Ecclesiastes 2:1-9
<0559> [said.]
<03212> [Go to.]
self-indulgent <05254> [I will.]
said <0559> [I said.]
Solomon is not speaking here of sober enjoyment of the things of the world, but of intemperate pleasure, whose two attendants, laughter and mirth, are introduced by a beautiful prosopopoeia, as two persons, whom he treats with the utmost contempt.
folly <01984> [It is.]
thought <08446> [sought.]
indulging .... wine ..... my <01320 03196 04900> [give myself unto wine. Heb. draw my flesh with wine. yet.]
behaving <0270> [and to lay.]
discover <07200> [till.]
few <04557> [all. Heb. the number of.]
increased <01431> [made.]
built <01129> [I builded.]
planted <05193> [I planted.]
gardens <01593> [me.]
planted <05193> [I planted.]
pools <01295> [pools.]
irrigate <08248> [to water.]
slaves ........ born <05650 01121> [servants.]
born <01121> [and had.]
slaves ........ born .... house <01004 05650 01121> [servants born in my house. Heb. sons of my house. also.]
silver <03701> [silver.]
singers .... singers <07891> [men singers.]
harem .... concubines <07705> [musical instruments, etc. Heb. musical instrument and instruments.]
The difficult words {shiddah weshiddoth} are variously rendered. The LXX. have [oinocoon kai oinochoas,] "male and female cup-bearers," with which the Syriac and Arabic and Parkhurst agree; Aquila, [kulikon kai kulikia,] "a cup and smaller cups;" Jerome, {scyphos et urceolos, (Vulg. {urceos,}) "goblets and pots;" Targum, "warm and cold baths;" others, as M. Desvoeux, "male and female captives;" others, "cooks and confectioners;" others, "a species of musical compositions," derived from Sido, a celebrated Phoenician woman, to whom Sanchoniatho attributes the invention of music; but others, with more probability, "wives and concubines;" and {siddoth} may be in this sense synonymous with the Arabic {seedat, domina, conjux} from {sada,} in {Conj. V. conjugium inivit.} Of the former, Solomon had three hundred, and of the latter, seven hundred; and if they are not mentioned here they are not mentioned at all, which is wholly unaccountable.
