20:5 that the elation of the wicked is brief, 1
the joy of the godless 2 lasts but a moment. 3
14:13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, 4
and the end 5 of joy may be 6 grief.
7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of merrymaking. 7
7:5 It is better for a person to receive 8 a rebuke from those who are wise 9
than to listen to the song 10 of fools.
7:6 For like the crackling of quick-burning thorns 11 under a cooking pot,
so is the laughter of the fool.
This kind of folly 12 also is useless. 13
1 tn The expression in the text is “quite near.” This indicates that it is easily attained, and that its end is near.
2 tn For the discussion of חָנֵף (khanef, “godless”) see Job 8:13.
3 tn The phrase is “until a moment,” meaning it is short-lived. But see J. Barr, “Hebrew ’ad, especially at Job 1:18 and Neh 7:3,” JSS 27 (1982): 177-88.
4 sn No joy is completely free of grief. There is a joy that is superficial and there is underlying pain that will remain after the joy is gone.
5 tn Heb “and its end, joy, is grief.” The suffix may be regarded as an Aramaism, a proleptic suffix referring to “joy.”
6 tn The phrase “may be” is not in the Hebrew but is supplied from the parallelism, which features an imperfect of possibility.
7 sn The expression the house of merrymaking refers to a banquet where those who attend engage in self-indulgent feasting and riotous drinking.
8 tn Heb “hear.”
9 tn Heb “rebuke of the wise,” a subjective genitive (“the wise” administer the rebuke).
10 tn Or “praise.” The antithetical parallelism between “rebuke” (גַּעֲרַת, ga’arat) and “song” (שִׁיר, shir) suggests that the latter is figurative (metonymy of association) for praise/flattery which is “music” to the ears: “praise of fools” (NEB, NJPS) and “flattery of fools” (Douay). However, the collocation of “song” (שִׁיר) in 7:5 with “laughter” (שְׂחֹק, sÿkhoq) in 7:6 suggests simply frivolous merrymaking: “song of fools” (KJV, NASB, NIV, ASV, RSV, NRSV).
11 tn The term “thorns” (הַסִּירִים, hassirim) refers to twigs from wild thorn bushes which were used as fuel for quick heat, but burn out quickly before a cooking pot can be properly heated (e.g., Pss 58:9; 118:12).
12 tn The word “kind of folly” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
13 tn It is difficult to determine whether the Hebrew term הֶבֶל (hevel) means “fleeting” or “useless” in this context. The imagery of quick-burning thorns under a cooking pot is ambiguous and can be understood in more than one way: (1) It is useless to try to heat a cooking pot by burning thorns because they burn out before the pot can be properly heated; (2) the heat produced by quick-burning thorns is fleeting – it produces quick heat, but lasts only for a moment. Likewise, the “laughter of a fool” can be taken in both ways: (1) In comparison to the sober reflection of the wise, the laughter of fools is morally useless: the burning of thorns, like the laughter of fools, makes a lot of noise but accomplishes nothing; (2) the laughter of fools is fleeting due to the brevity of life and certainty of death. Perhaps this is an example of intentional ambiguity.
14 tn Grk “they,” but in an indefinite sense, “people.”
15 sn Like the flood that came and took them all away, the coming judgment associated with the Son of Man will condemn many.
16 tn Grk “So also will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
17 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
18 tn Or “as it happened.”
19 sn Like the days of Noah, the time of the flood in Gen 6:5-8:22, the judgment will come as a surprise as people live their day to day lives.
20 tn Grk “They.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.
21 tn These verbs (“eating… drinking… marrying… being given in marriage”) are all progressive imperfects, describing action in progress at that time.
22 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
23 sn Like that flood came and destroyed them all, the coming judgment associated with the Son of Man will condemn many.
24 tn Or “as it happened.”
25 tn Grk “they.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.
26 sn And destroyed them all. The coming of the Son of Man will be like the judgment on Sodom, one of the most immoral places of the OT (Gen 19:16-17; Deut 32:32-33; Isa 1:10).