number of the days of their lives= (this phrase occurs chapter ii. 3, v. 18 (17), vi. 12, as ‘the tale,’ or ‘account of the days,’ of their lives; an additional limitation to the words ‘under the sun’). In making this experiment he began to _work_ and _toil_ more than ever. 4 I made me great works; I │ I increased my works. builded me houses; I planted │ me vineyards: │ (1.) I built for _myself_ │ houses. │ │ (2.) I planted for _myself_ │ vineyards. (4.) =I increased my work, I built for myself= (this emphatic ‘myself’ occurs eight times in the passage, and is therefore its key-word) =houses, I planted for myself vineyards.= 5 I made me gardens and │ (3.) I made for _myself_ orchards, and I planted trees │ gardens and parks, and planted in them of all _kind of_ │ in them fruit-trees of every fruits: │ kind. (5.) =I made for myself gardens and parks, and planted in them trees of every kind of fruit.= It should have been mentioned that פרדס is also considered to afford an indication of late composition. It is said to be a Persian word; it occurs, however, Nehemiah ii. 8; Canticles iv. 10. The word admits of Semitic derivation, from פרד, ‘to divide,’ ‘cut off in portions,’ ‘lay out.’ If it be really an exotic, no date of introduction is more probable than that of Solomon. It is also to be noted that in the context it _follows_ the word ‘gardens,’ which is quite natural if it were intended to denote a foreign luxury recently introduced. 6 I made me pools of water, │ (4.) I made for _myself_ to water therewith the wood │ reservoirs with which to that bringeth forth trees: │ irrigate meadows and growing │ copses. (6.) =I made for myself pools of water to irrigate from them the meadows shooting forth trees.= (This, which contains ‘for myself’ _four_ times, the first _half_ of the seven, consists of an enumeration of immoveable objects, or what the law calls real property, the others which follow are moveables or personal.) 7 I got _me_ servants and │ (5.) I purchased slaves and maidens, and had ¹servants │ maidens, and had for _myself_ born in my house; also I had │ home-born servants, besides great possessions of great and │ herds of great and small small cattle above all that │ cattle, more numerous than were in Jerusalem before me: │ any of my predecessors in │ Jerusalem. ¹ _Hebrew_ sons of my house. │ (7.) =I obtained slaves and maidens, and sons of my house= (home-born slaves, that is) =were= belonging to =myself, besides possessions of herd and flock; many= such were belonging =to myself; more than all who were before me in Jerusalem.=