I RETURNED. Solomon says, “I reversed myself and reconsidered my praise of enjoyment, and the conviction that man should pursue pleasure.1 For [I noticed] that a man cannot be happy in this world and enjoy himself in it. Furthermore,2 I saw the swift stumble, and [I saw] those who have no strength to run, flee and save themselves.
NOR THE BATTLE TO THE STRONG. Compare: a
mighty man is not delivered by great strength (Ps. 33:16).
NEITHER YET BREAD TO THE WISE. The wise should rule over the fools and be leaders. However, in most cases the reverse is so.
NOR YET FAVOR TO MEN OF SKILL. In regards to government; that is, that the rulers should favor them3 and listen to them.4
BUT TIME AND CHANCE HAPPENETH TO THEM ALL. Them all refers to the wise and to the fools, to the strong and to the weak. However, I believe that them all refers only to those listed in our verse.5 The point of our verse is: Enjoying life is not in man's hand.6 The fact that the wise, who are masters of the knowledge upon which all [skilled] work is based, have no bread, proves this.
Those who say
Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength, that do (Kohelet 9:10) speak nonsense. They say things that will not be.
7
Et (time) refers to what the original upper arrangement contains.8
Pega (chance)9 refers to one of the seven angles with which a planet is aligned with the sun. They are:
a. The point where there are 180 degrees between the planet and the sun;
b. The [two] points where the planet is 90 degrees before or after the sun;
c. The [two] points where the planet is 120 degrees before or after the sun;
d. The [two] points where the planet is 60 degrees before or after the sun.10
Know the following:
The word et [time]11 is missing a nun.
I will now explain:12
Know the following: The Holy Tongue does not have the following: Letters which switch their position in a word,13 letters [that] substitute for each other,14 swallowed letters,15 superfluous letters,16 and dropped letters,17 except for the alef, heh, vav, and yod. This was explained by Rabbi Judah the son of David the grammarian of blessed memory.18
We find that the letter
nun19 is swallowed
20 and missing when it is a first root letter, a last root letter, and a middle root letter. For example, the
nun of
nasa (journeyed) (Gen.33:17)
21 is swallowed by a
dagesh in
va-yissa (journeyed) (ibid. 12:9). [The same is true of the root
nun in]
va-yissa (lifted up) (ibid 13:10),
22 va-yitten (set) (ibid. 1:17),
23 va-yitta (planted) (ibid. 2:8),
24 va-yiddar (vowed) (ibid. 28:20),
25 va-yippol (fell) (ibid. 17:3),
26 va-yiggof (struck)
(Ex. 32:35),
27 yibbol28 (wither) (in [
lo]
yibbolalehu (whose leaf shall not wither)
(Ezek. 47:12).
29
However, in the
po'el form
30 all of these
nuns are present.
31 Compare,
nose'a (journeying)
(Ex. 14:10),
nose (forgiving) (ibid. 34:7),
noten (give)
(Gen. 9:12),
note'a (planted)
(Jer. 11:17),
noder (vowed)(Lev.27:8), novel (fallen)
(Num. 24:4),
noted (Ex. 7:27), and
novel (fading) (Is. 28:1).
32
The
nuns are missing in the imperative.
33 Compare
se'u34 (take your journey) in
kumu se'u (rise ye up, take your journey)
(Deut. 2:24),
se'u35 (Take ye the sum) in
se'u et rosh (take ye the sum of all the congregation)
(Num. 1:2),
tenu36 (give yourselves) in
tenu yad le-YHVH (but give yourselves unto the Lord)
(2 Chron. 30:8).
Sometimes the
nun remains in its place [in the imperative when it is a root letter]. Compare
niflu (fall) in
niflu alenu (fall on us)
(Hosea 10:8).
