We now have the first illustration of the circular movement that is part of the cycle of nature. The sun rises, then sets, and rises next morning to repeat its race across the heavens.
The sun rises and the sun goes down: morning and evening are mentioned, but the focus for the verse is the sun itself. This is the importance of the repetition of the word “sun.” The poet speaks of it in almost human terms, as it comes out in the morning, dashes across the sky, and “goes,” or disappears, in the evening.
Not every language will find it natural to repeat “sun” in both clauses. Thus in the second clause we may use the pronoun “it” as Good News Translation does. We can also use ellipsis in which “sun” in the first clause serves as the subject of the second clause also: “the sun rises and sets.” The appropriate idiom needs to be found to describe the sun’s movement, such as “coming out,” “going back,” “falling,” or “going to bed.”
And hastens to the place where it rises: in ancient time people thought of the earth as standing still and of the sun as circling around it. This is perfectly logical, even if we today know that the earth moves around the sun. They saw the sun set in the evening, and assumed it hurried around under the earth back to the east, in order to be in time to rise from the eastern sky next morning. Revised Standard Version hastens catches the spirit of the word used here, which is a verb often translated as “panting,” as at the end of a race, or “longing after.” It is used in both senses in the Old Testament (see Psa 56.2; Isa 42.14). It speaks of movement with great energy. Whether the poet thinks that the sun actually grows weary from all this activity, or whether it is “panting” with eagerness, becomes a matter for interpretation. Note that Good News Translation has “going wearily back to where…,” and so it has decided that the theme of tiredness is present in the verb. However, to suggest that the sun’s movement is tiresome or monotonous goes further than the poem allows us. If we keep our eyes on the theme, then perhaps we can avoid that problem: the theme is constant movement, without any comment about how tiresome it may or may not be. It states a fact of nature and does not pass judgment on it. All the text tells us is that the sun works all day and all night as well.
If the translator’s language is not able to personify the sun as suggested by the use of verbs like “hasten,” “pant,” and so on, then adverbs or ideophones may help. For example, “The sun goes quickly back to where it came from.”
Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .