Ecclesiastes 8 — GMV

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8 A man’s wisdom will lighten his countenance; ^{Verse 2} Observe the commandment of the king, ^{Verse 3} Be not hasty; thou shalt go forth out of his presence: ^{Verse 4} Even as a king having power: ^{Verse 5} He that keeps the commandment shall not know an evil thing: ^{Verse 6} For to everything there is time and judgment; ^{Verse 7} For there is no one that knows what is going to be: ^{Verse 8} There is no man that has power over the spirit ^{Verse 9} So I saw all this, ^{Verse 10} And then I saw the ungodly carried into the tombs, ^{Verse 11} Because there is no contradiction made ^{Verse 12} He that has sinned has done evil from that time, ^{Verse 13} But it shall not be well with the ungodly, ^{Verse 14} There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; ^{Verse 15} Then I praised mirth, ^{Verse 16} Whereupon I set my heart to know wisdom, ^{Verse 17} And I beheld all the works of God,

Commentary

"Who is like the wise? and who understandeth the interpretation of things? The wisdom of a man maketh his face bright, and the rudeness of his face is changed." Unlike this saying: "Who is like the wise?" are the formulas חכם מי, Hos 14:9, Jer 11:11, Psa 107:43, which are compared by Hitzig and others. "Who is like the wise?" means: Who is equal to him? and this question, after the scheme מי־כמכה, Exo 15:11, presents him as one who has not his like among men. Instead of כּה the word כּחכם might be used, after לחכם, Ecc 2:16, etc. The syncope is, as at Eze 40:25, omitted, which frequently occurs, particularly in the more modern books, Eze 47:22; Ch2 10:7; Ch2 25:10; Ch2 29:27; Neh 9:19; Neh 12:38. The regular giving of Dagesh to כ after מי, with Jethib, not Mahpach, is as at Ecc 8:7 after כּי; Jethib is a disjunctive. The second question is not כּיודע, but יודע וּמי, and thus does not mean: who is like the man of understanding, but: who understands, viz., as the wise man does; thus it characterizes the incomparably excellent as such. Many interpreters (Oetinger, Ewald, Hitz., Heiligst., Burg., Elst., Zckl.) persuade themselves that דּבר פּשׁר is meant of the understanding of the proverb, 8b. The absence of the art., says Hitzig, does not mislead us: of a proverb, viz., the following; but in this manner determinate ideas may be made from all indeterminate ones. Rightly, Gesenius: explicationem ullius rei; better, as at Ecc 7:8 : cujusvis rei. Ginsburg compares נבון דּבר, Sa1 16:18, which, however, does not mean him who has the knowledge of things, but who is well acquainted with words. It is true that here also the chief idea פּשׁר first leads to the meaning verbum (according to which the lxx, Jer., the Targ., and Syr. translate; the Venet.: ἑρμηνείαν λόγου); but since the unfolding or explaining (pēshěr) refers to the actual contents of the thing spoken, verbi and rei coincide. The wise man knows how to explain difficult things, to unfold mysterious things; in short, he understands how to go to the foundation of things.

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