Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Qohelet 9.7 reads:


‏‏ לֵ֣ךְ אֱכֹ֤ל בְּשִׂמְחָה֙ לַחְמֶ֔ךָ וּֽשֲׁתֵ֥ה בְלֶב־ט֖וֹב יֵינֶ֑ךָ כִּ֣י 
כְבָ֔ר רָצָ֥ה הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶֽת־מַעֲשֶֽׂיךָ׃

I'm interested to hear from others about how they see the final clause 
working here. Almost all English versions go for something like '…for God has 
already accepted your works'. This understands the verb רצה as meaning 'to 
accept', or 'to approve'. However, this seems to go against the context in my 
opinion. Qohelet is known for producing tensions in his discussion, but they 
are usually contextual and can be upheld. This one seems to defy that 
principle.

The idea I'm toying with is that the verb רצה indicates the subject making a 
decision for something—wanting something. The verb makes no express statement 
about the objective merit of an external thing that would cause the subject 
to make a decision, even though it might be used in a situation where an 
external object impels the subject to 'like' or 'accept' it. But that is 
beside the point. The point of the verb is to focus on the subject's positive 
decision about something. In this case, it would read something like '…for 
God has already decided your works'. This would be an expression of divine 
determinism, which in the context would be entirely appropriate.

Thoughts?


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au