Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 4:23 AM, Kirk Lowery <Kirk AT grovescenter.org> wrote:

> On 03/27/2012 01:55 AM, Pere Porta wrote:
> > Dear b-hebrew listers,
> >
> > Ecc 9:12 -- Literally the Hebrew says: "Moreover, man does not know his
> > time..........".
> > I remark that the first seven words in Ecc 9:12 are often understood  -as
> > shown in several translations-  as "the humans do not know when they will
> > die".
> >
> > Do you feel this is a misunderstanding of the text?
> > What does the Hebrew text really mean?
> >
>
> Certainly death is one event that one (generally) does not know when it
> will occur.
>
> But don't you think Qohelet has chapter three's poem on time in mind?
>
> --
> Blessings,
>
> Kirk
> --
> Kirk E. Lowery, PhD
> President & Senior Research Fellow
> The J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research
>
> Again, look at the context.

What was the result of a fish caught in a net? Of a bird caught in a net?
As far as I know, it is only a modern phenomena where that doesn’t result
in an automatic death to be eaten. Since the parallelism indicates that it
is death for the other subjects of the parallelism, it is only natural that
one would expect that death is the implied end of a man as well.

That is my 2¢, the way I understand the text.

Karl W. Randolph.