Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 8:4

A historical reference excerpt for this verse.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.

"Inasmuch as the word of a king is powerful; and who can say to him: What doest thou?" The same thing is said of God, Job 9:12; Isa 45:9; Dan 4:32, Wisd. 12:12, but also of the king, especially of the unlimited monarch of a despotic state. Baasher verifies as בּשׁ at Ecc 2:16; cf. Gen 39:9, Gen 39:23; Greek, ἐν ᾧ and ἐφ ̓ ᾧ. Burger arbitrarily: quae dixit (דּבּר for דּבר), rex, in ea potestatem habet. The adjectival impers. use of the noun shilton = potestatem habens, is peculiar; in the Talm. and Midrash, shilton, like the Assyr. siltannu, (Note: Vid., Fried. Delitzsch's Assyr. Stud. p. 129f.) means the ruler (vid., under Ecc 5:8). That which now follows is not, as Hitzig supposes, an opposing voice which makes itself heard, but as Ecc 8:2 is compared with Rom 13:5, so is Ecc 8:5 with Rom 13:3. Ecclesiastes 8:5

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