"That which hath been, its name hath long ago been named; and it is determined what a man shall be: and he cannot dispute with Him who is stronger than he." According to the usage of the tense, it would be more correct to translate: That which (at any time) has made its appearance, the name of which was long ago named, i.e., of which the What? and the How? were long ago determined, and, so to speak, formulated. This שׁ ... כּבר does not stand parallel to היה כבר, Ecclesiastes 1:10; for the expression here does not refer to the sphere of that which is done, but of the predetermination. Accordingly, אדם ... ונו is also to be understood. Against the accents, inconsistently periodizing and losing sight of the comprehensiveness of אדם ... אשׁר, Hitzig renders: "and it is known that, if one is a man, he cannot contend," etc., which is impossible for this reason, that אדם הוא cannot be a conditional clause enclosed within the sentence יוכל ... אשׁר. Obviously ונודע, which in the sense of constat would be a useless waste of words, stands parallel to שׁמו נקרא, and signifies known, viz., previously known, as passive of ידע, in the sense of Zechariah 14:7; cf. Psalm 139:1. Bullock rightly compares Acts 15:18. After ידע, asher, like ki, which is more common, may signify "that," Ecclesiastes 8:12; Ezekiel 20:26; but neither "that he is a man" (Knobel, Vaih., Luzz., Hengst., Ginsb.), nor "that he is the man" (Ewald, Elst., Zckler), affords a consistent meaning. As mah after yada' means quid, so asher after it may mean quod equals that which (cf. Daniel 8:19, although it does not at all stand in need of proof); and id quod homo est (we cannot render הוּא without the expression of a definite conception of time) is intended to mean that the whole being of a man, whether of this one or that one, at all times and on all sides, is previously known; cf. to this pregnant substantival sentence, Ecclesiastes 12:13. Against this formation of his nature and of his fate by a higher hand, man cannot utter a word.

The thought in 10b is the same as that at Isaiah 45:9; Romans 9:20. The Chethı̂b שׁהתּקּיף

(Note: With He unpointed, because it is omitted in the Kerı̂, as in like manner in כּשׁה, Ecclesiastes 10:3, שׁה, Lamentations 5:18. In the bibl. Rabb., the ה is noted as superfluous.)

is not inadmissible, for the stronger than man is מנּהּ ... מרי. Also התקיף might in any case be read: with one who overcomes him, has and manifests the ascendency over him. There is indeed no Hiph. הת .hpiH found in the language of the Bible (Herzf. and Frst compare הג, Psalm 12:5); but in the Targ., אתקף is common; and in the school-language of the Talm., הת is used of the raising of weighty objections, e.g., Kamma 71a. The verb, however, especially in the perf., is in the passage before us less appropriate. In לא־יוּכל lie together the ideas of physical (cf. Genesis 43:32; Deuteronomy 12:17; Deuteronomy 16:5, etc.) and moral inability.

Ecclesiastes 7:4 Parallel Commentaries

heart

Nehemiah 2:2,5 Why the king said to me, Why is your countenance sad, seeing you are not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart...

Isaiah 53:3,4 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him...

Matthew 8:14-16 And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever...

Mark 5:38 And he comes to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and sees the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.

Luke 7:12,13 Now when he came near to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother...

John 11:31-35 The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out...

the heart

1 Samuel 25:36 And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him...

1 Samuel 30:16 And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad on all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing...

2 Samuel 13:28 Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, Mark you now when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, Smite Amnon...

1 Kings 20:16 And they went out at noon. But Benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings...

Isaiah 21:4 My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure has he turned into fear to me.

Jeremiah 51:39,57 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake...

Daniel 5:1-4,30 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand...

Hosea 7:5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

Nahum 1:10 For while they be entwined together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

Mark 6:21 And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee;