6 For as the ¹crackling of │ For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so _is_ │ thorns under a pot, so is the the laughter of the fool: │ cackling of the befooled――and this also _is_ vanity. │ besides, it is evanescent. │ ¹ _Hebrew_ sound. │ (6.) =For as= the =voice of the thorns under the pot= (there is both alliteration and equivoke here, the root סור having the meaning, ‘to turn aside,’ ‘be crooked,’ etc., and סר, ‘displeased,’ 1 Kings xx. 43, xxi. 4) =so= (the word ‘so’ is somewhat emphatic, as standing alone) =a laugh= of =the befooled= (generic), =also this is vanity= (_i.e._ an instance of evanescence). 7 ¶ Surely oppression maketh │ Yet affliction makes false a a wise man mad; and a gift │ wise man’s hope, and destroys destroyeth the heart. │ the heart of his purpose. (7.) =For the oppression= (generic, ‘the affliction of life’) =makes mad= (poel future, occurs Job xii. 7, Isaiah xlii. 5; compare also chapter ii. 2, which we have seen is the madness of false expectation) =a wise man= (hence the meaning must be, that the oppressions or afflictions of life put out the calculations of the wise, and make their expectation false) =and destroys with respect to the heart= (‎‏את לב, therefore emphatic; hence the LXX. render τὴν καρδίαν, and the meaning is, that affliction [compare chapter iv. 1] not only makes his expectations false, but disappoints his desires; which clearly, with the advantages of sorrow stated above, it ought not to do to a _wise_ man) =of his purpose.= (Following the LXX., who derive the word from the root מתן, which exists in the Arabic, and also in the Syriac――see Bernstein, s. v., (‡ Syriac word) ‘moratus est,’ ‘tardus fuit;’ ‘that which is purposed or appointed’ would be quite a natural meaning, for ‎‏נתן not only has the meaning ‘to give,’ but also ‘to settle or appoint.’ If we render with the Authorized Version ‘gift,’ we introduce an idea altogether new and strange, while with the rendering supported by the LXX. and unpointed text, the aphorism connects itself with what went before and follows after.) 8 Better _is_ the end of │ (6.) [Yet] good is the end a thing than the beginning │ of a matter, and more than its thereof: _and_ the patient in │ beginning. spirit _is_ better than the │ proud in spirit. │ (7.) [And] good is the │ long-suffering soul above the │ high swelling spirit.