2:14 The wise man can see where he is going, 1 but the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I also realized that the same fate 2 happens to them both. 3
3:20 Both go to the same place,
both come from the dust,
and to dust both return.
6:6 if he should live a thousand years twice, yet does not enjoy his prosperity.
For both of them die! 4
7:28 What I have continually sought, I have not found;
I have found only 5 one upright 6 man among a thousand,
but I have not found one upright woman among all of them.
1 tn Heb “has his eyes in his head.” The term עַיִן (’ayin, “eye”) is used figuratively in reference to mental and spiritual faculties (BDB 744 s.v. עַיִן 3.a). The term “eye” is a metonymy of cause (eye) for effect (sight and perception).
2 sn The common fate to which Qoheleth refers is death.
3 tn The term כֻּלָּם (kullam, “all of them”) denotes “both of them.” This is an example of synecdoche of general (“all of them”) for the specific (“both of them,” that is, both the wise man and the fool).
4 tn Heb “Do not all go to the same place?” The rhetorical question is an example of erotesis of positive affirmation, expecting a positive answer, e.g., Ps 56:13 [14] (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 947). It affirms the fact that both the miserly rich man who lives two thousand years, as well as the stillborn who never lived one day, both go to the same place – the grave. And if the miserly rich man never enjoyed the fruit of his labor during his life, his fate was no better than that of the stillborn who never had opportunity to enjoy any of the blessings of life. In a sense, it would have been better for the miserly rich man to have never lived than to have experienced the toil, anxiety, and misery of accumulating his wealth, but never enjoying any of the fruits of his labor.
7 tn The word “only” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.
8 tn The word “upright” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation twice, here and in the following line, for clarity.