Occasionally the nun is swallowed
37 when it is the middle root letter as the
nun of
shenei (two)
(Gen. 1:16) in the word
shetei (two)
(Gen. 4:19),
38 for the word
shenei is related to the word
eshneh39 (second) in
ve-lo eshneh lo (and I will not smite him a second time)
(1 Sam. 26:8).
Likewise, the word
et (time)
(Kohelet 9:11) comes from the root
ayin, nun, tav.
41 The word
onah (time), which the Rabbis of blessed memory employ, is similar.
42
We also find the words
u-khe-et (and now)
43 (Ezra 4:17) and
u-khe-enet (and now) (ibid. 4:10)
44
The
dagesh in the
tav of
itto (his time) (verse 12) swallows the [root]
nun.
45 The
dagesh in the
tav of
itto is like the
dagesh in the
tav of
bitto (his daughter)
(Gen. 29:6),[which takes the place of a nun
46] and the
dagesh in the
tav of
attah (you)
(Kohelet 9:9) which swallows the
nun of
ani (I)
(Kohelet 1:12).
47 The same is the case with the
dagesh [placed in the [
tet] of
chittim (wheat)
(Gen. 30:14).
48 Both of these
nuns
49 are present
50 in the Aramaic.
51
The same is the case with the
dagesh of
amitto (His truth)
(Ps. 91:4),
52 for
amitto comes from the same root as the word (
emunah) (steady)
(Ex. 17:12).
53 The
tav of
amitto is the sign of the feminine,
54 as shown by
va-tehi ha-emet ne'edderet (and truth is lacking) (Is. 59:15).
55 The
tav of
et (time) is similarly the sign of the feminine.
56
According to this grammatical explanation [of the word et],57 the word la-ut58 (to sustain) in to sustain him that is weary (Is. 50:4) stands by itself,59 and it has no counterpart in Scripture.60
1. Ibn Ezra’s interpretation of vv. 7-10.
2. Literally, because.
3. Literally, him.
4. Literally, “that they should love him and obey him.”
5. Literally, only to those mentioned. That is, to the swift, to the strong, to the wise, to men of understanding, and to men of skill.
6. Literally, it is not in man's hand to do this. In other words, a person does not have the power to ensure his own happiness.
7. Not everything that a person thinks that he is capable of, will he be able to accomplish. The stars may be against him. See the next note.
8. Et (time) refers to the arrangement of the stars and planets at Creation. This arrangement determines the fate of nations and individuals. See Ibn Ezra on 3:7.
9. Pega literally means a chance meeting.
10. Literally: “The meaning of pega (chance) is the meeting of one of the arrangements [planets] with one of the seven [degrees]. That is, half [of the degrees of a circle], and a half [of that result] before it and after it. And, one-third [of the degrees of a circle], and a half [of that result] before and after it.” See R. Goodman 119-120.
11. In, but time and chance happeneth to them all.
12. What he means by saying, “the word et is missing a nun.”
13. Literally, inverted letters. These are letters that change their position in a word. Compare
riva (strive) and
yerivai (those who strive with me)
(Ps. 35:1), where the
yod changes from being the second letter in the word to the first letter. However, the change does not affect the meaning of the root.
14. According to Ibn Ezra, chavvah (Eve) comes from the word chayyah (life), the yod and vav interchanging. See Ibn Ezra on Gen. 3:20.
15. Letters that are dropped and compensated for by a dagesh.
16. For example, the
vav in the word
le-mayeno (a fountain)
(Ps. 114:8) and the
heh in the word
laylah (night) (Gen.1:5) are not root letters and have no meaning. They do no serve as prefixes or suffixes. Hence, Ibn Ezra refers to them as superfluous.
17. For example, in the case of
shelatekh (thy petition)
(1 Sam. 1:17), the
alef is missing; for the word should have been rendered
she'elatekh.
18. Rabbi Judah the son of David (945-1000) was a renowned grammarian. Ibn Ezra refers to him as the elder of the grammarians. He first laid down the thesis that Hebrew is based on three-letter stems or roots. Ibn Ezra translated several of his books from Arabic into Hebrew.
