The Profit of a Land and the Purpose of a King: The Translation and Interpretation of Ecclesiastes 5:8

Abstract

The MT of Eccl 5:8 presents challenges of lexicography, grammar, and syntax, in addition to exegetical and text-critical difficulties. This article surveys some attempts to interpret Eccl 5:8 without resorting to textual emendation, and then proposes a new translation and analysis of the MT in its exegetical context. Ecclesiastes 5:8 delineates the benefit of a land or country as being found “in the whole” rather than in one of its component parts. While one will observe governmental corruption in an individual “province” (v. 7), Qoheleth observes that a national governing structure, embodied in a king, brings the benefit of political stability, which ultimately enables an agrarian society to flourish.