Ecclesiastes 8:4

8:4 Surely the king’s authority ¹  is absolute; ² 

no one can say ³  to him, “What are you doing?”

Ecclesiastes 5:2

5:2 Do not be rash with your mouth or hasty in your heart to bring up a matter before God,

for God is in heaven and you are on earth!

Therefore, let your words be few.

Ecclesiastes 10:11

10:11 If the snake should bite before it is charmed, ⁴ 

the snake charmer ⁵  is in trouble. ⁶ 

Ecclesiastes 7:21

7:21 Also, do not pay attention to everything that people ⁷  say;

otherwise, ⁸  you might even hear ⁹  your servant cursing you.

Ecclesiastes 12:13

12:13 Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion: ¹⁰ 

Fear God and keep his commandments,

because this is the whole duty ¹¹  of man.

[8:4]  ¹ tn Heb “word.”

[8:4]  ² tn Heb “supreme.”

[8:4]  ³ tn Heb “Who can say…?”

[10:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “without charming.”

[10:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “the master of the tongue.”

[10:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “has no profit”; ASV, NAB, NRSV “there is no advantage.”

[7:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “so that you do not hear…”; or “lest you hear….”

[7:21]  ⁹ tn The imperfect tense verb תִשְׁמַע (tishma’; from שָׁמַע [shama’, “to hear”]) functions in a modal sense, denoting possibility: “you might hear” (see IBHS 508 §31.4e).

[12:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “The end of the matter, everything having been heard.”

[12:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “This is all men”; or “This is the whole of man.” The phrase זֶה כָּל־הָאָדָם (zeh kol-ha’adam, “this is all men”) features rhetorical elision of a key word. The ambiguity over the elided word has led to no less than five basic approaches: (1) “this is the whole duty of man” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NAB, NIV); (2) “this is the duty of all men” (MLB, ASV margin, RSV margin); (3) “this applies to all men” (NASB, NJPS); (4) “this is the whole duty of all men” (NRSV, Moffatt); and (5) “there is no more to man than this” (NEB). The four-fold repetition of כֹּל (kol, “all”) in 12:13-14 suggests that Qoheleth is emphasizing the “bottom line,” that is, the basic duty of man is simply to fear and obey God: After “all” (כֹּל) has been heard in the book, his conclusion is that the “whole” (כֹּל) duty of man is to obey God because God will bring “all” (כֹּל) acts into judgment, including “all” (כֹּל) that is hidden, whether good or bad. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 3:596.