Ecclesiastes 1:10

Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
there	יֵ֥שׁ yesh	H3426	there is or are (or any other form of the verb to be · cardinal number, both genders singular construct
thing	דָּבָ֛ר da.Var	H1697	a word · noun, common masculine singular absolute
said	שֶׁיֹּאמַ֥ר shei.yo.Mar	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · relative particle + verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
See	רְאֵה re.'eh-	H7200	to see · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
new	חָדָ֣שׁ cha.Dash	H2319	new · adjective, masculine singular absolute
already	כְּבָר֙ ke.Var	H3528	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
time	לְעֹֽלָמִ֔ים le.'o.la.Mim	H5769	properly · preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
before	מִלְּפָנֵֽנוּ mi.le.fa.Ne.nu	H6440	the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Matthew 23:30-32 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Luke 17:26-30 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Matthew 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
2 Timothy 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 1:9-11

Two things we are apt to take a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction in, and value ourselves upon, with reference to our business and enjoyments in the world, as if they helped to save them from vanity. Solomon shows us our mistake in both. 1. The novelty of the invention, that it is such as was never known before. How grateful is it to think that none ever made such advances in knowledge, and such discoveries by it, as we, that none ever made such improvements of an estate or trade, and had the art of enjoying the gains of it, as we have. Their contrivances and compositions are all despised and run down, and we boast of new fashions, new hypotheses, new methods, new expressions, which jo…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ecclesiastes 1:10

old time--Hebrew, "ages." which was--The Hebrew plural cannot be joined to the verb singular. Therefore translate: "It hath been in the ages before; certainly it hath been before us" [HOLDEN]. Or, as MAURER: "That which has been (done) before us (in our presence, Ch1 16:33), has been (done) already in the old times."

John Gill on Ecclesiastes 1:10

Is there any thing whereof it may be said, see, this is new?.... This is an appeal to all men for the truth of the above observation, and carries in it a strong denial that there is anything new under the sun; and is an address to men to inquire into the truth of it, and thoroughly examine it, and see if they can produce any material objection to it; look into the natural world, and the same natural causes will be seen producing the same effects; or into the moral world, and there are the same virtues, and their contrary; or into the political world, and the same schemes are forming and pursuing, and which issue in the same things, peace or war; or into the learned world, and the same langua…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 1:10

"Is there anything whereof it may be said: See, this is new? - it was long ago through the ages (aeons) which have been before us." The Semit. substantive verb ישׁ (Assyr. isu) has here the force of a hypothetical antecedent: supposing that there is a thing of which one might say, etc. The זה, with Makkeph, belongs as subject, as at Ecc 7:27, Ecc 7:29 as object, to that which follows. כּבר (vid., List, p. 193) properly denotes length or greatness of time (as כּברה, length of way). The ל of לע is that of measure: this "long ago" measured (Hitz.) after infinitely long periods of time. מלּ, ante nos, follows the usage of מלּף, Isa 41:26, and lpaa', Jdg 1:10, etc.; the past time is spoken of as…

The Church Fathers

"Is there anything whereof it may be said, see this is new? It has already been for ages, which were before us. "Symmachus translated this more clearly: "Do you think there is a man who is able to say: look this is new, it has already been done before because it was before us." But he agrees with his predecessors that there is nothing new in the world, and that there is none that is able to live and say: 'look this is new', since everything that he thought he had shown to be new, already existed in former times. But we ought not to think that the signs, prodigies and the many deeds which are done for the first time by God's judgement in the world today, have already been done before in former ages, or that it was Epicurus who found this, asserting that these same things were done in innumerable periods and in these places and by these same men. Besides, both Judas betrayed "repeatedly" and Christ "often" suffered for us; and other things which have been done and will be done, are continually repeated in these times. But it could be said too, that those things, which will be done have already been done, decided out of foreknowledge and the predestination of God. For those who have been chosen in Christ before the constitution of the world existed already in previous times.
— Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Ecclesiastes 1:10

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 1:9-11

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ecclesiastes 1:10

John Gill on Ecclesiastes 1:10

Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 1:10

The Church Fathers

Ecclesiastes 1:10

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 1:9-11

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ecclesiastes 1:10

John Gill on Ecclesiastes 1:10

Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 1:10

The Church Fathers

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Ecclesiastes 1:7-8

Rashi on Ecclesiastes 1:10