(3.) =What is?= (expecting the answer no, and so nearly equivalent to a denial) =the profit= (יתרון, a word peculiar to this book――occurs chapter i. 3; ii. 11, 13 twice; iii. 9; v. 9 (8), 16 (15); vii. 12; x. 10, 11――_i.e._ ten times in all; it is a technical word, and is used to signify that which _remains_ over and above after the act is performed, and apart from its present results. Koheleth uses frequently these nouns ending in ון――thus יתר ‘to extend,’ ‘run over,’ יתרון ‘remainder,’ ‎‏זכר ‘remember,’ זכרון ‘remembrance,’ etc. These nouns are in their nature abstracts, but differ from the ordinary abstracts; see chapter i. 14) =to man= (לאדם, this word occurs in its different combinations forty-eight times in this book, and always with the signification of man as a member of the human race. There is a tone of personification about the word similar to that which occurs in the expression ‘the old _Adam_;’ when this generic character is not to be expressed, then ‎‏איש or אנוש is used instead; see chapters i. 8; ix. 14 and 15), =in all his toil= (עמל, a favourite word of Koheleth, and used as frequently in this book as in all the rest of Scripture put together. The exact meaning to be affixed to it, and which, carefully kept in view, will be found to explain more than one otherwise obscure passage, is that toil, care, or anxiety which labour produces, and answers to the idea contained in our metaphor ‘takes _pains_;’ see chapter ii. 20), =which he toils at= (this is the first instance which occurs of the contracted relative ש־ joined to the word. Koheleth uses also the full relative ‎‏אשר, but with a slight difference of meaning. The contracted relative refers to the word only which it joins, and in case of verbs often gives a subjunctive or optative meaning; the full relative refers back to the whole idea or clause. Hence the meaning of this passage is this, ‘Is there any abiding advantage to humanity of the pains of his labouring in so far as he does take pains, or toils’) =under the sun= (or in this present state of existence). The phrase תחת השמש occurs twenty-five times in this book, and is always expressive of a limitation. It shows that what is affirmed is to be understood as confined to its relation to this sublunary existence only. The idea implied is that of man toiling under the sun in the heat of the day in the sweat of his brow (Genesis iii. 17), and earnestly desiring the shadow (Job vii. 2), which shadow is yet the symbol of decaying life. It is true that Ecclesiastes is never quoted in the New Testament, but there are certainly several allusions to it, more or less direct; one of these apparently occurs Revelation vii. 16: οὐ πεινάσουσιν ἔτι, οὐδὲ διψήσουσιν ἔτι, οὐδ’ οὐ μὴ πέσῃ ἐπ’ αὐτοὺς ὁ ἥλιος, οὐδὲ πᾶν καῦμα――‘They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them by day, nor any heat.’ The Chaldee Targum expresses this idea quaintly but forcibly: ‘What advantage is there