chapter vii. 7, Isaiah xliv. 25; and the participle at chapter ii. 2,

Psalm cii. 89. Thus we see the connexion between this sense and the more ordinary one of ‘praise;’ it is the ‘bepraised’ used in a bad sense. The word שכלות occurs here only, but it is rendered by the LXX. ἐπιστήμη, and by the Syriac (‡ Syriac), compare also Genesis xli. 33, with the meaning ‘prudence,’ and with this agrees the later Hebrew. Now these meanings make consistent sense. Koheleth wished to know wisdom and the knowledge of folly and prudence; in other words, to have a wisdom which could tell the one from the other. Thus the LXX. render ‎‏הל״ by παραβολὰς, which A² has altered into περιφορὰν; this apparently very strange rendering is thus intelligible enough, especially to those who had the Hebrew before them. To alter the text to סכלות, as some have proposed, is not even to cut the Gordian knot, for with the true meaning of this word, ‘clever-folly,’ ‘false-wisdom,’ no better sense will be made, although it is quite possible that שכ״ may have been chosen for the equivoke it gives, not even differing in sound, if the pointing can be trusted, from סכ״. The truth is that so much of our elaborate wisdom and best plans are but elaborate mistakes, that to attempt to judge the one from the other is a hopeless task. Hence then the following) =I know= (this is the fourth time this word occurs in the clause, thus it is brought out with the very strongest prominence, and gives the meaning ‘what I do know is’) =that even this= (שגם, compare places chapter ii. 15, viii. 14, has a peculiar meaning, expressive of surprise that this should be so) really =is vexing of spirit= (רעיון, not רעות, as above; because in this case the vexation is subjective,――the idea conveyed by the whole passage being ‘what I do know as the result of my wisdom and knowledge being just even this, that it is only a vexing of the spirit’). It may be observed that רעיון occurs in the Chaldee of Daniel――see Daniel ii. 29, 30; iv. 19 (16); v. 6, etc., always in the sense of a ‘_painful_ reflection,’ but in later Chaldee and Syriac as ‘a reflection’ of any kind. As the sense in which Koheleth uses the word is the nearest to the root-meaning, is it not an evidence, so far, of earlier composition of his book?

18 For in much wisdom │ because, in increasing wisdom, _is_ much grief: and he │ there is an increase also of that increaseth knowledge │ disappointment, and what adds increaseth sorrow. │ to one’s knowledge adds to │ one’s sorrow.

(18.) =For= (introducing a reason for this conclusion as follows) =in much wisdom is much grief= (grief in the sense of ‘vexation,’ caused by disappointment――see chapter ii. 23, vii. 3, 9, xi. 10, 1 Samuel i. 6. The LXX. translate by γνῶσις, ‘knowledge’! Is it possible that they intended to refer to Genesis ii. ♦17, using γνῶσις in a bad sense?) =and= he that =increases knowledge increases sorrow= (chapter ii. 23; Exodus iii. 7, of the Israelitish sorrows at the hands of their task-masters). ‘In a world like this much science is much sorrow, for it is the knowledge of penury, the statistics of starvation, the assurance that our case is desperate.’――[Hamilton.]

♦ “xvii.” replaced with “17”

Even the wisdom of Solomon having failed to find any solution of the problem of human anxiety, he next tries mirth, but with no better success. This experiment takes only two verses to record, for it was but soon over.