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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ecclesiastes 8:6 - 8:6
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“For there is a time and decision for everything, for the wickedness of man becomes too great.” From Ecc 8:6 there follow four clauses with כִּי; by such monotonous repetition of one and the same word, the author also elsewhere renders the exposition difficult, affording too free a space for understanding the כי as confirming, or as hypothetical, and for co-ordinating or subordinating to each other the clauses with כי. Presupposing the correctness of our exposition of Ecc 8:5, the clause Ecc 8:6 with כי may be rendered parenthetically, and that with כי in Ecc 8:6 hypothetically: “an end and decision the heart of the wise man will come to experience (because for everything there is an end and decision), supposing that the wickedness of man has become great upon him, i.e., his burden of guilt has reached its full measure.” We suppose thereby (1) that בָּה, which appears from the accent on the ult. to be an adj., can also be the 3rd pret., since before עָ the tone has gone back to áh (cf. Gen 26:10; Isa 11:1), to protect it from being put aside; but generally the accenting of such forms of עע hovers between the penult. and the ult., e.g., Psa 69:5; Psa 55:22; Pro 14:19. Then (2) that עָלָיו goes back to הָאָדָם without distinction of persons, which has a support in Ecc 6:1, and that thus a great רָעָה is meant lying upon man, which finally finds its punishment. But this view of the relation of the clauses fails, in that it affords no connection for Ecc 8:7. It appears to be best to co-ordinate all the four כי as members of one chain of proof, which reaches its point in Ecc 8:8, viz., in the following manner: the heart of a wise man will see the time and the judgment of the ruler, laying to his heart the temptation to rebellion; for (1) as the author has already said, Ecc 3:17 : “God will judge the righteous as well as the wicked, for there is with Him a time for every purpose and for every act;” (2) the wickedness of man (by which, as Ecc 3:9 shows, despots are aimed at) which he has committed, becomes great upon him, so that suddenly at once the judgment of God will break in upon him; (3) he knows not what will be done; (4) no one can tell him how (quomodo) it, the future, will be, so that he might in any way anticipate it - the judgment will overwhelm him unexpectedly and irretrievably: wickedness does not save its possessor.