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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 4:14 - 4:14
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“For out of the prison-house he goeth forth to reign as king, although he was born as a poor man in his kingdom.” With כִּי the properties of poverty and wisdom attributed to the young man are verified, - wisdom in this, that he knew how to find the way from a prison to a throne. As harammim, 2Ch 22:5 = haarammim, 2Ki 8:28, so hasurim = haasurim (cf. masoreth = maasoreth, Eze 20:37); beth haasirim (Kerı̂; haasurim), Jdg 16:21, Jdg 16:25, and beth haesur, Jer 38:15, designate the prison; cf. Moëd katan, Ecc 3:1. The modern form of the language prefers this elision of the א, e.g., אֲפִלּוּ = אַף אִלּוּ, אַלתַּר = אַל־אֲתַר, בָּתַר post = בּאֲתַר contra, etc. The perf. יָחָא is also thought of as having reached the throne, and having pre-eminence assigned to him as such. He has come forth from the prison to become king, רָשׁ ... כִּי. Zöckler translates: “Whereas also he that was born in his kingdom was poor,” and adds the remark: “גם כי, after the כי of the preceding clause, does not so much introduce a verification of it, as much rather an intensification; by which is expressed, that the prisoner has not merely transitorily fallen into such misery, but that he was born in poor and lowly circumstances, and that in his own kingdom בְּםַ, i.e., in the same land which he should afterwards rule as king.” But גם כי is nowhere used by Koheleth in the sense of “ja auch” (= whereas also); and also where it is thus to be translated, as at Jer 14:18; Jer 23:11, it is used in the sense of “denn auch” (= for also), assigning proof. The fact is, that this group of particles, according as כי is thought of as demonst. or relat., means either “denn auch,” Ecc 4:16; Ecc 7:22; Ecc 8:16, or “wenn auch” = ἐὰν καί, as here and at Ecc 8:12. In the latter case, it is related to כִּי גַּם (sometimes also merely גַּם, Psa 95:9; Mal 3:15), as ἐὰν (εἰ) καί, although, notwithstanding, is to καὶ ἐάν (εἰ), even although.
(Note: That the accentuation separates the two words גם־ כי is to be judged from this, that it almost everywhere prefers אם־ כי (vid., under Comm. to Psa 1:2).)
Thus 14b, connecting itself with לִמְלֹךְ, is to be translated: “although he was born (נוֹלַד,not נוֹלָד) in his kingdom as a poor man.”
(Note: נולד רש cannot mean “to become poor.” Grätz appeals to the Mishnic language; but no intelligent linguist will use נולד רשׁ of a man in any other sense than that he is originally poor.)
We cannot also concur with Zöckler in the view that the suff. of :_b refers to the young upstart: in the kingdom which should afterwards become his; for this reason, that the suff. of תח, Ecc 4:16, refers to the old king, and thus also that this designation may be mediated, בם must refer to him. מלכות signifies kingdom, reign, realm; here, the realm, as at Neh 9:35, Dan 5:11; 6:29. Grätz thinks Ecc 4:13-16 ought to drive expositors to despair. But hitherto we have found no room for despair in obtaining a meaning from them. What follows also does not perplex us. The author describes how all the world hails the entrance of the new youthful king on his government, and gathers together under his sceptre.