Canticum Canticorum 1:6

Nova Vulgata

Gyrat per meridiem et flectitur ad aquilonem, lustrans universa in circuitu pergit spiritus et in circulos suos revertitur.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Animadvertet parabolam et interpretationem, verba sapientum et �nigmata eorum.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
gyrat per meridiem, et flectitur ad aquilonem.
Lustrans universa in circuitu pergit spiritus,
et in circulos suos revertitur.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

The wind: This verse should be connected with the preceding, and rendered, "The sun also riseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose; going toward the south, and turning about unto the north. The wind whirleth about continually," etc. Alluding, in the former part, to the apparent daily motion of the sun from east to west, and to his annual course through the signs of the zodiac. Job 37:9, Job 37:17, Psalms 107:25, Psalms 107:29, Jonah 1:4, Matthew 7:24, Matthew 7:27, John 3:8, Acts 27:13-15

Reciprocal: Ecclesiastes 6:11 - General Song of Solomon 4:16 - Awake

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north,.... The word "wind" is not in this clause in the original text, but is taken from the next, and so may be rendered, "it goeth towards the south", c. that is, the sun x before mentioned, which as to its diurnal and nocturnal course in the daytime goes towards the south, and in the night towards the north and as to its annual course before the winter solstice it goes to the south, and before the summer solstice to the north, as interpreters observe. And the Targum not only interprets this clause, but even the whole verse, of the sun, paraphrasing the whole thus,

"it goes all the side of the south in the daytime, and goes round to the side of the north in the night, by the way of the abyss; it goes its circuit, and comes to the wind of the south corner in the revolution of Nisan and Tammuz; and by its circuit it returns to the wind of the north corner in the revolution of Tisri and Tebet; it goes out of the confines of the east in the morning, and goes into the confines of the west in the evening.''

But Aben Ezra understands the whole of the wind, as our version and others do, which is sometimes in the south point of the heavens, and is presently in the north;

it whirleth about continually; and the wind returneth again according to his circuits; which may be meant of the circuits of the sun, which has a great influence on the wind, often raising it in a morning and laying it at night; but it is the wind itself which whirls and shifts about all the points of the compass, and returns from whence it came, where the treasures of it are. Agreeably to Solomon's account of the wind is Plato's definition of it,

"the wind is the motion of the air round about the earth y.''

This also exemplifies the rotation of men and things, the instability, inconstancy, and restless state of all sublunary enjoyments; the unprofitableness of men's labours, who, while they labour for riches and honour, and natural knowledge, labour for the wind, and fill their belly with east wind, which cannot satisfy, Ecclesiastes 5:16; as well as the frailty of human life, which is like the wind that passes away and comes not again; and in this respect, like the rest of the instances, exceed man, which returns to its place, but man does not, Job 7:7.

x Jarchi, Alshech, and Titatzak, interpret it of the sun; so Mercerus, Varenius, Gejerus; accordingly Mr. Broughton renders it "he walketh to the south." y Definition. p. 1337. Ed. Ficin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

More literally, Going toward the south and veering toward the north, veering, veering goes the wind; and to its veerings the wind returns.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 1:6. "The wind is continually whirling about, and the wind returneth upon its whirlings."

It is plain, from the clause which I have restored to the fifth verse, that the author refers to the approximations of the sun to the northern and southern tropics, viz., of Cancer and Capricorn. Ecclesiastes 1:5.

All the versions agree in applying the first clause of the sixth verse to the sun, and not to the wind. Our version alone has mistaken the meaning. My old MS. Bible is quite correct:

The sunne riisith up, and goth doun, and to his place turnith agein; and there agein riising, goth about bi the south, and then agein to the north.

The author points out two things here:

1. Day and night, marked by the appearance of the sun above the horizon; proceeding apparently from east to west; where he sinks under the horizon, and appears to be lost during the night.

2. His annual course through the twelve signs of the zodiac, when, from the equinoctial, he proceeds southward to the tropic of Capricorn; and thence turneth about towards the north, till he reaches the tropic of Cancer; and so on.