13]]; Pro 15:32; the fact repeating itself is here treated as a property. Like the fish and the birds are they, such as are caught, etc. Otherwise Hitz.: Like these are they caught, during the continuance of their life in the evil time ... ; but the being snared does not, however, according to the double figure, precede the catastrophe, but is its consequence. Rightly, Ginsb.: “Like these are the sons of men ensnared in the time of misfortune.” רעה might be adj., as at Amo 5:13; Mic 2:3; but since it lies nearer to refer כּשׁתּ to ra'ah than to 'eth, thus ra'ah, like the frequently occurring yom ra'ah (Ecc 7:14; cf. Jer 17:17 with Jer 15:11), may be thought of as genit. An example of that which is here said is found in the fatal wounding of Ahab by means of an arrow which was not aimed at him, so that he died “at the time of the going down of the sun,” 2Ch 18:33-34.
Verse 13
Ecc 9:13 “Also this have I come to see as wisdom under the sun, and it appears great to me.” The Venet. construes falsely: “This also have I seen: wisdom under the sun;” as also Hitzig, who reads זה (neut. as at Ecc 7:27). There is no reason thus to break up the sentence which introduces the following experience. Zoh is connected with hhochmah, but not as Luther renders it: “I have also seen this wisdom,” which would have required the words הח זאת, but, as Jerome does: Hanc quoque sub sole vidi sapeintiam; this, however, since äæ־îâ, as at Ecc 5:15, cf. Ecc 9:18, is attractionally related to hhochmah as its pred., is = “also in this I saw wisdom,” as the lxx translates, or as Zöckl.: “also this have I seen - come to find out as wisdom,” - also this, viz., the following incident narrated, in which wisdom of exceeding greatness presented itself to me. As Mordecai is called “great among the Jews,” Est 10:3, so here Koheleth says that the wisdom which came to light therein appeared to him great (אלי, as elsewhere בּעיני or לפני).
Now follows an experience, which, however, has not merely a
