Discovery BoxEcclesiastes 4:4 
Context4:4 Then I considered 1 all the skillful work 2 that is done:
Surely it is nothing more than 3 competition 4 between one person and another. 5
This also is profitless – like 6 chasing the wind.
Ecclesiastes 6:10
Context6:10 Whatever has happened was foreordained, 7
and what happens to a person 8 was also foreknown.
It is useless for him to argue with God about his fate
because God is more powerful than he is. 9
1 tn Heb “saw.”
2 tn Heb “all the toil and all the skill.” This Hebrew clause (אֶת־כָּל־עָמָל וְאֵת כָּל־כִּשְׁרוֹן, ’et-kol-’amal vÿ’et kol-kishron) is a nominal hendiadys (a figurative expression in which two independent phrases are used to connote the same thing). The second functions adverbially, modifying the first, which retains its full nominal function: “all the skillful work.”
3 tn The phrase “nothing more than” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
4 tn The noun קִנְאַה (qin’ah, “competition”) has a wide range of meanings: “zeal; jealousy; envy; rivalry; competition; suffering; animosity; anger; wrath” (HALOT 1110 s.v.; BDB 888 s.v.). Here, as in 9:6, it denotes “rivalry” (BDB 888 s.v. 1) or “competitive spirit” (HALOT 1110 s.v. 1.b). The LXX rendered it ζῆλος (zhlos, “envy; jealousy”). The English versions reflect this broad range: “rivalry” (NEB, NAB, NASB), “envy” (KJV, ASV, RSV, NRSV, MLB, NIV, NJPS), and “jealousy” (Moffatt).
5 tn Heb “a man and his neighbor.”
6 tn The word “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “already its name was called.”
8 tn Or “and what a person (Heb “man”) is was foreknown.”
9 tn Heb “he cannot contend with the one who is more powerful than him.” The referent of the “the one who is more powerful than he is” (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The words “with God about his fate” have been added for clarity as well.
