Alliteration and paronomasia occur with great and characteristic frequency, a proof surely that the book was intended to be preached or delivered as an address. It is, of course, very difficult to give these in the English version. Sometimes in the paraphrastic translation this is attempted by means of rhymes and alliterations. I can hardly pronounce these quite successful, and often have felt inclined to return to a more literal rendering, but then this most characteristic feature of the book would have been lost to the English reader. Every one who has ever addressed an assembly knows how very telling these hits are, and moreover they are of real importance to the commentator, as bringing the words on which the alliteration depends into artificial prominence. There is a danger, no doubt, that when once the mind is aroused to this, that equivokes should be found where they were not intended; but of this the reader must judge. This perhaps is the best point at which to discuss the meaning of the word Koheleth. In its present form and pointing קֹהֶלֶת is the active feminine participle of Kal of the verb קהל, occurring as a verb only in niphal and hiphil. The feminine noun occurs Deuteronomy xxxiii. 4, ‎‏קְהִלַּת――_i.e._ this word differently pointed――which the LXX. render by συναγωγῆς. קְהִלַּת occurs Nehemiah v. 7, rendered ἐκκλησίαν. With this before us it seems beside the mark to seek a meaning out of the root קהל. According to the usage observable in this book, feminines (we should prefer to call them abstracts) in ת differ from those in ‎‏ה――compare עמדת, chapter i. 4; the abstract in this form again becomes as it were a concrete. Thus we should incline to indorse the view enunciated by Preston, who considers the word to be represented by ‘collector’ or ‘concionator’ in Latin. Both these meanings we believe are contained in the word, and it is quite consistent with what we know of the style of Ecclesiastes to admit that both these meanings were intended to be conveyed. The discourse is a collection of separate but connected aphorisms on the transitoriness of human existence――the author is thus a collector of them; and as the discourse was delivered apparently when collected, he is a concionator or preacher also. The word used by the LXX., ἐκκλησιαστὴς, occurs nowhere else, either in the Old or New Testaments, so that the _precise_ meaning they affixed to the word is unknown. In classical Greek it means preacher. The repetition of a word, whether substantive or particle, in the same sentence, of course gives emphasis to that word; to translate accurately, therefore, when this occurs, we have to add some English equivalent, such as ‘this’ or ‘as well,’ and so forth, see Commentary _passim_. A careful attention to this rule will often considerably help to clear up obscure passages. ON THE PECULIAR RENDERINGS OF THE VERSION OF THE LXX.