Ecclesiastes 6:7

tn The phrase “for nothing more than” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

tn Heb “All man’s work is for his mouth.” The term “mouth” functions as a synecdoche of part (i.e., mouth) for the whole (i.e., person), substituting the organ of consumption for the person’s action of consumption (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 641–43), as suggested by the parallelism with נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “his appetite”).

tn The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “desire; appetite”) is used as a metonymy of association, that is, the soul is associated with man’s desires and appetites (BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 5.c; 6.a).