Ecclesiastes 11:9--12:1

Enjoy Life to the Fullest under the Fear of God

11:9 Rejoice, young man, while you are young, ¹ 

and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.

Follow the impulses ²  of your heart and the desires ³  of your eyes,

but know that God will judge your motives and actions. ⁴ 

11:10 Banish ⁵  emotional stress ⁶  from your mind. ⁷ 

and put away pain ⁸  from your body; ⁹ 

for youth ¹⁰  and the prime of life ¹¹  are fleeting. ¹² 

Fear God Now Because Old Age and Death Come Quickly

12:1 So remember ¹³  your Creator in the days of your youth –

before ¹⁴  the difficult ¹⁵  days come,

and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

Isaiah 3:11-14

3:11 Too bad for the wicked sinners!

For they will get exactly what they deserve. ¹⁶ 

3:12 Oppressors treat my ¹⁷  people cruelly;

creditors rule over them. ¹⁸ 

My people’s leaders mislead them;

they give you confusing directions. ¹⁹ 

3:13 The Lord takes his position to judge;

he stands up to pass sentence on his people. ²⁰ 

3:14 The Lord comes to pronounce judgment

on the leaders of his people and their officials.

He says, ²¹  “It is you ²²  who have ruined ²³  the vineyard! ²⁴ 

You have stashed in your houses what you have stolen from the poor. ²⁵ 

Isaiah 22:12-14

22:12 At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning,

for shaved heads and sackcloth. ²⁶ 

22:13 But look, there is outright celebration! ²⁷ 

You say, “Kill the ox and slaughter the sheep,

eat meat and drink wine.

Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” ²⁸ 

22:14 The Lord who commands armies told me this: ²⁹  “Certainly this sin will not be forgiven as long as you live,” ³⁰  says the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies.

Luke 13:25

13:25 Once ³¹  the head of the house ³²  gets up ³³  and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and start to knock on the door and beg him, ‘Lord, ³⁴  let us in!’ ³⁵  But he will answer you, ³⁶  ‘I don’t know where you come from.’ ³⁷ 

Luke 17:26-30

17:26 Just ³⁸  as it was ³⁹  in the days of Noah, ⁴⁰  so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. 17:27 People ⁴¹  were eating, ⁴²  they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage – right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then ⁴³  the flood came and destroyed them all. ⁴⁴  17:28 Likewise, just as it was ⁴⁵  in the days of Lot, people ⁴⁶  were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; 17:29 but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ⁴⁷  17:30 It will be the same on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

Luke 19:42-44

19:42 saying, “If you had only known on this day, ⁴⁸  even you, the things that make for peace! ⁴⁹  But now they are hidden ⁵⁰  from your eyes. 19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build ⁵¹  an embankment ⁵²  against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. 19:44 They will demolish you ⁵³  – you and your children within your walls ⁵⁴  – and they will not leave within you one stone ⁵⁵  on top of another, ⁵⁶  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ⁵⁷ 

Hebrews 3:7-11

Exposition of Psalm 95: Hearing God’s Word in Faith

3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ⁵⁸ 

“Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! ⁵⁹ 

3:8 “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness.

3:9 “There your fathers tested me and tried me, ⁶⁰  and they saw my works for forty years.

3:10 “Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering ⁶¹  and they have not known my ways.’

3:11 “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’” ⁶² 

[11:9]  ¹ tn Heb “in your youth”; or “in your childhood.”

[11:9]  ² tn Heb “walk in the ways of your heart.”

[11:9]  ³ tn Heb “the sight.”

[11:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “and know that concerning all these God will bring you into judgment.” The point is not that following one’s impulses and desires is inherently bad and will bring condemnation from God. Rather the point seems to be: As you follow your impulses and desires, realize that all you think and do will eventually be evaluated by God. So one must seek joy within the boundaries of God’s moral standards.

