7 ¶ Then I returned, and I │ Furthermore I have observed saw vanity under the sun. │ also another instance of │ evanescence within this hot │ work-day world. (7.) =And I turned, I myself=, and I =see= (the same formula introducing another instance of the same kind) =a vanity= (an instance of vanity) =under the sun=. 8 There is one _alone_, and │ There exists a solitary who _there is_ not a second; yea, │ has no fellow; neither son he hath neither child nor │ nor brother has he, yet there brother: yet _is there_ no end │ is no end to all his toils: of all his labour; neither is │ and besides no satisfaction to his eye satisfied with riches; │ himself in all his wealth: who neither _saith he_, For whom │ never asks, ‘For whom am I now do I labour, and bereave my │ toiling and depriving myself soul of good? This _is_ also │ of good?’ This is an instance vanity, yea, it _is_ a sore │ of evanescence and uncertainty, travail. │ which is evil and nothing else. (8.) =There is one, and there is not a second= (evidently meaning that there is one who is quite alone in the world). =Moreover, son and brother there is not to him= (_i.e._ he has emphatically neither posterity nor relationship to account for this desire of accumulating which Koheleth is subsequently about to bring forward: his love of accumulation is purely _selfish_), =and there is nothing of an end= (‎‏אין, ‘nothing,’ is repeated three times: ‘_No_ end at all’ is therefore the meaning. This continual harping on the _nothingness_ of the miser’s state is an exceedingly effective piece of oratory) =to all his toil. Moreover, his eyes= (altered by the Masorets to the singular, but without much taste: ‘both his eyes devour his wealth’) =does not satisfy= (feminine singular; hence, as the LXX. show, the word must refer to eyes as its subject; they render ‘is not filled with,’ for it is a case of a distributive plural) =wealth. And for whom do I= (the oratio obliqua is dropped, and the directa used in its place; or perhaps with this meaning does this ego) =toil, and depriving my soul= (with the usual meaning, ‘myself’) =of good?= (abstract.) =Also this= is a =vanity and= an =anxiety= which =an evil is= (emphatic) ‘indeed’ (equivalent to ‘an evil and nothing else,’ or ‘is simply an evil’; other anxieties may be beneficial, this cannot be. This is the reason why we have רע, and not רעה, the abstract, as we should have expected). 9 ¶ Two _are_ better than │ Good things are companionships, one; because they have a good │ and better than solitaries; for reward for their labour. │ these indeed have some reward │ for their labour.