the whole passage is, ‘I said, yes, I did in my heart again, so far as human reasonings extend concerning any discrimination the Divine Providence has made of them, and as far as appearances go with them, a mere animal is each one of them, so far as they can tell.’ The sentence is very sarcastic and equivocal, as the alliteration at the end shows. Then, again, if we take the root ברם in the sense of ‘web,’ as we use it for something intricate, in that case we should have the equivoke, ‘concerning the web of Divine Providence so far as it appears to them.’ Again, also, the Syriac renders as if לברם were לבראם, ‘their Creator,’ which also makes excellent sense; but this, again, may simply be a rendering of another equivoke. Then, again, there is a possible play between בהמה and the same word considered as המה with the preposition――all these equivokes assist the sense). Consistent with this is what follows:―― 19 For that which befalleth │ For the event which happens the sons of men befalleth │ to the human race, and the beasts; even one thing │ event which happens to the befalleth them: as the one │ brute-creation, is precisely dieth, so dieth the other; │ the same event: the one dies yea, they have all one │ just the same death as the breath; so that a man hath no │ other; and the animal life pre-eminence above a beast: │ is the same in both; and the for all _is_ vanity. │ pre-eminence of man over the │ brute is nothing at all; for │ all alike are evanescent; (19.) =For a happening of the sons of man, and a happening of the brute creation, and a happening= which is =one= (as we should say, ‘precisely the same’) =to them= (the threefold repetition of מקרה, ‘hap,’ brings this word into strong prominence. It means, of coarse, that which absolutely happens or results, or comes to them in the end. This is exactly the same in both cases, as the sequel shows). =As is the death of this, so= (‘exactly so’) is =the death of this=, and =the spirit= (or ‘breath’) is =one to all, and the pre-eminence= (ומותר, this noun occurs in this form only at Proverbs xiv. 23, and xxi. 5, and evidently with the meaning of advantage or increase of one thing over another. The LXX. translate this as if it were ומי יתר, ‘and what profit,’ but this is simply to give the sarcastic turn to the sentence) =of the man= (humanity generally) =over the beasts is nothing, for the whole= (in its technical sense of the whole of life, as usual) is =a vanity= (or evanescent). 20 All go unto one place; │ all alike go to the same place; all are of the dust, and all │ all alike come from the same turn to dust again. │ dust; and all alike return to │ the same dust again.