[11:10]  ⁵ tn The verb סוּר (sur, “to remove”) normally depicts a concrete action of removing a physical object from someone’s presence (HALOT 748 s.v. סור 1). Here, it is used figuratively (hypocatastasis) of the emotional/psychological action of banishing unnecessary emotional stress from one’s mind. The Hiphil usage means “to remove; to abolish; to keep away; to turn away; to push aside” (HALOT 748 s.v. 1). The English versions render this term in a variety of ways, none of which is very poetic: “remove” (KJV, RSV, ASV, NASB); “turn aside” (YLT); “ward off” (NAB); and “banish” (NEB, MLB, NIV, NRSV, NJPS, Moffatt).

[11:10]  ⁶ tn The root “vexation” (כַּעַס, ka’as) has a broad range of meanings: “anger” (Deut 4:25; 9:18), “irritation” (Deut 32:21), “offend” (2 Kgs 23:26; Neh 3:37), “vexation” or “frustration” (Ezek 20:28), “grief” (1 Sam 1:6), and “worry” (Ps 112:10; Eccl 7:9); cf. HALOT 491 s.v. כַּעַס. Here, it refers in general to unnecessary emotional stress and anxiety that can deprive a person of the legitimate enjoyment of life and its temporal benefits.

[11:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “your heart.”

[11:10]  ⁸ tn In light of the parallelism, רָעָה (ra’ah) does not refer to ethical evil, but to physical injury, pain, deprivation or suffering (e.g., Deut 31:17, 21; 32:23; 1 Sam 10:19; Neh 1:3; 2:17; Pss 34:20; 40:13; 88:4; 107:26; Eccl 12:1; Jer 2:27; Lam 3:38); see HALOT 1263 s.v. רָעָה 4.b; BDB 949 s.v. רָעָה 2. This sense is best captured as “pain” (NASB, RSV, NRSV, MLB, Moffatt) or “the troubles [of your body]” (NEB, NIV), rather than “evil” (KJV, ASV, YLT, Douay) or “sorrow” (NJPS).

[11:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “your flesh.”

[11:10]  ¹⁰ tn Or “childhood.”

[11:10]  ¹¹ tn Or “youth”; Heb “black hair” or “the dawn [of life].” The feminine noun הַשַּׁחֲרוּת (hashakharut) is a hapax legomenon, occurring only here. There is debate whether it is from שָׁחֹר (shakhor) which means “black” (i.e. black hair, e.g., Lev 13:31, 37; Song 5:11; HALOT 1465 s.v. שׁחר; BDB 1007 s.v. שָׁחֹר and שָׁחַר) or שַׁחַר (shakhar) which means “dawn” (e.g., Gen 19:15; Job 3:9; Song 6:10; HALOT 1466–67 s.v. שָׁחַר). If this term is from שָׁחֹר it is used in contrast to gray hair that characterizes old age (e.g., Prov 16:31; 20:29). This would be a figure (metonymy of association) for youthfulness. On the other hand, if the term is from שַׁחַר it connotes the “dawn of life” or “prime of life.” This would be a figure (hypocatastasis) for youthfulness. In either case, the term is a figure for “youth” or “prime of life,” as the parallel term הַיַּלְדוּת (hayyaldut, “youth” or “childhood”) indicates. The term is rendered variously in the English versions: “black hair” (NJPS); “the dawn of youth” (NAB); “the dawn of life” (ASV, MLB, RSV, NRSV); “the prime of life” (NEB, NASB); “vigor” (NIV); “youth” (KJV); and “manhood” (Moffatt). The plural forms of הַשַּׁחֲרוּת and הַיַּלְדוּת are examples of the plural of state or condition that a person experiences for a temporary period of time, e.g., זְקֻנִים (zÿqunim, “old age”); נְעוּרִים (nÿ’urim, “youth”); and עֲלוּמִים (’alumim, “youthfulness”); see IBHS 121 §7.4.2b.

[11:10]  ¹² tn The term הֶבֶל (hevel, “vanity”) often connotes the temporal idea “fleeting” (e.g., Prov 31:30; Eccl 3:19; 6:12; 7:15; 9:9). This nuance is suggested here by the collocation of “youth” (הַיַּלְדוּת, hayyaldut) and “the prime of life” (הַשַּׁחֲרוּת, hashakharut).

