clare, and shall afterwards try the effect of rendering by the same word. The passage is as follows:

viii. 17. Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man

cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

ix. 1. For all this I considered in my heart1 even to acknowledge all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth 2 either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked: to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Now on comparing this context with iii. 11 sqq. we observe the following points of resemblance:

(a) Man cannot find out the work which is wrought under the sun. (viii. 17.)

Man cannot find out the work which God hath wrought. (iii. 11.)

(B) There is one hap to the righteous and to the wicked. (ix. 2.)

There are perversions of justice. (iii. 16.)

There is one hap to all, sc. to men (just or unjust) and beasts. (iii. 19.)

(7) The righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God. (ix. 1.)

The righteous and the wicked God shall judge; for there is a time &c. (iii. 17.)

We may complete the comparison between the two contexts

1 Or thus: 'and it is to (=one must) acknowledge all this,' a b

.כל זה

by referring and to the same root or to roots of similar meaning. In ix. 1 it is concluded that man must after all acknowledge his own ignorance and the fact that God is the sole disposer of events: in iii. 18 (according to the proposed rendering) it is concluded,

I said in my heart,

It is according to the condition of the sons of men
That they should acknowledge God (sc. as the sole disposer)
And perceive that they themselves are to themselves

(i. e. so far as their own knowledge and observation go)
beasts.

In the preceding verse it had been said, that God would judge &c.; and in this eighteenth verse it is added, that the thing for man to do under the circumstances is to acknowledge that the disposition of events is in his hand alone.

This result (1) follows, as we have seen, from the assimilation of the obscure to the of a strikingly similar context; and (2) it is also a priori probable, for if all that remained of ver. 18 were the hemistich

And to see that they themselves are beasts unto themselves— it would doubtless be conjectured that the first hemistich also described some action of which they,' viz. men, were the subjects. Thus, the seventeenth verse referring to the fact of God's judgement, the whole of the eighteenth would set forth a corresponding duty of men.

III. Eccl. xii. 11:

דברי חכמים כדרבנות

וכמשמרות נטועים בעלי אספות

נתנו מרעה אחד :

The difficulties of this verse are in the second clause and in the final . The mention of 'goads' in the first clause and of a 'shepherd' in the third suggests that the whole of the imagery is taken from pastoral life. The prima facie construction of the intermediate clause is perhaps that which makes a noun (of form ) with which the preceding word is in construc

tion., if a noun, must mean something planted or fixed, e. g. a stake, or say a hurdle: but the general sense will be the

,משמרות as a participle agreeing with נטועים same if we take

although the latter is feminine in form. (Compare

,בעל פיפיות compare

Eccl. vii. 29.) O by follows naturally in apposition with by. It means literally 'domini collectionum,' and may be applied to anything which has the property of holding together. For a use of this idiom in connexion with an inanimate object, as an epithet of the agricultural implement (Is. xli. 15). The 'goads,' spoken of in the first clause, stimulate and drive onward: the 'clamps of hurdles,' or 'fixed pegs'-whichever construction we take-hold the flock together at their journey's end and prevent them from straying. The third clause adds that both goads and clamps-the one a stimulant, the other a restraint-are applied by one and the same pastor. For this use of 8, compare ii. 14; iii. 19; ix. 2, 3);

(iii. 19); 78 p vi. 6). The verse then may be rendered,

(Eccl.

(iii. 20 ;

The words of the wise are as the goads that drive the flock onward; and as the fixed pegs [or hurdle-clamps] that hold them together; which are applied by one and the same pastor.

The words of the wise, that is, serve the twofold purpose of stimulating or suggesting, and of preserving from discursiveness and error.

The above explanation of Eccl. xii. 11 was devised, but not written out, several years ago; but I am not sure whether I had already seen Mr Ginsburg's note, which gives in great part, though not wholly, the same. For the literature of all the passages above discussed I refer to that commentator's valuable treatise on 'Coheleth.' But his note on Eccl. iii. 18 is one of the least satisfactory in the volume. The words are there rendered 'I said God hath chosen them. For this construction the following references are given, viz. Deut. ix. 25; Esth. i. 17; iv. 13; Eccl. viii. 17; but they are not very clearly appropriate; the action being in three of the cases obviously in

the future-'He said that he would destroy;' 'He commanded to bring;'... to answer;' and even in Ecck viii. 17 a future sense seems distinctly appropriate Though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.' See Ps. lxxiii. 16.

P.S. On the root .

This root is not improbably cognate with, in Aph. ' perfecit, consummavit,' and, integer, completus, copiosus fuit;' the organic root being taken to be, as found also in 'copiosus fuit.' The ideas of fulness, completeness, and luxuriance are naturally connected—especially for an Oriental—with that of beauty. The thing described as beautiful must be (1) complete in all its parts, and (2) not undersized or meagre, but large and 'fine' of its kind. Some examples are subjoined.

In Ezek. xxxi. 3—9, the Assyrian is described as a fine cedar, the ideas of fulness and luxuriance being dwelt upon throughout; he was 'fair in his greatness' &c. In Jer. xi. 16, an olive tree is, fair with shapely fruit. In Gen. xli. 2, 4, 18, the 'well-favoured' kine are 'fat-fleshed. For the same idea in connexion with human beauty, though not for the word, compare Dan. i. 15: ‘fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.' Fattening food promotes beauty (Ezek. xvi. 13): simila, melle, oleo pasta, atque ita formosissima et regno idonea facta.' Luxuriance enters into the description of Absalom's beauty: 'he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels' (2 Sam. xiv. 25). In 'y' (1 Sam. xvi. 12; Cant. i. 15; iv. 1), largeness and fulness of eyes would naturally be implied. In , Cant. vi. 10, the comparison would be with the full orb of the moon, and not only with its brightness: see Freytag, s. v. badr, and comp. Sirac. 1. 6, ws σeλývn wλýpns év nuépais. A beautiful voice (Ezek. xxxiii. 32) would be a full, rich voice. A 'fine' mountain (, Ps. xlviii. 3) would in general be a comparatively large or grand mountain.

כלבנה

Again,

implies attractiveness1.

,נעם It is used with

Prov. xxxi. 30; with
But there is no evi-

Cant. i. 16; vii. 7; with , Ps. xlv. 4; N, Ps. xlv. 12; with , Prov. vi. 25. dence to shew that it may imply moral fitness, although the transition would not be difficult. In Eccl. v. 17 I have taken

to mean pleasant or attractive in connexion with eating and drinking, &c.,'. For this compare Cant. iv. 10: How fair is thy love, my sister,... how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices.' Compare also Zech. ix. 17, where

introduces

the enjoyment of plenty: 'Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.' One doubtful usage of now remains, sc. that in Eccl. iii. 11. Here it seems best to take the general meaning attractive-for we have seen that may mean pleasant to the several senses of taste, hearing, &c.— and to avoid the unprecedented meaning, 'comely,' viz. in a moral sense.

1 Plenty is naturally connected with satisfaction. The like meaning might be deduced from 'promissis stetit' (see

Freytag), which however is less likely than 'integer, copiosus fuit' to be primary.

C. TAYLOR.