Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Nir:

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 3:39 PM, Nir cohen - Prof. Mat. <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br> wrote:

karl,

literally, i read "the image-of-the eyes   [ MAR)E, n ]    is better than the meanderings of the soul    [ HALAK, n  ]".

conjectured meaning: "think less and observe more". this fits well into the philosophy expressed in qohelet in general.

That’s quite a free interpretation.

so, the way i see it, WHO walks in this phrase is the sole ... figuratively speaking. the problem i have with your
and isaac's reading is exactly this: you do not make clear WHO does the walking and why.

I see that the seeing and the going are the subjects of their sections of the verse. They are both nouns, not verbs. We’re talking about general principles rather than individual people. Yes, I see this as a common theme in Kohelet that the author talks about generalities rather than specifics, but generalities that give eternal truths.

The reason for my question is that I don’t see how the verb or noun NP$ fits in this context. Maybe there’s a quirk of meaning that I’m missing, but I don’t know.
 

nir cohen

Karl W. Randolph.