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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 5:17 - 5:17
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“Also all his life long he eateth in darkness and grieveth himself much, and oh for his sorrow and hatred!” We might place Ecc 5:16 under the regimen of the שׁ of שׁיע of Ecc 5:15; but the Heb. style prefers the self-dependent form of sentences to that which is governed. The expression Ecc 5:16 has something strange. This strangeness disappears if, with Ewald and Heiligst., after the lxx and Jerome, for יאֹכֵל we read וְאֵכֶל: καὶ ἐν πένθει; Böttch. prefers וָאֹפֶל, “and in darkness.” Or also, if we read יֵלֵךְ for יאכל; thus the Midrash here, and several codd. by Kennicott; but the Targ., Syr., and Masora read יאכל. Hitzig gets rid of that which is strange in this passage by taking כָּל־יָמָיו as accus. of the obj., not of the time: all his days, his whole life he consumes in darkness; but in Heb. as in Lat. we say: consumere dies vitae, Job 21:13; Job 36:11, but not comedere; and why should the expression, “to eat in darkness,” not be a figurative expression for a faithless, gloomy life, as elsewhere “to sit in darkness” (Mic 7:8), and “to walk in darkness”? It is meant that all his life long he ate אוֹנִים לֶחֶם, the bread of sorrow, or לַחַץ לֶחֶם, prison fare; he did not allow himself pleasant table comforts in a room comfortably or splendidly lighted, for it is unnecessary to understand חֹשֶׁךְ subjectively and figuratively (Hitz., Zöck.).
In 16b the traditional punctuation is וְכָעַס.
(Note: Thus in correct texts, in H. with the note: כ מלרע, viz., here and at Psa 112:10, only there ע has, according to tradition, the Kametz. Cf. Mas. fin. 52b, and Baer's Ed. of Psalter, under Psa 112:10.)
The perf. ruled by the preceding fut. is syntactically correct, and the verb כָּעַס is common with the author, Ecc 7:9. Hitzig regards the text as corrupt, and reads כְּחָליוֹ and כַּעַס, and explains: and (he consumes or swallows) much grief in his, etc.; the phrase, “to eat sorrow,” may be allowed (cf. Pro 26:6, cf. Job 15:16); but יאכל, as the representative of two so bold and essentially different metaphors, would be in point of style in bad taste. If the text is corrupt, it may be more easily rectified by reading וק לוֹ וחֳלִי הרבה וְכַּעַס: and grief in abundance, and sorrow has he, and wrath. We merely suggest this. Ewald, Burger, and Böttch. read only וכַעס הרבה וחֳלִי; but לו is not to be dispensed with, and can easily be reduced to a mere vav. Elster retains וכָעס, and reads, like Hitzig, בחליו: he grieves himself much in his sorrow and wrath; but in that case the word וקצפו was to be expected; also in this way the ideas do not psychologically accord with each other. However the text is taken, we must interpret וחליו וקצף as an exclamation, like הָףְ, Isa 29:16; תִּףְ, Jer 49:16; Ewald, §328a, as we have done above. That וְחָ of itself is a subst. clause = וחלי לו is untenable; the rendering of the noun as forming a clause, spoken of under Ecc 2:21, is of a different character.
(Note: Rashi regards וחליו as a form like חַיְתוֹ. This o everywhere appears only in a gen. connection.)
He who by his labour and care aims at becoming rich, will not only lay upon himself unnecessary privations, but also have many sorrows; for many of his plans fail, and the greater success of others awakens his envy, and neither he himself nor others satisfy him; he is morbidly disposed, and as he is diseased in mind, so also in body, and his constantly increasing dissatisfaction becomes at last קצף, he grumbles at himself, at God, and all the world. From observing such persons, Paul says of them (1Ti 6:6.): “They have pierced themselves through (transfoderunt) with many sorrows.”
In view of these great evils, with which the possession of riches also is connected: of their deceitful instability, and their merely belonging to this present life, Koheleth returns to his ceterum censeo.