Ecclesiastes (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament)

Craig G. Bartholomew, Longman, Tremper III, Tremper III Longman

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780801026911
• eBook ISBN: 9781441205070
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

Explore the contemporary significance of the Old Testament and hear the Word of God afresh

Respected Old Testament scholar Craig Bartholomew, coauthor of the well-received Drama of Scripture, provides a careful exegetical reading of Ecclesiastes in this addition to the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms series.

In addition to paragraph-level commentary, all volumes of the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament series feature:

● A fresh translation of the Hebrew text
● Incisive comments based on the author's translation
● Linguistic, historical, and canonical insights
● Concluding reflections
● Footnotes addressing technical matters

Pastors, teachers, and all serious students of the Bible will find here an accessible commentary that will serve as an excellent resource for their study.

I.

Frame Narrative: Prologue

(1:1–11)

Translation

1The words of Qohelet, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2“Utterly enigmatic,”[1] says Qohelet, “utterly enigmatic, everything is enigmatic.”

3“What is the benefit for humankind[2] in all one’s labor at which[3] one labors under the sun?”

4A generation goes and a generation comes,

but the earth stands forever.

5And the sun rises[4] and the sun sets,

and it hurries to its place where it rises again.

6Blowing northward and turning southward,

round and round goes the wind,

and the wind returns to its circuits.

7All the streams flow into the sea,

but the sea is not full;

to the place to which the streams flow,

there they continue[5] to flow.

8Everything is wearisome;[6]

humankind is unable to articulate it.

The eye is not satiated by seeing,[7]

nor is the ear filled by hearing.[8]

9Whatever[9] was[10] is what will be,

and whatever has been done is what will be done,

so there is nothing new under the sun.

10If there exists[11] a thing about which one can say,

“See, this is new,”

it already existed in the ages

that were before us.

11There is no remembrance of those who came before;

nor will those who are still to come

be remembered by those who come after them.

Interpretation

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1The words of Qohelet, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

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1:1. Title. This verse is the title for the book. The expression “the words of” occurs frequently in the OT to introduce collections of sayings (cf. Jer. 1:1; Amos 1:1; Prov. 30:1; 31:1). Thus in the title the narrator introduces what follows as a collection assembled by one “Qohelet.” “Words of” thus gives an indication of the genre of the book. In 12:9–10 the narrator elaborates on the activity involved in bringing together this collection: Qohelet taught knowledge to the people, and he pondered and sought out and arranged many proverbs; he sought to find delightful words, and he wrote truth plainly. As we will see there, “words of” should therefore not just be thought of as sayings randomly assembled[12] but as a careful, reflective gathering and crafting of written material into a literary whole.

The nature of Ecclesiastes as collected and arranged sayings is probably further implied by the name qōhelet. Numerous suggestions have been made about the meaning of this name, which occurs seven times in the book (1:1, 2, 12; 7:27; 12:8, 9, 10), once with the definite article (12:8). The most likely derivation of the word is from the verb qhl, “gather” or “assemble.” The feminine participial form here is not unusual in the OT in reference to particular offices in Israel.[13] Thus Qohelet could be thought of as the one who gathers Israel or who addresses the gathering[14]—hence the translation by some as “the preacher”—or, in my view, as one who gathers material for education of the public.[15] Indeed, there is no reason why qōhelet may not refer to both the one who teaches the public and the one who carefully gathers material for public education. The idea of qōhelet as the one who gathers the assembly seems less likely—the emphasis in 12:9–14 is on qōhelet as one who gathers material and teaches. Fox suggests that qōhelet means “teacher to the public,” and he rightly discerns parallels with the personification of wisdom as a woman in Prov. 1–9 in which she preaches in the public areas of the city.[16] The title associates Qohelet with Solomon, as we will see below, and in 1 Kings the verb qhl is used of Solomon gathering the elders of Israel (1 Kings 8:1: yaqhēl),[17] and in 1 Kings 8:22 he addresses the assembly (qĕhal).[18] Of particular relevance to Qohelet as the one who gathers the material set before us in this book is all the wisdom that Solomon gathered (cf. 1 Kings 4:29–34).

That we are to think of Qohelet as Solomon is made clear by the phrase “the son of David, king in Jerusalem.” “King in Jerusalem” could refer to David or Qohelet, but in the light of 1:12 it is best to take it to refer to Qohelet. Only David and Solomon were kings over Israel in Jerusalem. “The son of David” must refer to Solomon. As established in the introduction, Qohelet is not really Solomon; what we have here is a royal fiction. In the interests of the journey in quest of wisdom that is to unfold in this book around the figure of Qohelet, we are to think of him as a Solomonic figure: wealthy, particularly wise, and with great authority.

As king in Jerusalem we should also note that this is the leader of God’s people and someone familiar with the Israelite traditions as they have been embodied in the Sinai covenant and the Davidic covenant. We would not therefore expect Qohelet to be an unbeliever but someone who knows the ways of the LORD and whose responsibility it is to promote those ways among God’s people.

“Qohelet” is thus a kind of nickname[19] for the central character of the book whose journey of gathering wisdom for the people the narrator presents to us. It is hard to know whether we are to think of Qohelet as a historical person. The literary nature of Ecclesiastes means that Qohelet may be a fictional construct by means of which the narrator presents his teaching. However, the narrator’s comments about Qohelet in 12:9–14 incline me toward the view that Qohelet is most probably a historical person.

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2“Utterly enigmatic,” says Qohelet, “utterly enigmatic, everything is enigmatic.”

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1:2. