Texts in Conversation
The Hebrew version of Ecclesiastes dismisses human achievement as chasing after wind, an image of futility. The Greek Septuagint thinks the verb is an Aramaic word for choosing and human free will, interpreting the phrase into the preference of the wind.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ecclesiastes 1:14
Hebrew Bible
13 I decided to carefully and thoroughly examine all that has been accomplished on earth. I concluded: God has given people a burdensome task that keeps them occupied. 14 I reflected on everything that is accomplished by man on earth, and I concluded: Everything he has accomplished is futile—like chasing the wind! 15 What is bent cannot be straightened, and what is missing cannot be supplied.
LXX Ecclesiastes 1:14
Septuagint
13 And I set my heart to seek out and to survey with wisdom concerning all things that happen under heaven, because an evil distraction God gave to the sons of humans: to be troubled within himself. 14 I saw the actions all together that are done under the sun, and look, they are all futility and the preference of the wind.a 15 What is distorted cannot be decorated, and what is deficient cannot be numbered.
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Notes and References
... Another interesting feature of the Greek of Ecclesiastes is the rendering of the second hemistich of the chorus in Qoheleth 2:11. While the translation of the Hebrew ruah by Greek pneuma (“wind,” “spirit”) is quite common in the Septuagint and probably no more than a mechanical choice, the rendering of the Aramaic reut (“chasing after”) by the Greek proairesis (“preference,” “choosing”) may well reflect an anthropological idea meant to express the trope that each human is responsible for his/her own choices. ...
Pouchelle, Patrick
"Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes in the Septuagint (LXX)" in Adams, Samuel L., and Matthew Goff (eds.) The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature
(pp. 150-151) Wiley-Blackwell, 2020
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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