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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 5:16 - 5:16
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A transition is now made to rich men as such, and the registering formula which should go before Ecc 5:14 here follows: “And this also is a sore evil: altogether exactly as he came, thus shall he depart: and what gain hath he that laboureth in the wind?” Regarding זֹה; and regarding כָּל־עֻ שׁ,
(Note: I n H. written as one word: כַּלְעֻמַת. Parchon (Lex. under עמת) had this form before him. In his Lex. Kimchi bears evidence in favour of the correct writing as two words.)
The writing of these first two as one word [vid. note below] accords with Ibn-Giat's view, accidentally quoted by Kimchi, that the word is compounded of כ of comparison, and the frequently occurring לְעֻמַּת always retaining its ל, and ought properly to be pointed כְּלְעֻ (cf. מִלְּ, 1Ki 7:20). עֻמָּה signifies combination, society, one thing along with or parallel to another; and thus לעמת bears no כ, since it is itself a word of comparison, כָּל־עֻמַּת “altogether parallel,” “altogether the same.” The question: what kind of advantage (vid., Ecc 1:3) is to him (has he) of this that ... , carries its answer in itself. Labouring for the wind or in the wind, his labour is רוּחַ (רַעְיוֹן) רְעוּת, and thus fruitless. And, moreover, how miserable an existence is this life of labour leading to nothing!