HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  9.7–10 The practical sum of Qoheleth’s teaching, given imperative force: in the face of death and vanity, embrace the good in life—both work and play—with passion, as God’s gift (2.24–26; 3.12–14, 22; 5.18–20; 6.3, 6; 7.14; 8.14–15; 11.6–10; 12.1).

  9.11 Time and chance, ultimately determined by God (3.1–17; 7.14).

  9.13–18 A parable followed by proverbial observations (vv. 17–18; cf. 4.13–16) that wisdom provides no assurances.

  9.15 Ambiguous in Hebrew. Poverty limits wisdom, for either the poor man delivered the city and was not honored, or he would have been able to deliver it, had he been taken seriously.

  ECCLESIASTES 10

  Miscellaneous Observations

  1Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a foul odor;

  so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

  2The heart of the wise inclines to the right,

  but the heart of a fool to the left.

  3Even when fools walk on the road, they lack sense,

  and show to everyone that they are fools.

  4If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post,

  for calmness will undo great offenses.

  5There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as great an error as if it proceeded from the ruler: 6folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. 7I have seen slaves on horseback, and princes walking on foot like slaves.

  8Whoever digs a pit will fall into it;

  and whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a snake.

  9Whoever quarries stones will be hurt by them;

  and whoever splits logs will be endangered by them.

  10If the iron is blunt, and one does not whet the edge,

  then more strength must be exerted;

  but wisdom helps one to succeed.

  11If the snake bites before it is charmed,

  there is no advantage in a charmer.

  12Words spoken by the wise bring them favor,

  but the lips of fools consume them.

  13The words of their mouths begin in foolishness,

  and their talk ends in wicked madness;

  14yet fools talk on and on.

  No one knows what is to happen,

  and who can tell anyone what the future holds?

  15The toil of fools wears them out,

  for they do not even know the way to town.

  16Alas for you, O land, when your king is a servant,a

  and your princes feast in the morning!

  17Happy are you, O land, when your king is a nobleman,

  and your princes feast at the proper time—

  for strength, and not for drunkenness!

  18Through sloth the roof sinks in,

  and through indolence the house leaks.

  19Feasts are made for laughter;

  wine gladdens life,

  and money meets every need.

  20Do not curse the king, even in your thoughts,

  or curse the rich, even in your bedroom;

  for a bird of the air may carry your voice,

  or some winged creature tell the matter.

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  * * *

  a Or a child

  10.1–11.6 Traditional sayings of the sort found in Proverbs, mingled with observations characteristic of Qoheleth (10.5–7, 14–15; 11.2b–6).

  10.2 Not a political judgment! The right hand symbolizes strength and competence (wisdom).

  10.4 See 8.2; Prov 19.12; 20.2; 24.21–22; 25.15.

  10.5–7 The social world “upside down” see 10.16; Prov 26.1; 30.21–23; Isa 3.4–5.

  10.8–9 See Prov 26.27; Pss 7.14–16; 9.15–16, which focus on judgment.

  10.10 Translation uncertain.

  10.16–20 Concerning political issues.

  10.16–17 See note on 10.5–7; Prov 31.4–5.

  10.19 See Ps 104.15.

  ECCLESIASTES 11

  The Value of Diligence

  1Send out your bread upon the waters,

  for after many days you will get it back.

  2Divide your means seven ways, or even eight,

  for you do not know what disaster may happen on earth.

  3When clouds are full,

  they empty rain on the earth;

  whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,

  in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

  4Whoever observes the wind will not sow;

  and whoever regards the clouds will not reap.

  5Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything.

  6In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

  Youth and Old Age

  7Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

  8Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all; yet let them remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

  9Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclination of your heart and the desire of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

  10Banish anxiety from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

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  11.1–6 Concerning economic issues.

  11.1–2 Sometimes taken as metaphorical for almsgiving; probably literal and metaphorical advice concerning sea trade in grain (bread, v. 1) and other endeavors; see v. 6.

  11.5 See Ps 139.13–16.

  11.6 Sow, both literal and metaphorical for every sort of human undertaking; see note on 11.1–2; Job 31.8; Prov 11.18; 22.8; Mic 6.15; Gal 6.7.

  11.7–12.8 Conclusions. The possibility of enjoyment is mandatory for youth to understand. Even as youth, itself hevel, gives way to an old age and decay, depicted in graphic, almost apocalyptic, images, death places everything in perspective. The “breath” infused into creation will now return to God (12.7).

