Because leads us directly into the reason for Qoheleth’s anguish. We note that his reason is very impersonal; it is a general example. Good News Translation omits this connecting word, no doubt because the link is clear.

A man who is in Hebrew “There is a man [or, person, people] who…” and can be given as “Here is someone who…” as in New American Bible, or “There are people who….” Good News Translation uses the impersonal “you” in its rendering “You work for something.”

The person in question is described as working with wisdom and knowledge and skill. Any wise person approaches problems with these basic tools, though the repetition adds force. It is difficult to establish that Qoheleth is making a distinction between wisdom and knowledge here, as the terms frequently occur together in proverbial material. Wisdom normally refers to Israel’s accumulated wisdom and its methods of reflection and drawing conclusions, while knowledge has more of a practical sense (see the discussion at 1.16). Skill is the ability of the wise person to deal with or to solve problems. This is the first appearance in Qoheleth of the term “skill.” It will be used again in 4.4 and 5.11, where it is rendered “gain” in Revised Standard Version. Some languages may not have three distinct words for these ideas, in which case a combination of two terms can be used. What is meant is that a person uses all the wisdom and knowledge available.

This part of the verse may be rendered “There are some people who work wisely, with knowledge and skill in what they are doing” or “There are those who demonstrate wisdom, knowledge, and skill in everything they do.”

Must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it: the Hebrew provides a contrast between the person who works to gain things and the one who inherits them. It does this by using “a man [or, a person]” at the beginning of each clause. Thus this part of the verse says literally “but to a man [person, people] who does not toil for it, he will give him his portion.” “His portion” refers to what the person who died had worked for and saved; the indirect object “him” refers to the successor, the person who inherits those goods.

For it are the closing words of this sentence in most English translations, but we may question the correctness of that view. Such a translation depends upon interpreting it as the goods (all in the previous clause) left by the person who died. We note that, in the previous clauses of the verse, there was a heavy emphasis on the preposition “by” or “with”—“with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skill.” It is most likely, therefore, that in this clause that same preposition now translated for has a similar function. Therefore for it may mean “with it” in the sense of “with the same wisdom, knowledge, and skill [of the person who died].” Our interpretation will be reflected in our translation. Some suggestions are “A person’s wealth will be left to someone who does not work in the same way,” or more fully, “but that person’s goods will then be left to someone else who does not work with the same wisdom, knowledge, and skill.”

This also is vanity and a great evil: Qoheleth’s meaning is that here we have yet another of those puzzling situations. He sets before the reader another example of what can and does happen in life. Then he adds his regular phrase “this is hevel” to express his frustration, even anger, that such a situation can arise. The phrase cannot be viewed as expressing his pessimism with life as a whole. This, as we noted in verse 19, refers to the situation just described, in which a fool may inherit all Qoheleth has worked to acquire.

A great evil is another of Qoheleth’s phrases that he uses to emphasize the phrase “this is hevel.” When he uses the noun evil in these circumstances, it does not describe something immoral but rather something that is painful or distressing. A word like “calamity,” “something regrettable,” or even “an injustice” conveys his sense. Thus in translation we may suggest “A situation like this is beyond understanding; it is a calamity,” or “When something like that happens, there is little we can say; it is a great injustice.”

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 .