The next clause――‘Desire shall fail’――may be explained in the same way. The word תפר, the hiphil of פרר, has always the meaning to ‘break,’ ‘disannul’――see Numbers xxx. 13, Job xv. 4, and hophal, Zechariah xi. 11. Evidently Symmachus, with the reading διαλυθῇ ἡ ἐπίπονος, has preserved the true meaning; for by ἐπίπονος he has rendered the word ‎‏אביונה, which occurs here only. Now we have no right to seek a strange signification for this word when fair sense can be made according to the ordinary derivations. אביון occurs frequently in the sense of ‘a poor person’――the root being אבה, ‘to wish,’ or ‘desire.’ Jerome translates, as we see――‘Et dissolvetur spiritus fortitudinis’――‘the spirit or breath of the brave is dissolved,’ which is _ad sensum_; so that we may take אביונה as simply an abstract of אביון, with the meaning of ‘wishfulness,’ or ‘longing.’ Thus the reading of the LXX. is explained: Capers are provocatives of desire or appetite, and hence their Hebrew name. The ἐπίπονος of Symmachus occurs only once again, at Isaiah liii. 3, where it represents the Hebrew מכאבות, ‘griefs’ (see Field’s most instructive note, Hexaplar _in loc._). Thus we venture to offer the following as a probable explanation of this passage:――‘Besides, they look with dread on high, and great dismay is in the way, and the almond tree (as a symbol of anticipation) is despised, and the grasshopper (as a symbol of what is small and light) is burdensome, and the caper-berries (as the symbol of desires or longings) are scattered.’ In the last clause the metaphorical out-tops the literal meaning, as the Authorized Version renders, rightly abandoning the LXX. at this point.) =For= (or ‘so’) =advances= (הלך, recalling chapter i.) =the man= (in the ordinary technical meaning of humanity) =to= (‘towards,’ LXX. εἰς, in its primary sense of motion to a place) =a house of his age= (עלמו, having its ordinary sense of ‘the age,’ or αἰὼν, as the LXX. render. The Authorized Version’s ‘long home’ is a beautiful paraphrase: his ‘brief home’ is his _house_; his ‘long home’ his _tomb_), =and go round in the street= (which the LXX. render ἐν ἀγορᾷ, ‘in the market’) =the mourners= (those who mourn for the dead). 6 Or ever the silver cord │ or ever the silver line runs be loosed, or the golden bowl │ out, or the golden oil bowl is be broken, or the pitcher be │ removed, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the │ shattered at the fountain, or wheel broken at the cistern. │ wheel runs down at the well, or │ the dust returns to the earth 7 Then shall the dust return │ where it was, or the spirit is to the earth as it was: and │ returning to the Almighty, its the spirit shall return unto │ giver; God who gave it. │