Text -- Ecclesiastes 4:4 (NET)

Labor Motivated by Envy

4:4 Then I considered all the skillful work that is done: Surely it is nothing more than competition between one person and another. This also is profitless– like chasing the wind.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Ecc 4:4

¹ tn Heb “saw.”

² tn Heb “all the toil and all the skill.” This Hebrew clause (אֶת־כָּל־עָמָל וְאֵת כָּל־כִּשְׁרוֹן, ’et-kol-’amal vÿ’et kol-kishron) is a nominal hendiadys (a figurative expression in which two independent phrases are used to connote the same thing). The second functions adverbially, modifying the first, which retains its full nominal function: “all the skillful work.”

³ tn The phrase “nothing more than” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn The noun קִנְאַה (qin’ah, “competition”) has a wide range of meanings: “zeal; jealousy; envy; rivalry; competition; suffering; animosity; anger; wrath” (HALOT 1110 s.v.; BDB 888 s.v.). Here, as in 9:6, it denotes “rivalry” (BDB 888 s.v. 1) or “competitive spirit” (HALOT 1110 s.v. 1.b). The LXX rendered it ζῆλος (zhlos, “envy; jealousy”). The English versions reflect this broad range: “rivalry” (NEB, NAB, NASB), “envy” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NRSV, MLB, NIV, NJPS), and “jealousy” (Moffatt).

⁵ tn Heb “a man and his neighbor.”

⁶ tn The word “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.