  11.9 Judgment. See notes on 3.17; 8.5–6.

  11.10 Anxiety. See note on 7.3.

  ECCLESIASTES 12

  1Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them” 2before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return witha the rain; 3in the day when the guards of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly; 4when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low; 5when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself alongb and desire fails; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets; 6before the silver cord is snapped,c and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, 7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breathd returns to God who gave it. 8Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher;e all is vanity.

  Epilogue

  9Besides being wise, the Teacherf also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. 10The Teacherg sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly.

  11The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd.h 12Of anything beyond these, my child, beware. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

  13The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. 14For God will bring every deed into judgment, includingi every secret
thing, whether good or evil.

  * * *

  a Or after; Heb ‘ahar

  b Or is a burden

  c Syr Vg Compare Gk: Heb is removed

  d Or the spirit

  e Qoheleth, traditionally rendered Preacher

  f Qoheleth, traditionally rendered Preacher

  g Qoheleth, traditionally rendered Preacher

  h Meaning of Heb uncertain

  i Or into the judgment on

  12.1–8 A prose poem on death variously read as a house falling to pieces, the image of a funeral passing, or an allegory of aging, in which images represent parts of the aging body (e.g., women who grind are the teeth and those who look the eyes, v. 3). The passage most likely portrays a village funeral (vv. 5–7) to remind readers (v. 1) of their own coming death.

  12.1 Continuation of the advice to enjoy life in the face of death (see note on 9.7–10). Creator. See v. 7.

  12.2 For the dead, the world is no more. For mourners, death seems the un-creation of the entire world (human as microcosm) in which the light-bearers of Gen 1 are undone (11.7–8; see Job 3.4–5, 9; Isa 13.9–10). Clouds. See Ezek 32.7–8; Joel 2.2.

  12.3 The effects of mourning described; people are wracked with dismay and work ceases. Are bent, perhaps “writhe.” See dimly, because of grief (see Lam 5.17).

  12.4 One rises, or “the sound of a bird rises,” as the mourners grow silent.

  12.5 The sense of the first part of this verse is very uncertain.

  12.6 Images of death. Wheel, or “jar.”

  12.7 See Gen 2.7; 3.19. The thought of this verse seems to contradict 3.21. Breath does not refer to an “immortal soul,” a notion foreign to Qoheleth.

  12.8 Vanity of vanities. The body of the book ends as it began (1.2).

  12.9–14 Epilogue. An assurance, probably by someone other than the author, that all has been faithfully and honestly written.

  SONG OF SOLOMON

  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

  SONG OF SOLOMON (also known as the “Song of Songs,” “Canticles,” and “the Song”) is a rich and sensual love song.

  Purpose

  THE SONG OF SOLOMON has been understood in radically different ways. In the traditional Jewish understanding, the Song is a religious allegory recounting God’s love for Israel and the history of their relationship. For Christians it is an allegory of Christ’s love for the church. These allegorical interpretations enabled the Song to become sacred scripture. According to another theory, the Song is, or at least is derived from, a sacred marriage liturgy, a Mesopotamian ritual of marriage between two gods, the fertility god Dumuzi-Tammuz (perhaps represented by the king) and his sister, Inanna-Astarte (represented by a priestess). Many Mesopotamian rituals celebrate love between different gods, drawing on a reservoir of ancient Near Eastern love imagery, to which the Song of Songs is heir as well. A mortuary song theory identifies the Song’s setting as funerary repasts (or orgies) that affirmed life by setting the power of love against the power of death. According to the wedding song interpretation, the poem describes an actual wedding. The lovers are regarded as bride and groom celebrating their nuptials. Parallels to songs sung at nineteenth-century Palestinian Arab weddings have been used to support this theory. The Song has also been read as secular love poetry. In this view, the poem portrays erotic love between two young people who are not yet betrothed and whose union is not yet recognized by the young woman’s family, but who look forward to public acceptance of their union and to its culmination in marriage. The following notes adopt the last interpretation.

  The other approaches do not necessarily deny that the Song depicts erotic, premarital love, but they regard this level of meaning as superficial or incomplete. There are, however, no signs that the author intended to depict any sort of experience other than human sexual love. Nevertheless, one may draw meanings from a book beyond the author’s intentions, and traditional interpreters, Jewish and Christian, did so with rich results. As a lush and subtle portrayal of adolescent erotic love, the words of the Song can—by a bold reinterpretation—be applied to other types of love, such as the divine benevolence that bestows loving blessings on humanity, the human devotion that transcends death, or the mature sexual communion solemnized in marriage.

