3:24 So Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Abner 1 has come to you! Why would you send him away? Now he’s gone on his way! 2 3:25 You know Abner the son of Ner! Surely he came here to spy on you and to determine when you leave and when you return 3 and to discover everything that you are doing!”
10:5 I have seen another 6 misfortune 7 on the earth: 8
It is an error a ruler makes. 9
10:6 Fools 10 are placed in many positions of authority, 11
while wealthy men sit in lowly positions.
10:7 I have seen slaves 12 on horseback
and princes walking on foot 13 like slaves.
3:5 The people will treat each other harshly;
men will oppose each other;
neighbors will fight. 14
Youths will proudly defy the elderly
and riffraff will challenge those who were once respected. 15
1 tn Heb “Look, Abner.”
2 tc The LXX adds “in peace.”
3 tn Heb “your going out and your coming in.” The expression is a merism. It specifically mentions the polar extremities of the actions but includes all activity in between the extremities as well, thus encompassing the entirety of one’s activities.
4 tn Heb “are hard from me.”
5 tn Heb “May the
6 tn The term “another” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to indicate that this is not the first “misfortune” described by the Teacher. See 5:13, 16; 6:1-2.
7 tn Heb “an evil.”
8 tn Heb “under the sun.”
9 tn Heb “like an error that comes forth from the presence of a ruler.”
10 tn Heb “folly.”
11 tn Heb “high places.”
12 tn Or “servants,” so KJV, ASV, NCV, NLT (also in the following line).
13 tn Heb “upon the earth.”
14 tn Heb “man against man, and a man against his neighbor.”
15 tn Heb “and those lightly esteemed those who are respected.” The verb רָהַב (rahav) does double duty in the parallelism.