What the verse said: “There is no person who rules the spirit, to retain the spirit” (Ecclesiastes 8:8) – Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya, Rabbi Yehuda says: There is no person who rules the angel of death, to keep him from him, and spirit [ruaḥ] is nothing other than an angel [malakh], as it is stated: “He makes the winds [ruḥot] His messengers [malakhav]” (Psalms 104:4). Rabbi Neḥemya says: There is no person who rules the ruaḥ of the exiles, to eliminate them from the world, and ruaḥ is nothing other than exiles, as it is stated: “And behold, the four winds [ruhot] of the heavens” (Daniel 7:2).3Daniel proceeds to enumerate the four exiles.
Another matter, Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: There is no person who rules over his soul to eliminate it. Why? It is because the Holy One blessed be He disseminated it throughout the body, as had the Holy One blessed be He disseminated it in one limb, when trouble would befall a person, he would amputate that limb and die. That is why it is throughout the body, so that he will not be able to eliminate it.
That is, “there is no person who rules the spirit.” What is, “there is no sending a proxy in war”? (Ecclesiastes 8:8). A person cannot say, when he is tending toward death: ‘Behold, I am sending my slave in my stead.’ Rabbi Shimon ben Ḥalafta says: A person cannot craft a weapon and save himself from the angel of death, like the matter that is stated: “And made weapons and shields in abundance” (II Chronicles 32:5).
What is “there is no dominion over the day of death”? There is no person with dominion to say: ‘Wait for me until I settle my accounts or until I give orders to my household, and then I will come.’ Another matter, what is “there is no dominion”? The angel of death does not say: ‘Since this one is a king, we will concede to him an additional day or two days.’
There is no favoritism before him on that day. Know that all the days of David, he was called king, as it is stated: “King David was old” (I Kings 1:1). When he reached his death, kingship is not written in his regard. From where is it derived?
It is as it is stated: “The days of David approached to die” (I Kings 2:1). “And wickedness will not rescue its owner” (Ecclesiastes 8:8) – a person cannot pose an appeal before him [the angel of death], nor can a person make a claim before him. After all, Moses, after all the goodness that he saw, once the day of his death arrived, he was unable to delay it. He immediately said to him: “Behold, your days are approaching to die.”