Ecclesiastes - GA Barton - 1908.pdf

l6o ECCLESIASTES
state of nothingness. 5. For the living know that they shall die].
The clause presents a reason for the statement of the preceding
verse, but the reason betrays a strange mood of pessimism. The
dead know not anything. To have power to perceive that one
must die is to be greater than the dead, who have no knowledge.
their
Qoheleth's eschatology is that of Ps. 88 10 and ii5 17 . For
memory is forgotten].
That a dead man would be forgotten seems
to have been taken for granted by the Hebrews, cf. Ps. 9 6
3i 12
41 5 .
This fact constitutes for Qoheleth one of the great tragedies of
life, cf. i 11 2 16 . This verse is quoted and opposed in Wisd. 2 4 .
6. Their love as well as their hate and their jealousy have already
perished]. The strongest passions are hushed in the calm of death.
No portion forever . . . under the sun]. The dead are denied
participation in the only world of which Qoheleth knows,
his mind makes the pathos of death a tragedy.
this to
9 2 . SDH]. See on vs. i. iirw], (&, S and U apparently read i^ao (cf.
McN. 149). This is rightly followed by Zap. and McN., and has been
adopted above. aitoS] is a supernumerary in the text. Gins, held that
it was introduced before "nnaV and NEB 1
? to show that these referred to
moral, not ceremonial, qualities; it not only makes awkward Heb., but the
moral qualities have been included in the preceding pair. &, H and A
added jnS to make another balanced pair, but < omits JiaV altogether, and
is rightly followed by Bick., Wild, and Sieg.
(& has apparently preserved
many pre-Aqiban readings in this passage, and this one has been adopted
above. &n> ..... 21t3 ^], for rhetorical effect the structure of the last
two pairs is varied. 3. Soa jn]. Kn., Hit., Gins., Ew. and Del. take this
as a way of expressing the superlative, comparing Jos. I4 15
Ju. 6 15 and
Ct. i 8 . Wr. points out, however, that in these cases the adj. is accom-
panied by the article, and that this is really parallel to Ob. 2 and La. i 1
,
where the adjs. do not have the art., and where it is doubtful whether
the writers intended to express a superlative or not. ins mpn], cf.
on 2 14 and 9 2 . xSn] may, as Del. and Wr. note, be either an adj. or a
verb, but is probably a verb. Everywhere, except in Je. 6", it takes an
ace. of material as here, cf. Dt. 6U 33 23
34 s . mSSm], cf. on i 17 . Perhaps
to be pointed rnSSin. innx],