Kohelet 11:10

10 Therefore banish ka’as (sorrow) from thy lev, and put away ra’ah from thy basar; for yaldut and shacharut (prime of life) are hevel.

Kohelet 11:10 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 11:10

Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart
Worldly sorrow, as opposed to lawful mirth and cheerfulness, and especially to spiritual joy: or "anger" ^F26, as the word may be rendered, and often is; either at the providence of God, or at the correction of friends; all perturbations of the mind; all fierceness of spirit, and fiery passions, to which youthful age is subject: or all those things, as Jarchi observes, that provoke God to anger; sinful lusts and pleasures, the end and issue of which also is sorrow to men; and which agrees with our version; and put away evil from thy flesh;
or body; such as intemperance and uncleanness, to which young men are addicted: the advice is much the same, in both clauses, with that of the apostle's, "flee youthful lusts", ( 2 Timothy 2:22 ) . Jarchi interprets this of the evil concupiscence; for childhood and youth [are] vanity;
which quickly pass away; come into manhood, and soon slide into old age, and are gone presently, and all things within that compass: all actions done in that age are for the most part vain and foolish; and all the delights, joys, and pleasures thereof, vanishing and transitory. The last word ^F1, used to express the juvenile age, either is akin to a word which signifies the "morning"; youth being the morning and dawn of man's age, and increases as that; and as soon as it is peep of day with him, or he enters into life, he possesses vanity: or as having the signification of "blackness"; because, as Jarchi observes, the head of a young man is black: and so the Targum,

``childhood, and the days of blackness of hair, are vanity;''

whereas the hair of an aged man is gray.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F26 (oek) "iram", Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus; "indignationem", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus; "God's anger", Broughton.
F1 (twrxvh) "ortus" Junius & Tremellius; "aurora", Cocceius, Gejerus, so Aben Ezra and Ben Melech; "dies nigredinis pili"; so the Targum, and Abendana.

Kohelet 11:10 In-Context

8 But if haAdam live many shanim, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the yamim of choshech; for they shall be many. All that cometh is hevel.

9 Rejoice, O bochur, in thy yaldut (youth); and let thy lev cheer thee in the yamim of thy bechurim (youth), and walk in the ways of thine lev, and in the sight of thine eynayim; but have da’as of this; that for all these things HaElohim will bring thee into mishpat.

10 Therefore banish ka’as (sorrow) from thy lev, and put away ra’ah from thy basar; for yaldut and shacharut (prime of life) are hevel.