14 The wise man’s eyes _are_ │ The wise has eyes in his head, in his head; but the fool │ the befooled is wandering in walketh in darkness: and I │ the dark; yet I know, as the myself perceived also that one │ result of my own experience, event happeneth to them all. │ that the event to which both │ attain is just alike, so I 15 Then said I in my heart, │ reasoned with myself thus: As it happeneth to the fool, │ Exactly the same event as so it ¹happeneth even to me; │ happens to one befooled has and why was I then more wise? │ happened to me, and therefore Then I said in my heart, that │ why should I make myself wise? this also _is_ vanity. │ Then besides! Why, I said in my │ heart, even this is an instance ¹ _Hebrew_ happeneth to me, │ of evanescence, even to me. │ (14, 15.) =And I said, I did, in my heart= (it was not a right thing to say, but, as we have already noticed, this formula introduces a suggestion more specious than true), =Like the hap of the befooled, so have I happened me= (_i.e._ made my own hap or result), =and why did I make myself wise then in addition?= (The Masorets accent so as to make this the main division of the verse, and consider these three last words to belong to what precedes. The LXX., on the contrary――which adds a gloss after καρδίᾳ μοῦ (διότι ἄφρων ἐκ περισσεύματος λαλεῖ), ‘for the fool speaketh abundantly,’ which is an ancient one, for the Syriac has it also, and varies much in its different recensions――considers them to belong to the following verse. It is difficult on this account to come to a conclusion which is correct, the LXX. or the Masorets; the more that the Masorets themselves hesitate between יתר and יותר. On the whole, one would incline to the following explanation:――take יֶתֶר in its ordinary acceptation, ‘the rest,’ the meaning would thus be ‘then the rest,’ or ‘what results is;’ and suppose the pointing יֹתֵר, a conjecture subsequently strengthened by writing יותר); =and I said= (it was possibly this difficult ו, ‘and,’ which gave rise to the Masoretic conjecture――the LXX. take no notice of it; it is equivalent to ‘_why_ I said’) =that this= (the contracted relative with גם occurs only chapter i. 17, ii. 15, viii. 14, and has a tone of surprise and disappointment, giving the sense apparently that ‘even _this_ wisdom itself! is’) =a vanity= (or an instance of evanescence or transitoriness). 16 For _there is_ no │ because there is no remembrance remembrance of the wise more │ of the wise or the befooled than of the fool for ever; │ either, in the future; because seeing that which now _is_ in │ as time goes on the present the days to come shall all be │ will be forgotten, and fool and forgotten. And how dieth the │ wise will perish alike together. wise _man_? as the fool. │