Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 8:1
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
"Who is like the wise? and who understandeth the interpretation of things? The wisdom of a man maketh his face bright, and the rudeness of his face is changed." Unlike this saying: "Who is like the wise?" are the formulas חכם מי, Hos 14:9, Jer 11:11, Psa 107:43, which are compared by Hitzig and others. "Who is like the wise?" means: Who is equal to him? and this question, after the scheme מי־כמכה, Exo 15:11, presents him as one who has not his like among men. Instead of כּה the word כּחכם might be used, after לחכם, Ecc 2:16, etc. The syncope is, as at Eze 40:25, omitted, which frequently occurs, particularly in the more modern books, Eze 47:22; Ch2 10:7; Ch2 25:10; Ch2 29:27; Neh 9:19; Neh 12:38. The regular giving of Dagesh to כ after מי, with Jethib, not Mahpach, is as at Ecc 8:7 after כּי; Jethib is a disjunctive. The second question is not כּיודע, but יודע וּמי, and thus does not mean: who is like the man of understanding, but: who understands, viz., as the wise man does; thus it characterizes the incomparably excellent as such. Many interpreters (Oetinger, Ewald, Hitz., Heiligst., Burg., Elst., Zckl.) persuade themselves that דּבר פּשׁר is meant of the understanding of the proverb, 8b. The absence of the art., says Hitzig, does not mislead us: of a proverb, viz., the following; but in this manner determinate ideas may be made from all indeterminate ones. Rightly, Gesenius: explicationem ullius rei; better, as at Ecc 7:8 : cujusvis rei. Ginsburg compares נבון דּבר, Sa1 16:18, which, however, does not mean him who has the knowledge of things, but who is well acquainted with words. It is true that here also the chief idea פּשׁר first leads to the meaning verbum (according to which the lxx, Jer., the Targ., and Syr. translate; the Venet.: ἑρμηνείαν λόγου); but since the unfolding or explaining (pēshěr) refers to the actual contents of the thing spoken, verbi and rei coincide. The wise man knows how to explain difficult things, to unfold mysterious things; in short, he understands how to go to the foundation of things. What now follows, Ecc 8:1, might be introduced by the confirming כי, but after the manner of synonymous parallelism it places itself in the same rank with 1a, since, that the wise man stands so high, and no one like him looks through the centre of things, is repeated in another form: "Wisdom maketh his face bright" is thus to be understood after Psa 119:130 and Psa 19:9, wisdom draws the veil from his countenance, and makes it clear; for wisdom is related to folly as light is to darkness, Ecc 2:13. The contrast, ישׁ ... עזו ("and the rudeness of his face is changed"), shows, however, that not merely the brightening of the countenance, but in general that intellectual and ethical transfiguration of the countenance is meant, in which at once, even though it should not in itself be beautiful, we discover the educated man rising above the common rank. To translate, with Ewald: and the brightness of his countenance is doubled, is untenable; even supposing that ישׁנּא can mean, like the Arab. yuthattay, duplicatur, still עז, in the meaning of brightness, is in itself, and especially with פּניו, impossible, along with which it is, without doubt, to be understood after az panim, Deu 28:50; Dan 8:23, and hē'ēz panim, Pro 7:13, or bephanim, Pro 21:29, so that thus פנים עז has the same meaning as the post-bibl. פנים עזּוּת, stiffness, hardness, rudeness of countenance = boldness, want of bashfulness, regardlessness, e.g.,…
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