1:8 All this 1 monotony 2 is tiresome; no one can bear 3 to describe it: 4
The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content 5 with hearing.
6:10 Whatever has happened was foreordained, 6
and what happens to a person 7 was also foreknown.
It is useless for him to argue with God about his fate
because God is more powerful than he is. 8
1 tn The word “this” is not in Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “the things.” The Hebrew term דְּבָרִים (dÿvarim, masculine plural noun from דָּבָר, davar) is often used to denote “words,” but it can also refer to actions and events (HALOT 211 s.v. דָּבָר 3.a; BDB 183 s.v. דָּבָר IV.4). Here, it means “things,” as is clear from the context: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done” (1:9). Here דְּבָרִים can be nuanced “occurrences” or even “[natural] phenomena.”
3 tn Heb “is able.”
4 tn The Hebrew text has no stated object. The translation supplies “it” for stylistic reasons and clarification.
5 tn The term מָלֵא (male’, “to be filled, to be satisfied”) is repeated in 1:7-8 to draw a comparison between the futility in the cycle of nature and human secular accomplishments: lots of action, but no lasting effects. In 1:7 אֵינֶנּוּ מָלֵא (’enennu male’, “it is never filled”) describes the futility of the water cycle: “All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never filled.” In 1:8 וְלֹא־תִמָּלֵא (vÿlo-timmale’, “it is never satisfied”) describes the futility of human labor: “the ear is never satisfied with hearing.”
6 tn Heb “already its name was called.”
7 tn Or “and what a person (Heb “man”) is was foreknown.”
8 tn Heb “he cannot contend with the one who is more powerful than him.” The referent of the “the one who is more powerful than he is” (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The words “with God about his fate” have been added for clarity as well.