IV. (1.) _Turned I, and I see_ (the present tense following the perfect is equivalent to our imperfect, ‘I was again regarding;’ because this point has been touched on before, though in another form, at ii. 22, 23) =with respect to all= (את כל, LXX. σύμπαντα) =the oppressions= (with the article; we must not restrict this to the oppression of one man over another, but take the word in its general sense, as from care, sickness, misfortune, etc.) =which are done= (the niphal has an objective sense, ‘submitted to,’ or ‘are done upon others’) =under the sun, and behold= (calling attention to a manifest fact) =the tear= (singular. This turn of thought, which looks upon each tear as a sorrow, a type and sample of all other sorrows, is very beautiful. Compare Revelation vii. 17, and xxi. 4, Isaiah xxv. 8, for the other side of this,――‘God shall wipe away every tear,’ etc.) =of the oppressings= (the same word as before, ‎‏העשׁקים, which the LXX., rendering _ad sensum_, express by a passive participle; but the meaning of the passage really requires the same word in both clauses: as far as Koheleth’s argument here is concerned, the existence of the oppressor and oppressed are equally mysterious), =and there is nothing to them of comfort= (the LXX. render by a participle, ‘comforting,’ ‘no one comforts them’), =and in the hand of their oppressors might= (this means, no doubt, ‘_that the power of the oppressors was so great_,’ it was impossible to escape them; but hidden underneath is the thought――which again increases the mystery――that there is a mighty hand which could restrain these if it would), =and nothing to them of comfort= (repeated, and so emphatic). 2 Wherefore I praised the │ Then I for my part pronounced dead which are already dead │ happy the dead who are at this more than the living which are │ time dead, above the living in yet alive. │ their present [query? │ _pleasant!_] lives; (2.) =Then I praised, I= did (it was a personal matter, a mere opinion of Koheleth’s), =with respect to the dead= (with the emphatic את) =which at present= (כבר see chapter i. 10, references, which occurs in the same technical sense as before, ‘this present time or state’) =are dead= (hence the whole is equivalent to ‘which have finished their lives, and now are in the state of the departed’), =above the living which they are living as yet= (עֲדֶנָה occurs here only, and only differs in pointing from עֶדְנָה, which occurs Genesis xviii. 12 only, ‘pleasure.’ It will be seen that this unusual word leads to a strange equivoke, which yet helps the sense.)