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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 8:15 - 8:15
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“And I commended joy, that there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and enjoy himself; and that this accompanies him in his labour throughout all the days of his life, which God hath given him under the sun.” We already read the ultimatum, 15a, in a similar form at Ecc 2:24; Ecc 3:12, Ecc 3:22; cf. Ecc 5:17. With הוּא יִלְ either begins a new clause, and the fut. is then jussive: “let this accompany him,” or it is subordinate to the foregoing infinitives, and the fut. is then subjunctive: et ut id eum comitetur. The lxx and other Greeks translate less appropriately indicat.: καὶ αὐτὸ συμπροσέσται αὐτῷ. Thus also Ewald, Hengst., Zöckl., and others: and this clings to him, which, however, would rather be expressed by לו יִתְרוֹן והוא or וה חֶלְקוֹ. The verb לוה (R. לו, to twist, to bend) does not mean to cling to = to remain, but to adhere to, to follow, to accompany; cf. under Gen 18:16. The possibility of the meaning, “to accompany,” for the Kal, is supported by the derivatives לְוָיָה and לִוּוּי (particularly לְוָיַת המתים, convoy of the dead); the verb, however, in this signification extra-bibl. is found only in Pih. and Hiph.
(Note: Vid., Baer in Abodath Jisrael, p. 39.)