Ecclesiastes 6:8–9

6:8 So what advantage does a wise man have over a fool?30

And what advantage31 does a pauper gain by knowing how to survive?32

6:9 It is better to be content with33 what the eyes can see34

than for one’s heart always to crave more.35

This continual longing36 is futile—like37 chasing the wind.

30	sn So what advantage does the wise man have over a fool? The rhetorical question in Hebrew implies a negative answer: the wise man has no absolute advantage over a fool in the sense that both will share the same fate: death. Qoheleth should not be misunderstood here as denying that wisdom has no relative advantage over folly; elsewhere he affirms that wisdom does yield some relative benefits in life (7:1–22). However, wisdom cannot deliver one from death.
31	sn As in the preceding parallel line, this rhetorical question implies a negative answer (see the note after the word “fool” in the preceding line).
32	tn Heb “What to the pauper who knows to walk before the living”; or “how to get along in life.”
33	tn The phrase “to be content with” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
34	tn The expression מַרְאֵה עֵינַיִם (mar’eh ’enayim, “the seeing of the eyes”) is a metonymy of cause (i.e., seeing an object) for effect (i.e., being content with what the eyes can see); see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 552–54.
35	tn Heb “the roaming of the soul.” The expression מֵהֲלָךְ־נָפֶשׁ (mehalakh-nafesh, “the roaming of the soul”) is a metonymy for unfulfilled desires. The term “soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) is used as a metonymy of association for man’s desires and appetites (BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 5.c; 6.a). This also involves the personification of the roving appetite as “roving” (מֵהֲלָךְ); see BDB 235 s.v. הָלַךְ II.3.f; 232 I.3.
36	tn The phrase “continual longing” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
37	tn The term “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.