The question asked here is much more than a simple question. It identifies the fundamental problem that Qoheleth set out to research, and which the reader should bear in mind while reading on. All the material in the book that follows relates to this question, so we call it the “thematic question” of the book.
This question is important for another reason: it appears several times later (2.22; 3.9; 5.16; 6.8, 11) in places that help us to identify the structure or pattern that Qoheleth uses to express his ideas.
What does man gain…?: the term translated here as gain (yithron) is one we have discussed in “Translating Ecclesiastes,” page 5. Here we meet it for the first time in the text. Revised Standard Version presents it as a verb, although it is a noun in Hebrew. It originally described all that a person gained from working, in the sense of a businessman making profits from the sale of goods. So in 5.9 and 7.12 the word “advantage” or “profit” is used. The difficulty in translating the term is that Qoheleth is not using it in its original commercial sense. Rather he has given it a very particular meaning. The translator will need to find a word or phrase that conveys that special meaning. In view of the discussion of the term in “Translating Ecclesiastes,” page 5, something like “lasting benefit” comes close.
Man in this verse refers to “humankind” or “all people.” It is a general term as in Gen 1.27 and elsewhere. It may be possible to use an inclusive “we” or, following a French or German idiom, “One spends one’s life….” Good News Translation uses an impersonal “you” meaning “everyone.” It can be rendered as “What lasting benefit do we [or, does one] get from…?”
By all the toil at which he toils: any possible gain or advantage will come from human toil or work. By translates a preposition that indicates the means or method used; in English “from” conveys what is meant here. Toil is used in this verse as both a verb and a noun, and both describe the act of working, together with what that work produces. It refers to heavy labor, work that is physically tiring but nevertheless rewarding.
Several translations keep close to the Hebrew form here, using what is called a “cognate-object construction” (Revised Standard Version, Moffatt, Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, New English Bible). It is so called because both the verb and the object come from the same root: “all the toil that he toils” or “all the work that he works.” This kind of repetition may be redundant in many languages. What may catch the meaning well are “from all the work we do,” “from all our work,” or “from all his work” (if we preserve the general term “mankind”).
Under the sun: this phrase is one of several found only in Ecclesiastes. It is one of the many literary features that makes this book different from others. The phrase is an important one for this book because it sets the limits within which Qoheleth is investigating the problem of “lasting benefit.” Later on he will conclude that there is no lasting benefit here on earth, by which he may be suggesting that there is one beyond this life. Qoheleth uses this phrase, or ones like it, often (1.9; 3.16; 4.3, 7, 15; 5.13). Under the sun simply refers to the entire surface of the earth, so to translate it as “on earth,” “on this earth,” or “in this world” is correct, provided that this does not mean only the small local area in which people live. “Under the sky” is how some languages express it. However, the real meaning of the phrase can also be conveyed by the phrase “in this life.” We should also be careful of rendering the Hebrew phrase literally, because in some languages “to toil under the sun” is an idiomatic expression for working as a slave. This is not the meaning intended here. At verse 9 Good News Translation translates under the sun as “in the whole world,” but it omits the phrase here.
Reversing the word order may enable some languages to express the sense more naturally. This means putting the question last; for example, “When a person toils here on the earth, what does he get from it?” or “All the work that one does on this earth, what benefit will it give?”
The question What does a man gain…? is rhetorical. In some languages this idea may be better expressed as a statement: “All the work a man does in this life, it seems to give no lasting benefit.”
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 .