45 trahitur autem sapientia de occultis.
Non adaequabitur ei topazium de Aethiopia,
nec tincturae mundissimae componetur.
Unde ergo sapientia venit?
Et quis est locus intellegentiae?
50 Abscondita est ab oculis omnium viventium,
volucres quoque caeli latet.
Perditio et mors dixerunt,
“Auribus nostris audivimus famam eius.”
Deus intellegit viam eius,
55 et ipse novit locum illius.
Ipse enim fines mundi intuetur:
et omnia, quae sub caelo sunt, respicit.
Qui fecit ventis pondus
et aquas appendit mensura,
60 quando ponebat pluviis legem
et viam procellis sonantibus,
tunc vidit illam, et enarravit,
et praeparavit, et investigavit,
Et dixit homini,
65 “Ecce, timor Domini ipsa est sapientia;
et recedere a malo, intellegentia.” (Job 28.12–28)
“Saint Jerome” Benvenuto di Giovanni, 15th century Galleria Sabauda, Turin, Italy
Alinari/Art Resource, NY.
67. Ecclesiastae: Ecclesiastes, -ae, m., a Greek word meaning a member of the assembly, a speaker in the assembly, hence here perhaps one who addresses his fellow citizens. It is intended to translate the Hebrew word “Koheleth,” which is said to occur only here in Hebrew literature and may be simply a proper name.
David:of David: the strictly Hebrew names are not inflected, so their case can be determined only from the context. Since scholars agree that the actual date of this book is ca. 200 B.C., Koheleth’s claim to be Solomon is a literary convention.
Hierusalem:of Jerusalem.
68. vanitas: vanity in the sense of emptiness, futility (cp. “in vain”), not of pride, conceit.
69. omnia: sc. sunt.
amplius: modifies quid, what more, i.e., what benefit, what profit.
universo: here = omni.
72. renascens: = renascitur.
gyrat: gyrare,to go around, move in circles;spiritus, here = wind, is subj. of all four vbs. in the sent.
meridiem: here, the south.
73. aquilonem: aquilo, north wind, north.
lustrans: lustrare,to move around, circle around (something).
pergit: pergere,to go on, continue, proceed.
75. redundat: redundare, to overflow.
77. saturatur: saturare, to satisfy; i.e., no matter how hard we look or listen, we cannot explain life and the universe.
