Discovery BoxEcclesiastes 1:9 
Context1:9 What exists now 1 is what will be, 2
and what has been done is what will be done;
there is nothing truly new on earth. 3
Ecclesiastes 3:12
Context3:12 I have concluded 4 that there is nothing better for people 5
than 6 to be happy and to enjoy
themselves 7 as long as they live,
Ecclesiastes 3:22
Context3:22 So I perceived there is nothing better than for people 8 to enjoy their work, 9
because that is their 10 reward;
for who can show them what the future holds? 11
Ecclesiastes 6:7
Context6:7 All of man’s labor is for nothing more than 12 to fill his stomach 13 –
yet his appetite 14 is never satisfied!
1 tn Heb “what is.” The Hebrew verbal form is a perfect. Another option is to translate, “What has been.” See the next line, which speaks of the past and the future.
2 tn The Hebrew verbal form is an imperfect.
3 tn Heb “under the sun.”
4 tn Heb “I know.”
5 tn Heb “for them”; the referent (people, i.e., mankind) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Qoheleth uses the exceptive particle אִם…כִּי (ki…’im, “except”) to identify the only exception to the futility within man’s life (BDB 474 s.v. כִּי 2).
7 tn Heb “to do good.” The phrase לַעֲשׂוֹת טוֹב (la’asot tov) functions idiomatically for “to experience [or see] happiness [or joy].” The verb עָשַׂה (’asah) probably denotes “to acquire; to obtain” (BDB 795 s.v. עָשַׂה II.7), and טוֹב (tov) means “good; pleasure; happiness,” e.g., Eccl 2:24; 3:13; 5:17 (BDB 375 s.v. טוֹב 1).
8 tn Heb “man.”
9 tn Heb “his works.”
10 tn Heb “his.”
11 tn Heb “what will be after him” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV) or “afterward” (cf. NJPS).
12 tn The phrase “for nothing more than” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Heb “All man’s work is for his mouth.” The term “mouth” functions as a synecdoche of part (i.e., mouth) for the whole (i.e., person), substituting the organ of consumption for the person’s action of consumption (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 641-43), as suggested by the parallelism with נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “his appetite”).
14 tn The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “desire; appetite”) is used as a metonymy of association, that is, the soul is associated with man’s desires and appetites (BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 5.c; 6.a).
