Then I saw: see comments on this introductory form in 3.10 and 4.1.

All toil and all skill in work: two concepts are examined by Qoheleth, toil or labor, and skill. These are related to each other by the fact that people need skill in order to accomplish their work (or, toil). On the meaning of toil see comments at 2.10. In this general setting it is not possible, nor is it desirable, to define the activities more closely. Qoheleth is speaking only of general principles. That is to say, he is thinking of any task and the skills we need to accomplish it. Good News Translation “why people work so hard to succeed” focuses only on effort rather than on the skill people develop and use. We should note that being skillful does not guarantee that a person will be successful. We shall give further consideration to the terms toil and skill below.

Come from a man’s envy of his neighbor: Revised Standard Version come from is an interpretation of the Hebrew, which says literally only that toil and skill themselves are the envy of a person’s neighbor, not that toil and skill stem from envy. Some have taken these words to mean that the outcome of one person’s work and skill provokes envy on the part of others. But Qoheleth appears here to be talking either about motives for what people do, or the effects of competition. Toil and skill are powered by, or perhaps motivated by, the desire to perform better than someone else. Translators will need to find a natural way of expressing this idea in their language. Some possibilities are to say that skill at a task “comes from,” “grows out of,” “is motivated by,” “is spurred on by,” or “is the result of” a sense of competition.

Envy of his neighbor carries a somewhat negative tone in English, as envy, like the word “jealousy,” is a desire to have what someone else has, or to be able to do what they can do. It conveys the sense that we are lacking something and we are unhappy about that fact. Yet this same Hebrew root also means “zeal,” or “passion,” and in Exo 20.5 it is used to describe the LORD’s attitude to those who have made a covenant with him. He is jealous of the relationship and wants nothing to interrupt it. Here it can only have a positive sense. From the way it is used in the Jewish Talmud, we note that the word translated here as “envy” actually means “a sense of rivalry.” It may at times have negative results, but often it is very positive, a stimulus encouraging a person to greater effort when confronting a challenge. Our translation should not give the idea that this is an unhealthy or sinful activity; rather, it is a natural human response to a challenge. A term like “jealousy” in English, then, should be avoided; “an honest sense of competition” may come closer to the meaning. Neighbor is used in the general biblical sense of “the other person” and not with the narrower meaning of a person living in the same village or adjoining house.

The question we need to ask now is what relationship there is between toil, skill, and a sense of competition. Competition may push us to improve our skills, but how can it produce toil? Our conclusion here is that in this passage toil and skill are being used as terms that have almost the same meaning. The first term, toil, is the broad one, and this is then more narrowly defined as skill in working, which is talent, ability, or training to do a task well. This view of the relationship between the two terms will affect our translation. “Skill at a given task” may be a way to combine the two expressions.

Some models for translators to consider in this part of the verse are:

• The skill people acquire in doing any task comes from competing against others.

• A person’s skill in his work is sharpened by a sense of rivalry.

• Skill at a given task and an honest sense of competition go hand in hand.

This also is vanity and a striving after wind: see comments for translation at 1.14. If the above statement about “envy” is correct, namely, that it can have a positive meaning, then in this context hevel cannot mean “vanity” or “meaninglessness.” Qoheleth adds the refrain that “this is hevel” here to indicate that he does not understand how this competitive drive works; he has to admit that it is an enigma.

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 .