  Setting

  JUDGING FROM ITS SKILLFUL control of language, the Song is a product of deliberate artistry, perhaps composed by a professional singer for entertainment at festivities. Similar Egyptian love songs occasionally define themselves as “entertainment” (lit. “diverting the heart”) and were sung by professional male and female singers at banquets, which are portrayed in many tombs. Similar festivities are a likely setting for the Song’s original use.

  Like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the Song is attributed to King Solomon (1.1), the archetypal wise man and lover. Nothing in the poem supports that identification, and the title is probably a later addition. The Song’s actual author is unknown.

  Opinions on the book’s structure vary greatly. Some scholars believe it is a unified poem constructed on a tight, intricate pattern, while others consider it a loose anthology of originally independent poems from different sources. One view, popular in the nineteenth century, holds that the poem is a drama whose unity resides in a cohesive plot (such as a story of Solomon taking an unwilling rustic maiden to his palace). Others hold that the Song is a single poem written by a single author but lacking any strict overall pattern. Its cohesiveness comes from the presentation of consistent characters who express the same emotions in similar language throughout.

  The dating of the Song is uncertain, since there is nothing to tie it to a specific historical setting. It has been assigned dates ranging from the time of Solomon (mid-tenth century BCE) down to third or second century BCE. The linguistic characteristics of the poem tend to confirm a later (fourth or third century) dating for its present form, but it incorporates themes and us ages from much earlier—probably pre-Israelite—times.

  The Song belongs to a tradition of love poetry known elsewhere in the ancient Near East. Similar language and motifs appear in Mesopotamian love rituals. Even closer are the Egyptian love songs (early thirteenth to mid-twelfth century BCE), which speak of love between unmarried young people who express their longings, joys, and pains, as well as their fascination with the new experiences of love.

  By portraying lovers, the Song represents an idea—and an ideal—of love. It shows a relationship charged with erotic energy and a joyous, sensual world in which the land’s rebirth in spring is the counterpart of the maiden’s blossoming into womanhood. Sexuality is treated with restraint and indirection and affirmed without coyness or apology. The love portrayed is thoroughly egalitarian and mutual; both lovers desire, behave, feel, and speak in the same way and with the same intensity. The constraints of a patriarchal society do not seem to determine the lovers’ behavior toward each other, though they do restrict the young woman’s freedom of movement. As the Song portrays the lovers, they are in transition from youth to maturity. She is unmarried, and in the ancient world there was little time between puberty and marriage. She is still living under her brothers’ authority, but she believes that she is mature (8.10), and it seems that even her brothers are about to recognize her readiness for marriage (8.8–9).

  Love in the Song is seen as a communion of souls, expressed by tightly interlocking dialogue (e.g., 1.9–17; 2.1–3a; 4.1–5.1). It is also a mode of perception, for when the lovers look at each other they see a world of their own. Each describes the other’s body, dwelling lovingly on each part as if to caress it with words and capturing its essence in striking (sometimes startling) images. These images come to life on their own and combine to describe a rich and blessed landscape (4.1–7; 5.10–16; 6.4–10; 7.2–10a), the Arcady of love. [MICHAEL V. FOX]

  SONG OF SOLOMON 1

  1The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.

  Colloquy of Bride and Friends

  2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!

&nb
sp; For your love is better than wine,

  3your anointing oils are fragrant,

  your name is perfume poured out;

  therefore the maidens love you.

  4Draw me after you, let us make haste.

  The king has brought me into his chambers.

  We will exult and rejoice in you;

  we will extol your love more than wine;

  rightly do they love you.

  5I am black and beautiful,

  O daughters of Jerusalem,

  like the tents of Kedar,

  like the curtains of Solomon.

  6Do not gaze at me because I am dark,

  because the sun has gazed on me.

  My mother’s sons were angry with me;

  they made me keeper of the vineyards,

  but my own vineyard I have not kept!

  7Tell me, you whom my soul loves,

  where you pasture your flock,

  where you make it lie down at noon;

  for why should I be like one who is veiled

  beside the flocks of your companions?

  8If you do not know,

  O fairest among women,

  follow the tracks of the flock,

  and pasture your kids

  beside the shepherds’ tents.

  Colloquy of Bridegroom, Friends, and Bride

  9I compare you, my love,

  to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.

  10Your cheeks are comely with ornaments,

  your neck with strings of jewels.

  11We will make you ornaments of gold,

  studded with silver.

  12While the king was on his couch,

  my nard gave forth its fragrance.

  13My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh

  that lies between my breasts.

  14My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms