Were it not for this suspicious אַתָּ there would be no reason at all to disturb the present Hebrew text. Nor, probably, is the evidence strong against it, unless indeed it should turn out, on further investigation and discovery, that when the version of the LXX. was made, there was a greater difference between the letters ר and ד than there is now. If the reading of the LXX. were right, the following was the meaning of the passage:――‘Moreover, to all the words which they speak [they being supposed to refer to the wicked, hence the explanatory gloss of B, ἀσεβεῖς], do not give thine heart,’――which [amounts to this]――‘thou wouldest not hear (or listen to) with respect to thy servant cursing thee, because many times he vexes thy heart, which [amounts to this also] in regard that thou hast _cursed_ others.’ The innuendo being that our reasonings with regard to God’s dealings with ourselves are like the rash improper speeches of a grumbling servant. It must be confessed that the expression, אשר גם את קללת, literally, ‘which also with respect to thou hast cursed,’ is unprecedentedly harsh and elliptical, even for Koheleth. But to alter the text――and the Masoretic punctuation is here a virtual alteration of the text――is to interpret an imaginary document, and not the one which exists before our eyes. The Masorets, however, with their customary caution――and in this respect they are a brilliant example to some modern critics――would not add a single letter, on mere conjecture only, however plausible. 23 ¶ All this have I proved │ All this have I explored by by wisdom: I said, I will be │ means of wisdom. I said, I wise; but it _was_ far from me.│ shall be wise enough, but what │ may be is altogether beyond 24 That which is far off, │ me! beyond me how far? a double and exceeding deep, who can │ depth! how could any find it? find it out? │ (23, 24.) =All this= (the Masorets point זֹה feminine, equivalent to neuter) =have I tried with wisdom; I said I will be wise= (with ה paragogic, and Taylor in his note observes that this form is optative, and expresses a strong desire [Lange, _Commmentary on Old Testament_, American edition]; might it not with truth be said that it is the abstract idea of which the verb is the concrete, ‘I shall be wisdomed’?), =but that was far from me= (but notice again רחוקה, agreeing no doubt with חכמה understood, but not the less an abstract on that account: it was _farness_ or _distance itself_ from me――‘beyond my reach’ is the meaning), =a distant= thing, =what= is it =which it will be= (that is, that he could not reach by wisdom to discern what the future might be), =and deep, deep= (‘doubly deep,’ very emphatic), =who will find it out?= (as these questions expect the answer, No, they are equivalent to ‘a distant _thing_! is not it, the future, indeed? and a vast depth which none can discover.’)