[12:1]  ¹³ tn The imperative זְכֹר (zekhor, “Remember!”) is a figurative expression (metonymy of association) for obeying God and acknowledging his lordship over one’s life (e.g., Num 15:40; Deut 8:18; Pss 42:6-7; 63:6-8; 78:42; 103:18; 106:7; 119:52, 55; Jer 51:50; Ezek 20:43; Jonah 2:7; Mal 4:4). The exhortation to fear God and obey his commands in 12:13-14 spells out what it means to “remember” God.

[12:1]  ¹⁴ tn The temporal adjective עַד (’ad, “before”) appears three times in 12:1-7 (vv. 1b, 2a, 6a). Likewise, the temporal preposition בְּ (bet, “when”) is repeated (vv. 3a, 4b). These seven verses comprise one long sentence in Hebrew: The main clause is 12:1a (“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth”), while 12:1b-7 consists of five subordinate temporal clauses (“before…before…when…when…before…”).

[12:1]  ¹⁵ tn The adjective רָעָה (ra’ah, “evil”) does not refer here to ethical evil, but to physical difficulty, injury, pain, deprivation and suffering (e.g., Deut 31:17, 21; 32:23; 1 Sam 10:19; Neh 1:3; 2:17; Pss 34:20; 40:13; 88:4; 107:26; Eccl 11:10; Jer 2:27; Lam 3:38); see HALOT 1263 s.v. רָעָה 4.b; BDB 949 s.v. רָעָה 2.

[3:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for the work of his hands will be done to him.”

[3:12]  ¹⁷ sn This may refer to the prophet or to the Lord.

[3:12]  ¹⁸ tc The Hebrew text appears to read literally, “My people, his oppressors, he deals severely, and women rule over them.” The correct text and precise meaning of the verse are debated. The translation above assumes (1) an emendation of נֹגְשָׂיו (nogÿsayv, “his oppressors”) to נֹגְשִׂים (nogÿshim, “oppressors”) by moving the mem (ם) on the following form to the end of the word and dropping the vav (ו) as virtually dittographic; (2) an emendation of מְעוֹלֵל (mÿ’olel, a singular participle that does not agree with the preceding plural subject) to עֹלְלוּ (’olÿlu), a third plural Poel perfect from עָלַל (’alal, “deal severely”; note that the following form begins with a vav [ו]; the text may be haplographic or misdivided); and (3) an emendation (with support from the LXX) of נָשִׁים (nashim, “women”) to נֹשִׁים (noshim, “creditors”; a participle from נָשַׁא, nasa’). Another option is to emend מְעוֹלֵל to עוֹלְלִים (’olÿlim, “children”) and read, “My people’s oppressors are children; women rule over them.” In this case the point is the same as in v. 4; the leadership void left by the judgment will be filled by those incompetent to lead the community – children and women. (The text reflects the ancient Israelite patriarchal mindset.)

[3:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and the way of your paths they confuse.” The verb בָּלַע (bala’, “confuse”; HALOT 135 s.v. I בלע) is a homonym of the more common בָּלַע (“swallow”; see HALOT 134 s.v. בלע).

[3:13]  ²⁰ tc The Hebrew text has “nations,” but the preceding and following contexts make it clear that the Lord is judging his covenant people. עָמִים (’amim) should be changed (with support from the LXX) to עמו. The final mem (ם) on the form in the Hebrew is either dittographic or enclitic. When the mem was added or read as a plural ending, the vav (ו) was then misread as a yod (י).

[3:14]  ²¹ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:14]  ²² tn The pronominal element is masculine plural; the leaders are addressed.

[3:14]  ²³ tn The verb בָּעַר (ba’ar, “graze, ruin”; HALOT 146 s.v. II בער) is a homonym of the more common בָּעַר (ba’ar, “burn”; see HALOT 145 s.v. I בער).

[3:14]  ²⁴ sn The vineyard is a metaphor for the nation here. See 5:1-7.

[3:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the plunder of the poor [is] in your houses” (so NASB).

