Ecclesiastes - GA Barton - 1908.pdf

HUMAN OPPRESSION AND INJUSTICE [CH.3">- III
a man live to the full the round of life's occupations in every de-
partment, for this is his fated lot his profit
has no higher possibility."
for his toil and he
16. no::'] is an emphatic form of D^. Ordinarily the HT is used only
after verbs of motion with a locative signification, but in Je. i8 2 Ps.
1 22 5 and here it is an emphatic form of or, cf. Ko. 33oh. ?&n]. Gr.
noted that in the two halves of the vs. it is tautological, and conjectured
that instead of the second we should read yvs, transgression, a con-
jecture which Dr. also makes. This is probably right. Had it any
MS. authority I should introduce it into the text. (6 curiously reads
cvjef3-/is for dcre/3^s in all copies. Eur. regards it as an early mistake, but
McN. as an early dogmatic correction ia the interest of orthodoxy.
17. Sieg., McN. and Ha. regard this vs. as an interpolation of the Chasid
glossator.
In this they are right, for the thought is out of harmony with
its context. The opinion of Del. as to the double meaning of t3oa is
reinforced by EDS. p. io47b. The opinions of such Hebraists cannot
lightly be rejected. Moreover, vs. 18 joins directly on to vs. 16. TOON].
(gB es. 248. 298 and g, rea(i >niDNi. Sp] is used as in late Heb. in the
same meaning as S, so BDB., Del., Wild. 01?] has been variously
interpreted. Hit., Heil., Ty., Gins., Zo., Del., PL, and Wr. take it as
"there," interpreting it as "in that place" (Heil.), "in the appointed
course of things" (Ty.), or apud Deum (Del. and Wr.). On
the other hand, Houb., Dat., Van d. P., Luz., Kn., Gr., Re., No., VI.,
Wild., Ha. and Dr. emend to ofr, as I have done above. (8 B 68 - omits
it. This has led Sieg. and McN. to do the same. McN. regards it as
a possible corruption of the last two letters of na>j?D or the first two of
the fol. \~HDN. As (& puts it at the beginning of the next verse, it may,
on the other hand, have been omitted for the sake of smoothness.
McN. opposes the emendation air on the ground of awkwardness of
style, but the verb in the first half of the vs. is near the end, and this
clause may well have been inverted in like manner. On the whole, I
prefer the conjectural emendation of the commentators quoted.
18. mai ^y] is late. Apart from this passage it occurs only in BH. in
Qoh. 7" 8 2 and Ps. no4 11 -
. The usual form is -on 18
Sj7 (cf. Gn. so
12" 43 18 Ex. 8 8
), or nsn Sj? (cf. Dt. 4" Je. I4 1
).
It means "for the sake
of." Cf. BOB. o-o 1
?] is, as BD5., Gins., Del, McN. and Ges. K (6yp)
have noted, from *na, the inf. being formed like "n from "ni, Is. 45',
and ir from *ptf, Je. 5 26 . It is connected with the As. bararu, " to be
bright."