He who quarries stones: the hill country of Israel provided an abundant supply of stone for building material. Most major buildings were made of stone. The quarrying action is presented by the participle from the root, which means “to pull up.” Quarries or “digs up” may not be the only possible sense here, as “lift” or even “carry” are also meanings conveyed by this verb.

Is hurt by them: again we observe Revised Standard Version using the present tense is hurt to describe what can happen to a person. The situation described does not always happen, so again we recommend the use of “may be” or “might be” instead of is hurt. Furthermore, as the verb form used here originally had a reflexive sense, we can also say “may strain himself” (as in New English Bible), or “might hurt himself.”

The list of four hazards concludes with and he who splits logs. This can describe either the carpenter or the person who cuts down trees, in fact anyone who works with wood. The Hebrew noun for logs has wide application. It includes everything from a tree still growing to timber prepared for building. “A person who cuts trees” or “someone who cuts wood” are possible translations.

Is endangered by them: the idea of risk is expressed using a Hebrew root meaning “incur danger.” As with the previous verb a reflexive sense rather than a passive is possible, “may endanger himself.” Again we recommend using the auxiliary verb “could” or “might” rather than the Revised Standard Version present tense. New English Bible “runs the risk of” and Jerusalem Bible “takes a risk” are both good models. Them, the Hebrew pronoun suffix on the preposition by, is correctly a plural, but if we choose to render the noun logs by a singular like “wood,” we need to change this plural pronoun to a singular, “it.”

In this verse Revised Standard Version has preserved the grammatical parallelism, and the translator can attempt to do the same if this is appropriate.

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 .