Ecclesiastes 8:16-17

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Ecclesiastes 8:16 tn Heb “I applied my heart.”
2. Ecclesiastes 8:16 tn Heb “to know.”
3. Ecclesiastes 8:16 tn Heb “and to see the business which is done.”
4. Ecclesiastes 8:16 tn Heb “for no one sees sleep with their eyes either day or night.” The construction גַםכִּי (ki gam) expresses a concessive sense: “even though” (e.g., Ps 23:4; Prov 22:6; Eccl 4:14; Isa 1:15; Lam 3:8; Hos 8:10; 9:16); cf. HALOT 196 s.v. גַּם 9; BDB 169 s.v. גַּם 6; 473 s.v. כִּי 2.c.
5. Ecclesiastes 8:17 tn Heb “all the work of God.”
6. Ecclesiastes 8:17 tn Heb “the work that is done.”
7. Ecclesiastes 8:17 tn Heb “under the sun.”
8. Ecclesiastes 8:17 tn Heb “his”; the referent (man, in a generic sense) has been specified in the translation as the adjective “human” for clarity.
9. Ecclesiastes 8:17 tn Heb “find.”
10. Ecclesiastes 8:17 tn The term “it” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.
11. Ecclesiastes 8:17 tn The particle אִם (ʾim, “even if”) introduces the protasis in a real conditional clause (“If a wise man…”); see IBHS 636-37 §38.2d; R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 74, §453.
12. Ecclesiastes 8:17 tn The imperfect tense verb יֹאמַר (yoʾmar, “to say”) functions in a modal sense, denoting possibility (see IBHS 508 §31.4e; R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 31, §169).
13. Ecclesiastes 8:17 tn Heb “he cannot find”; or “he does not find.”
14. Ecclesiastes 8:17 tn The term “it” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is an implied direct object and has been supplied in the translation for smoothness and stylistic reasons.