(12.) =For= (another additional reason) =who knows what= is a =good to man= in =his lives= (אדם, followed by plural, ‘lives,’ in _any_ life, therefore), =the number of the days of his life= (_i.e._ as he passes the days of that life), =his vanity= (that evanescent life of his), =and he makes them= as a =shadow= (the LXX. render ἐν σκιᾷ, but this may be _ad sensum_ only, not because they read differently) =which= (full relative, because the whole idea is referred to, it may be best rendered ‘because’) =who= (repeated, and so giving emphasis) =tells to man what shall be after him= (_i.e._ what shall succeed him) =under the sun.= The limitation is necessary, and especially here, as this passage closes the argument thus far. What is to follow is in the nature of detached and paradoxical aphorisms, illustrating these truths: they are some of these many arguments demonstrating human evanescence and transitoriness, but stated less formally than heretofore. CHAPTER VII. │ SECTION IV. _continued.―― │ Providential Paradoxes leading │ up to the conclusion, Fear God._ │ A GOOD name _is_ better than │ (1.) GOOD is a name, (2.) good precious ointment; and the day │ more than spikenard’s fame; and of death than the day of one’s │ a deathday is better than one’s birth. │ birthday. VII. (1.) =Good= is =a name, above ointment good= (there is an alliteration here which gives great pungency to the sentence. The Masorets commence this paragraph with a large letter. The Jews have discovered many mysteries in these letters, but here, perhaps, it is sufficient reason to allege that a new division of the subject begins); =and= the =day= (but without the article) of =the death above= the =day of his birth= (equivalent to one’s birth, for there is no nominative expressed. Some have remarked that the second clause being connected by a conjunction with the first, is to be looked upon as containing a consequence of the fact stated in the first; which is quite true if not pressed too far. Possibly the idea might be presented thus―― All the ointment’s costly fame Is not so good as a good name, And thus it comes that dead saints die In odour of sweet sanctity). 2 ¶ _It is_ better to go to │ (3.) Good is it to go to the the house of mourning, than to │ house of mourning, rather than go to the house of feasting: │ to go to the house of feasting; for that _is_ the end of all │ because therein is the end men; and the living will lay │ of every human thing, and the _it_ to his heart. │ living should lay it to his │ heart.