(3.) =If they are full the clouds= (עב is the thick vapour that appears and disappears) =rain= (גשם is the storm rain which does mischief or good according to circumstances, see chapter xii. 2) =they cause to empty= (clouds do not always prognosticate rain; and even if they should, a storm may do mischief rather than good); =and if is falling a tree in the south=, or =if= either =in the north= (‘_if_’ is hence emphatic) =the place where= may =fall= (contracted relative) =the tree= (now with the article, for it is the falling tree spoken of above) =there it will be= (the unusual form יהוא has troubled the commentators much: Moses Stuart pronounces the א to be otiose, which is not explaining the form at all. But may not the following be a sufficient explanation?――הוא in this book is used in the sense of the existence of an object: might not Koheleth coin a verb by adding the י of the present tense, with the idea, ‘makes itself be’?――compare also Joshua x. 24, Isaiah xxiii. 12, where this otiose א occurs; the rendering of the LXX. by ἔσται shows how they understood it, and so also the Syriac and Vulgate. The whole sentence is ironical, when the tree has really fallen, then we know which way it fell. The Masoretic accentuation of this passage is peculiar――we should naturally have expected them to have divided the verse into two clauses, at יריקו, ‘they empty,’ instead of which the greatest pause occurs at ‘north’ בַּצָּפ֑וֹן, but this method of reading renders the irony of the passage; the verse will then stand thus:――‘If the clouds are full of rain they will empty themselves upon the earth, and so if the tree should incline to the south, or if it should incline to the north――the place where it falls is where it really will _be_.’ The accentuation is rhetorical rather than logical, and the Masorets have shown great taste in their pointing). 4 He that observeth the wind │ Looking at the wind one does shall not sow; and he that │ not sow, and gazing into the regardeth the clouds shall not │ clouds one does not reap. reap. │ (4.) =Regarding wind! not does= one =sow= (impersonal), =and looking into clouds neither is one reaping= (we must attend to the precise form of the words in this sentence in order to gather the true nature of the sarcasm hidden in it; the LXX. have clearly marked these forms in their rendering). 5 As thou knowest not what │ Just as thou art not one who _is_ the way of the spirit, │ knows the way of the spirit, _nor_ how the bones _do grow_ │ how the bones are in the womb in the womb of her that is │ of the pregnant: just so thou with child: even so thou │ knowest nothing with respect knowest not the works of God │ to the working of the Almighty, who maketh all. │ who is working out the whole.