translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: ECC

label: NET study note

text: Beginning with 5:1 , the verse numbers through 5:20 in the English Bible differ by one from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text ( BHS ), with 5:1 ET = 4:17 HT, 5:2 ET = 5:1 HT, etc., through 5:20 ET = 5:19 HT. Beginning with 6:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.


text: And there are higher ones over them! This may describe a corrupt system of government in which each level of hierarchy exploits its subordinates, all the way down to the peasants: “Set in authority over the people is an official who enriches himself at their expense; he is watched by a more authoritative governor who also has his share of the spoils; and above them are other officers of the State who likewise have to be satisfied”; see A. Cohen, The Five Megilloth (SoBB), 141.


text: The Hebrew term “silver” (translated “money”) is repeated twice in this line for rhetorical emphasis.


text: The phrase “to eat and to drink” is a common idiom in Ecclesiastes for a person enjoying the fruit of his labor (e.g., 2:24; 3:13 ).