Ecclesiastes 8:2-5

Context

8:2 Obey the king’s command,¹

because you took² an oath before God³ to be loyal to him.⁴

8:3 Do not rush out of the king’s presence in haste – do not delay when the matter is unpleasant,⁵

for he can do whatever he pleases.

8:4 Surely the king’s authority⁶ is absolute;⁷

no one can say⁸ to him, “What are you doing?”

8:5 Whoever obeys his⁹ command will not experience harm,

and a wise person¹⁰ knows the proper time¹¹ and procedure.

Romans 13:1

Context

Submission to Civil Government

13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment,¹² and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

[8:2] ¹tc The Leningrad Codex (the basis of BHS) reads אֲנִי (’ani, 1st person common singular independent personal pronoun): “I obey the king’s command.” Other medieval Hebrew mss and all the versions (LXX, Vulgate, Targum, Syriac Peshitta) preserve an alternate textual tradition of the definite accusative marker אֶת־ (’et) introducing the direct object: אֶת־פִּי־מֶלֶךְ שְׁמוֹר (’et-pi-melekh shÿmor, “Obey the command of the king”). External evidence supports the alternate textual tradition. The MT is guilty of simple orthographic confusion between similar looking letters. The BHS editors and the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project adopt אֶת־ as the original reading. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 3:582–83.

[8:2] ²tn The phrase “you took” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.

[8:2] ³tn The genitive-construct שְׁבוּעַת אֱלֹהִים (shÿvu’at ’elohim, “an oath of God”) functions as a genitive of location (“an oath before God”) or an adjectival genitive of attribute (“a supreme oath”).

[8:2] ⁴tn The words “to be loyal to him” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[8:3] ⁵tn Or “do not stand up for a bad cause.”

[8:4] ⁶tn Heb “word.”

[8:4] ⁷tn Heb “supreme.”

[8:4] ⁸tn Heb “Who can say…?”

[8:5] ⁹tn The word “his” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness and clarity.

[8:5] ¹⁰tn Heb “the heart of a wise man.”

[8:5] ¹¹tn The term עֵת (’et, “time”) connotes “a proper, suitable time for an event; the right moment” (HALOT 900 s.v. עֵת 6; BDB 773 s.v. עֵת 2.b); e.g., “it was the time for rain” (Ezra 10:13); “a time of judgment for the nations” (Ezek 30:3); “there is an appropriate time for every occasion” (Eccl 3:1); “the time when mountain goats are born” (Job 39:1); “the rain in its season” (Deut 11:14; Jer 5:24); “the time for the harvest” (Hos 2:11; Ps 1:3); “food in its season” (Ps 104:27).

[13:1] ¹²tn Grk “by God.”