Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 8:12 - 8:12

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 8:12 - 8:12


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“Because a sinner doeth evil an hundred times, and he becometh old therein, although I know that it will go well with them that fear god, that fear before Him: but it will not go well with the wicked, and he shall not live long, like a shadow; because he feareth not before God.” Ewald (whom Heiligst., Elst., and Zöckl. follow), as among the ancients, e.g., Mendelssohn, translates Ecc 8:12 : “Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and live long, yet I know,” etc. That an antecedent may begin with asher is admissible, Lev 4:22; Deu 18:22; but in the case lying before us, still less acceptable than at Ecc 8:11. For, in the first place, this asher of the antecedent cannot mean “although,” but only “considering that;” and in places such as Ecc 6:3, where this “considering that” may be exchanged with “although,” there follows not the part., but the fut. natural to the concessive clause; then, in the second place, by this antecedent rendering of asher a closer connection of Ecc 8:12 and Ecc 8:12 is indeed gained, but the mediation of Ecc 8:12 and Ecc 8:11 is lost; in the third place, גם כי, in the meaning “however” (gam, ὃμως, with affirmative ki), is not found; not asher, but just this ki gam,

(Note: That גַּם is pointed גַּם, has its reason in the disjunctive Jethîb with כי, which is not interchanged with the conjunctive Mahpach. Thus, Ecc 8:1, כְּ מִי, and Ecc 8:7, כַּ כִּי.)

signifies, in the passage before us, as at Ecc 4:14, εἰ καί, although, - only a somewhat otherwise applied gam ki, Ewald, §362b, as כי על־כן is a somewhat otherwise applied על־כן כי. Rightly, Hitzig: “In Ecc 8:12, Ecc 8:11 is again resumed, and it is explained how tardy justice has such a consequence.” The sinner is thereby encouraged in sinning, because he does evil, and always again evil, and yet enjoys himself in all the pleasures of long life. Regarding חֹטֶא for חֹטֵא, vid., above, p. 641, 1. מְאַת is = פְעָמִים מֵאָה, an hundred times, as אַחַת, Job 40:5, is = אחת פעם; Hengst. and others, inexactly: an hundredfold, which would have required the word מָאתַיִם; and falsely, Ginsburg, with the Targ.: an hundred years, which would have required מֵאָה, scil. שָׁנָה, Gen 17:17. This centies (Jerome) is, like מֵאָה, scil. בנים, Ecc 6:3, a round number for a great many, as at Pro 17:10, and frequently in the Talm. and Midrash, e.g., Wajikra rabba, c. 27: “an hundred deeply-breathed sighs (מאה פעיות) the mother gave forth.”

(Note: Vid., Jac. Reifmann in the Zeitsch., המגיד, 1874, p. 342.)

The meaning of לוֹ וּמעֲרִיךְ לוֹ is in general clear: he becomes therein old. Jerome, improbable: et per patientiam sustentatur, as Mendelssohn: he experiences forbearance, for they supply 'pow (Isa 48:9), and make God the subject. לּוֹ is in any case the so-called dat. ethic.; and the only question is, whether the doing of evil has to be taken from רָע עֹשֶׂה,

(Note: We expect these two words (cf. Gen 31:12) with the retrogression of the tone; but as this ceases, as a rule, with Mercha before Tifcha and Pashta, Gen 47:3; Exo 18:5; Deu 4:42; Deu 19:4; Isa 10:14 (cf. the penult. accent of יֹאכַל, Lev 22:10, Lev 22:10, Lev 22:19, and בֹּנֶה, Gen 4:17, with the ult. accent Lev 22:14; Hab 2:12), so with Mercha sometimes also before other disjunctives, as here before Tebîr.)

as obj. to ומא: he practises it to him long, or whether, which is more probable, יָמִים is to be supplied after Ecc 8:13, so that האריך signifies to live long, as at Pro 28:2, to last long; the dat. ethic. gives the idea of the feeling of contentment connected with long life: he thereupon sins wantonly, and becomes old in it in good health.

That is the actual state of the case, which the author cannot conceal from himself; although, on the other hand, as by way of limitation he adds ki ... ani, he well knows that there is a moral government of the world, and that this must finally prevail. We may not translate: that it should go well, but rather: that it must go well; but there is no reason not to interpret the fut. as a pure indic.: that it shall go well, viz., finally, - it is a postulate of his consciousness which the author here expresses; that which exists in appearance contradicts this consciousness, which, however, in spite of this, asserts itself. That to לְיִרְ האֱלֹ the clause אֲשֶׁר מִלְּ, explaining idem per idem, is added, has certainly its reason in this, that at the time of the author the name “fearers of God” [Gottesfürchitige] had come into use. “The fearers of God, who fear before (מִלִּפְנֵי, as at Ecc 3:14) Him,” are such as are in reality what they are called.

In Ecc 8:13, Hitzig, followed by Elster, Burg., and Zöckl., places the division at ימים: like the shadow is he who fears not before God. Nothing can in point of syntax be said against this (cf. 1Ch 29:15), although אֲשֶׁר כַּצֵּל, “like the shadow is he who,” is in point of style awkward. But that the author did not use so rude a style is manifest from Ecc 6:12, according to which כצל is rightly referred to יָמִים ... וְלֹא־. Is then the shadow, asks Hitzig, because it does not “prolong its days,” therefore יָמִים קְצַר? How subtle and literal is this use of ימים! Certainly the shadow survives not a day; but for that very reason it is short-lived, it may even indeed be called קצר ימים, because it has not existence for a single day. In general, qetsel, ὡς σκιά, is applicable to the life of all men, Psa 144:4, Wisd. 2:5, etc. It is true of the wicked, if we keep in view the righteous divine requital, especially that he is short-lived like the shadow, “because he has no fear before God,” and that in consequence of this want of fear his life is shortened by his sin inflicting its own punishment, and by the act of God. Asher, Ecc 8:13, as at Ecc 8:11, Ecc 8:12, is the relative conj. Also in Ecc 8:14, אשׁר (שׁ) as a pronoun, and אשׁר (שׁ) as a conj., are mixed together. After the author has declared the reality of a moral government of the world as an inalienable fact of human consciousness, and particularly of his own consciousness, he places over against this fact of consciousness the actual state of things partly at least contradicting it.