Koheleth now takes up a subject ineffectually discussed before, and solves it with this principle just enunciated: Fear God. 8 ¶ If thou seest the │ (3.) If violent oppression oppression of the poor, and │ of the poor, and wresting violent perverting of judgment │ of justice and right, should and justice in a province, │ be observed by you in a marvel not ¹at the matter: for │ jurisdiction, do not be _he that is_ higher than the │ surprised at the providence; highest regardeth; and _there │ for the lofty are watched by be_ higher than they. │ one loftier still, and these │ lofty ones are――subjects. ¹ _Hebrew_ at the will, or │ purpose. │ (8.) =If oppression of the poor= (see chapter iv. 1, 3, etc.), =and wresting= of =judgment and right, thou seest in a province= (במדינה, this has been considered a late word, and a sign, moreover, that the writer lived in the country and not in the city, as he says, chapter i. 12; but though it occurs in the later Hebrew [1 Kings xx. 14 is the first instance] it is quite regularly formed, and is clearly in place here), =do not marvel= (Psalms xlviii. 6, Jeremiah iv. 9, to ‘be astonished,’ ‘struck with astonishment’) =over the providence= (החפץ with the article; the LXX. render τῷ πράγματι in this instance, the word, however, occurs in the technical meaning it has all through the book, see chapter iii. 1, v. 4 (3)); =for high from above the high= (which the LXX. render word for word, ὑψηλὸς ἐπάνω ὑψηλοῦ) =keeps and high ones above them= (the sentence is enigmatic, perhaps proverbial, though the meaning is clear. Is it possible that a play was intended between מֵעַל and מַעַל, Leviticus v. 15, a ‘transgression,’ גבה being taken in the meaning of swelling up, thus――‘Increasing transgression is increasing regard?’ In the same way the מ at the end of גבהים would unite with the word following in utterance, and so help the equivoke). 9 ¶ Moreover the profit of │ And besides, the earth is for all: the king │ _himself_ is served by the │ (i.) The produce of the earth field. │ is all in all: a king is a │ subject to the field.