Wisdom That Refuses an Easy Formula

The first half is a pun: tov shem mishemen tov, a good name, shem, is better than good ointment, shemen. Perfumed oil was poured on the head at feasts and on the body at burial, so the verse moves from one use to the other in a breath.

“The house of feasting” is beit mishteh, literally a drinking house, the word for the banquets of the Book of Esther. Mourning in Israel was not an afternoon: Joseph kept seven days of it for Jacob (Genesis 50:10). “Lay it to his heart” means take it to heart.

“Sorrow” is ka’as, the vexation of 1:18. The paradox is sharper in Hebrew: by sadness of face the heart becomes good, and a “good heart” is the ordinary idiom for being cheerful, as when the Philistines’ “hearts were merry” in Judges 16:25.

Where the heart is, the person really lives. “Mirth” is simchah, the very thing the Preacher tested in 2:1–2 and will commend in 8:15, so this is not a verdict against joy but a statement about where the fool’s attention settles.

“Rebuke” is ge’arah, a sharp word of correction; the “song of fools” may be flattery or simply party singing. Proverbs 15:31 says the same from the other side: “The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.”

Another pun: the crackle of sirim, thorns, under the sir, the pot. Dry thornbush flares up loud and bright and burns out before the water is hot. Psalm 58:9 uses the same fuel for speed: “Before your pots can feel the thorns”.

“Gift” is mattanah, here a bribe. The law says the same in Exodus 23:8, “the gift blindeth the wise”, and Deuteronomy 16:19 repeats it. “Mad” is the root of the “madness” in 1:17: pressure from above and money from the side can both unhinge a wise man.

“Patient in spirit” is literally “long of spirit”, and “proud in spirit” is “high of spirit”. The length of one set against the height of the other. Proverbs has the matching phrase for the slow-tempered, “slow to wrath”, literally long of nostrils (Proverbs 14:29).

“Resteth” is nuach, to settle down and lodge, as a guest takes up residence. Anger that is quick to arrive in the wise man will not unpack; in the fool’s lap it makes itself at home.

The book has already said in 1:11 that there is no remembrance of former things. Anyone who says the old days were better is comparing the present with a past he cannot actually see, and the question itself is where the lack of wisdom shows.

The preposition im can mean “with” or “like”, so the line may say wisdom is as good as an inheritance, which many versions prefer. “Them that see the sun” is an idiom for the living. Yitron, the book’s “profit”, appears again, this time granted.

“Defence” is tsel, shade. In a hot land shade is protection, and Psalm 121:5 calls the LORD “thy shade upon thy right hand”. Money and wisdom both cast a shadow to stand in, but only wisdom “giveth life”, keeps its owner alive.

“Consider” is re’eh, look. “Make straight” is tiqqen, the verb used in 12:9 when the Preacher “set in order” many proverbs. He can straighten sayings into order, but not the things God has bent.

The Hebrew is lighter: “in the day of good, be in good”, and in the day of evil, look. The same verb “consider” from verse 13 returns. “Over against” means matched or paired, so the two kinds of day are placed side by side and neither can be predicted from the other.

“The days of my vanity” turns hevel on the Preacher’s own life: my brief days. “In his righteousness” can mean despite it or even because of it; the preposition allows both, and the book does not choose.

“Destroy thyself” is tishshomem, from shamem, to be desolated or appalled, the verb used of land laid waste. Both verbs in the verse are reflexive, “make thyself over wise”, which points to a wisdom and righteousness performed on oneself.

“Before thy time” is literally “not in thy time”, using the et of the poem in chapter 3. There was “a time to die” (3:2); folly can make a man keep it early.

“Take hold of this... withdraw not thine hand” keeps both warnings in the grip at once. “Come forth of them all” may mean escape both extremes, or, in the later Hebrew sense of the verb, fulfil both; the rabbis used yatsa for discharging a duty.

“Mighty men” is shallitim, rulers, from the root of power seen in 2:19. A town’s affairs were settled by a small body of elders; when Boaz needed witnesses at the gate he took “ten men of the elders of the city” (Ruth 4:2).

Solomon’s prayer at the temple dedication says the same thing in almost the same words: “there is no man that sinneth not” (1 Kings 8:46). “Doeth good, and sinneth not” sets the two verbs side by side; the one who does good is still the one who sins.

“Take no heed” is literally “do not give your heart” to every word spoken. It is advice against eavesdropping on your own household. The one who listens at every door will hear what he did not want to.

“Curse” here is qalal, whose root sense is to make light of, to belittle. It is disparagement more than a formal oath. “Oftentimes” is literally “many times”, and the heart is the witness that keeps count.

“Proved” is nissiti, the testing verb of 2:1. The resolve is quoted, “I will be wise”, and answered in three Hebrew words: it was far from me. The distance of wisdom is the first thing the search discovers.

“Exceeding deep” is amoq amoq, deep, deep, the doubled word standing for a superlative. Job 28 asks the same thing at length: “where shall wisdom be found?... The depth saith, It is not in me” (Job 28:12, 14).

“The reason of things” is cheshbon, a sum or reckoning, an accountant’s word, and it returns in verse 27 and in 9:10. The verse piles up verbs of inquiry, to know, to search, to seek, as if one were not enough.

“Snares” are hunting traps and “nets” are fishing or dragnets, and “bands” are fetters. Proverbs 5:4 says the strange woman ends “bitter as wormwood”, and Proverbs 7:23 has the young man going after her “as a bird hasteth to the snare”.

This is the only place where the Hebrew gives Qoheleth a feminine verb, amerah qohelet; elsewhere it is masculine, and many scholars redivide the letters to read “said the Preacher”. “Counting one by one” is adding item to item, the bookkeeper tallying a column.

“One among a thousand” is a phrase Job 33:23 uses for a rare messenger, “an interpreter, one among a thousand”. The first word is adam, which can mean a human being, not only a male. The first clause is still open: the soul is still seeking.

“Upright” is yashar, straight, the opposite of the crooked of verse 13. “Inventions” is chishshevonot, schemes, from the same root as cheshbon, the reckoning the Preacher was after in verses 25 and 27. He sought a reckoning; people have sought many reckonings of their own.