8 But if a man live many │ yet if man lives to the very years, _and_ rejoice in them │ longest limit of his days, in all; yet let him remember the │ all of them he may rejoice, and days of darkness; for they │ remember with respect to the shall be many. All that cometh │ days of darkness that they _is_ vanity. │ shall be many too: all that is │ coming is evanescent. (8.) =For if the years are many= (that is, if his years are as long as they can be) =the man= (humanity generally) =in all of them rejoices= (but as the noun stands before the verb, it is emphatic, and in this case, as the verb is preceded by בכלם, is potential――‘may rejoice’), =and remembers with regard to days of darkness= (that is, forgetfulness, the days when he is forgotten, and also of sorrow or sadness, for both meanings are combined) =for the many= (repeating the above, with the sense, then, ‘for very many also,’) =will they be, all which may come= (‘every coming event’ that is, as the contracted relative shows) =is vanity= (evanescent). 9 ¶ Rejoice, O young man, in │ Rejoice, O choice young man, thy youth; and let thy heart │ in the days of thy youth, and cheer thee in the days of thy │ let thy heart do thee good in youth, and walk in the ways of │ the choice days of thy youth, thine heart, and in the sight │ and walk in ways of thy heart of thine eyes: but know thou, │ and sights of thine eyes, and that for all these _things_ │ know how, on account of all God will bring thee into │ these things thou shalt be judgment. │ summoned of the Almighty to │ judgment. (9.) =Rejoice, young man= (but בחר has the sense of ‘_choice_,’ and this is to be remembered here) =in thy youth= (but ילדות occurs here only; see however Psalms cx. 3, which the Masorets point יַלְדֻתֶךָ; this word is the abstract of the word ילד, which means ‘to beget;’ hence the exact meaning of ילדות would be ‘productions’), =and cause good to thee= let =thy heart in days of thy choosings= (for בחורות also occurs only here and chapter xii. 1, and youth therefore is so designated, because it is a time of choice), =and walk in ways of thy heart, and seeings of thine eyes; and know how, upon all these, thou art caused to come= of =the Deity into judgment.= (The LXX. have here the gloss ἄμωμος――‘in the ways of thine heart _blameless_;’ but the Syriac Hexaplar notes this gloss with an asterisk, so that it is clearly not entitled to any weight; it was no doubt a subsequent addition to the text, because the meaning was not seen, as indeed it cannot be, without a reference to the double meanings of the Hebrew words.)