19. Literally, letter nun. The nun in words that come from a root whose first stem letter is nun.
20. Replaced by a dagesh.
21. From the root nun, samekh, ayin.
22. From the root nun, sin, alef.
23. From the root nun, tav, nun.
24. From the root nun, tet, ayin.
25. From the root nun, dalet, resh.
26. From the root nun, peh, lamed.
27. From the root nun, gimel, peh.
28. From the root nun, bet, lamed.
29. In other words, the nun is dropped in the imperfect kal form in words that have a nun as the first root letter.
30. The present kal form.
31. Nose'a, nose, noten, note'a, noder, nofel, nogef, and novel are present kal forms of the just-mentioned roots whose first letter nun drops out in the imperfect kal. In the present kal, the nun is retained.
32. Nose'a, nose, noten, note'a, noder, nofel, nogef, and novel all come from roots whose first letter is a nun.
33. The nun is dropped in the imperative kal form in words whose first root letter is nun and is compensated for with a dagesh.
34. From the root nun, samekh, ayin.
35. From the root nun, sin, alef.
36. From the root nun, tav, nun.
37. Literally, sometimes it is found swallowed.
38. Shetei is the feminine form of shenei.
39. Shenei is the word shenayim in the construct. The root of shenayim comes from the same root as eshneh; that is, shin, nun, heh. Shetayim is the feminine form of shenayim and shetei is the feminine form of shenei. Thus, the nun stem letter is missing in the word shetei. It is swallowed by a dagesh.
40. Otherwise, the word would be written benat.
41. However, its nun is dropped and compensated for by a dagesh.
42. It has a similar meaning. The word for time (onah) which the Rabbis employ comes from the root ayin, nun, heh. This root is the stem of et, with the nun dropped. Ibn Ezra will soon go on to say that the tav of et is not a root letter but is the sign of the feminine.
43. At this time.
44. We thus see that the words et and enet are related. They both come from the root ayin, nun, heh.
45. The root of itto is ayin, nun, tav. Ibn Ezra now goes on to offer examples of words in which a dagesh compensates for a dropped nun.
47. Attah is related to the word ani. Hence, it comes from a root whose middle letter is nun. The nun is present in the Aramaic form of attah, which is ant.
48. It swallows the nun. Chittim should have been written chintim. Its nun is swallowed by the dagesh in the tet.
49. The nuns which are dropped in attah and chittim.
50. Literally, seen.
51. The
nuns which are dropped in
attah and
chittim appear in the Aramaic. Compare
ant (you)
(Dan. 2:29) and
chintin (wheat)
(Ezra 6:9).
52. See Ibn Ezra's comment above:
bat (Gen. 11:29) lacks the
nun of
ben (Gen. 4:25).
Ibn Ezra now proceeds to show that at times a word derived from a root whose final letter is a
nun drops that
nun.
Amitto comes from the root
alef, mem, nun. The
dagesh of
amitto compensates for the dropped
nun.
53. Emunah comes from the root alef, mem, nun.
54. This is simply a new piece of information. It has nothing to do with the missing nun.
55. Ne'edderet, which describe emet, is feminine. Hence, emet must be feminine.
56. Et is thus feminine.
57. That et comes from the root ayin, nun, heh.
58. From the root, ayin, vav, tav.
59. It has no connection to et, which comes from the root ayin, nun, heh.
60. We do not find another word in Scripture derived from the root ayin, vav, tav. Ibn Ezra's point is that if et (time) came from the root ayin, vav, tav, we could connect la-ut to et. Indeed, Ibn Ezra suggests this in his comments on Is. 50:4: He there renders (la-ut), in season (Friedlander translation, p 229). However, according to Ibn Ezra's interpretation here, la-ut come from different roots. Hence, la-ut is unique and has no counterpart.