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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 5:15 - 5:15
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“As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he again depart as he came, and not the least will he carry away for his labour, which he could take with him in his hand.” In 13a the author has the case of Job in his mind; this verse before us is a reminiscence from Job 1:21, with the setting aside of the difficult word שָׁמָּה found there, which Sirach 40:1 exhibits. With “naked” begins emphatically the main subject; כְּשֶׁבָּא = בא כּאֲשֶׁר is the intensifying resumption of the comparison; the contrast of לֶכֶת f, going away, excedere vitâ, is בֹּיא of the entrance on life, coming into the world. מְאוּמָה (according to the root meaning and use, corresponding to the French point, Olsh. §205a) emphatically precedes the negation, as at Jdg 14:6 (cf. the emphasis reached in a different way, Psa 49:18). נשׂא signifies here, as at Ecc 5:18, Psa 24:5, to take hence, to take forth, to carry away. The ב of בּעֲ is not partitive (Aben Ezra compares Lev 8:32), according to which Jerome and Luther translate de labore suo, but is the Beth pretii, as e.g., at 1Ki 16:34, as the Chald. understands it; Nolde cites for this Beth pretii passages such as Ecc 2:24, but incorrectly. Regarding the subjunctive שֶׁיֹּלֵךְ, quod auferat. We might also with the lxx and Symm. punctuate שֶׁיֵּלֶךְ: which might accompany him in his hand, but which could by no means denote, as Hitzig thinks: (for his trouble), which goes through his hand. Such an expression is not used; and Hitzig's supposition, that here the rich man who has lost his wealth is the subject, does not approve itself.