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1.2 KiB
as a person comes, so he goes away
This refers to the birth and death of a person and expresses the same idea as the previous verse. This refers to women as well as men. Alternate translation: "as people bring nothing into the world when they are born, so they take nothing with them when they die and leave this world" (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-explicit and rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-gendernotations)
So what profit is there for him who works for the wind?
The writer uses this rhetorical question to emphasize that there is no benefit in working for the wind. This question can be written as a statement. Alternate translation: "No one gets any profit in working for the wind." (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-rquestion)
works for the wind
Possible meanings are 1) This speaks of the person receiving no lasting profit as if he were trying to control the wind. Alternate translation: "tries to shepherd the wind" or "work that is as useless as trying to shepherd the wind" or 2) This implies that the person only receives the air that he breaths as his profit. Alternate translation: "works to receive the air he breathes" (See: rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-metaphor and rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-explicit)