֵשׁ אֶת־בלִבּוֹ,
(Note: With Pathach under the yod in the text in Biblia Rabb. and the note לֹ Thus also in the ms. Parva Masora, and e.g., Cod. P.)
closely corresponds to the Lat. despondet animum, he gives up his spirits, lets them sink, i.e., he despairs. The old language knows only נוֹאַשׁ, to give oneself up, i.e., to give up hope in regard to anything; and נוֹאָשׁ, given up, having no prospect, in despair. The Talm., however, uses along with nithyāēsh (vid., p. 638) not only noǎsh, but also יִאֵשׁ, in the sense of despair, or the giving up of all hope (subst. יִאוּשׁ), Mezîa 21b, from which it is at once evident that יַאֵשׁ, is not to be thought of as causative (like the Arab. ajjasa and aiasa), but as simply transitive, with which, after the passage before us, לבו is to be thought of as connected. He turned round to give up all heart. He had no more any heart to labour.