[22:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “for baldness and the wearing of sackcloth.” See the note at 15:2.

[22:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “happiness and joy.”

[22:13]  ²⁸ tn The prophet here quotes what the fatalistic people are saying. The introductory “you say” is supplied in the translation for clarification; the concluding verb “we die” makes it clear the people are speaking. The six verbs translated as imperatives are actually infinitives absolute, functioning here as finite verbs.

[22:14]  ²⁹ tn Heb “it was revealed in my ears [by?] the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].”

[22:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Certainly this sin will not be atoned for until you die.” This does not imply that their death will bring atonement; rather it emphasizes that their sin is unpardonable. The statement has the form of an oath.

[13:25]  ³¹ tn The syntactical relationship between vv. 24-25 is disputed. The question turns on whether v. 25 is connected to v. 24 or not. A lack of a clear connective makes an independent idea more likely. However, one must then determine what the beginning of the sentence connects to. Though it makes for slightly awkward English, the translation has opted to connect it to “he will answer” so that this functions, in effect, as an apodosis. One could end the sentence after “us” and begin a new sentence with “He will answer” to make simpler sentences, although the connection between the two sentences is thereby less clear. The point of the passage, however, is clear. Once the door is shut, because one failed to come in through the narrow way, it is closed permanently. The moral: Do not be too late in deciding to respond.

[13:25]  ³² tn Or “the master of the household.”

[13:25]  ³³ tn Or “rises,” or “stands up.”

[13:25]  ³⁴ tn Or “Sir.”

[13:25]  ³⁵ tn Grk “Open to us.”

[13:25]  ³⁶ tn Grk “and answering, he will say to you.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “he will answer you.”

[13:25]  ³⁷ sn For the imagery behind the statement “I do not know where you come from,” see Ps 138:6; Isa 63:16; Jer 1:5; Hos 5:3.

[17:26]  ³⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[17:26]  ³⁹ tn Or “as it happened.”

[17:26]  ⁴⁰ 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.

[17:27]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “They.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.

[17:27]  ⁴² tn These verbs (“eating… drinking… marrying… being given in marriage”) are all progressive imperfects, describing action in progress at that time.

[17:27]  ⁴³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[17:27]  ⁴⁴ sn Like that flood came and destroyed them all, the coming judgment associated with the Son of Man will condemn many.

[17:28]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “as it happened.”

[17:28]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “they.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.

[17:29]  ⁴⁷ 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).

[19:42]  ⁴⁸ sn On this day. They had missed the time of Messiah’s coming; see v. 44.

[19:42]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “the things toward peace.” This expression seems to mean “the things that would ‘lead to,’ ‘bring about,’ or ‘make for’ peace.”

[19:42]  ⁵⁰ sn But now they are hidden from your eyes. This becomes an oracle of doom in the classic OT sense; see Luke 13:31-35; 11:49-51; Jer 9:2; 13:7; 14:7. They are now blind and under judgment (Jer 15:5; Ps 122:6).

[19:43]  ⁵¹ sn Jesus now predicted the events that would be fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. The details of the siege have led some to see Luke writing this after Jerusalem’s fall, but the language of the verse is like God’s exilic judgment for covenant unfaithfulness (Hab 2:8; Jer 6:6, 14; 8:13-22; 9:1; Ezek 4:2; 26:8; Isa 29:1-4). Specific details are lacking and the procedures described (build an embankment against you) were standard Roman military tactics.

[19:43]  ⁵² sn An embankment refers to either wooden barricades or earthworks, or a combination of the two.

[19:44]  ⁵³ tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”

[19:44]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.

[19:44]  ⁵⁵ sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.

[19:44]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”

[19:44]  ⁵⁷ tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.

[3:7]  ⁵⁸ sn The following quotation is from Ps 95:7b-11.

[3:7]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”

[3:9]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “tested me by trial.”

[3:10]  ⁶¹ tn Grk “they are wandering in the heart.”

[3:11]  ⁶² tn Grk “if they shall enter my rest,” a Hebrew idiom expressing an oath that something will certainly not happen.