The author behoved to have written מענהוּ or אתו מענה. We take the Hiph. as in the sense of the Kal, but give it its nearest signification: to answer, and explain, as in a similar manner Seb. Schmid, Rambam, and others have already done: God answers to the joy of his heart, i.e., He assents to it, or (using an expression which is an exact equivalent), He corresponds to it. This makes the joy a heart-joy, i.e., a joy which a man feels not merely externally, but in the deepest recess of his heart, for the joy penetrates his heart and satisfies it (Sol 3:11; Isa 30:29; Jer 15:16). A similar expression, elsewhere not found, we had at Ecc 5:9 in אהב בּ. Why should not ענה ב (הענה) be possible with ענהוּ, just as ἀμείβεσθαι πρός τι is with ἀμείβεσθαί τινα? For the rest, בש לב is not needed as obj.; we can take it also as an expression of the state or condition: God gives answer in the heart-joy of such an one. In ענה, to answer, to hear the answer, is thought of as granting a request; here, as giving assent to. Job 35:9 affords a twofold suitable example, that the Hiph. can have an enlarged Kal signification.
After the author has taken the opportunity of once more expressing his ultimatum, he continues to register the sad evils that cling to wealth.
Chap. 6
Verse 1
Ecc 6:1 “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and in great weight it lies upon man: a man to whom God giveth riches, and treasures, and honour, and he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he may wish, but God giveth him not power to have enjoyment of it, for a strange man hath the enjoyment: that is vanity and an evil disease.” The author presents the result of personal observation; but inasmuch as he relates it in the second tense, he generalizes the matter, and places it scenically before the eyes of the reader. A similar introduction with ישׁ, but without the unnecessary asher, is found at Ecc 5:12; Ecc 10:5. Regarding בּה, vid., under Ecc 8:6; על does not denote the subj., as at Ecc 2:17 : it appears great to a man, but it has its nearest lying local meaning; it is a great (Ecc 2:21) evil, pressing in its greatness heavily upon man. The evil is not the man himself, but the condition in which he is placed, as when, e.g., the kingdom of heaven is compared to a merchant (Mat 13:45.), - not the merchant in himself, but his conduct and life is a figure of the kingdom of heaven.
Verse 2
To עשׁר וּנך, as at 2Ch 1:11, וך and honour is added as a third thing. What follows we do not translate: “and there is nothing wanting ... ;” for that איננּוּ with the pleonastic suff. may mean: “there is not,” is not to be proved from Gen 39:9, thus: and he spares not for his soul (lxx καὶ οὐκ κ.τ.λ) what he
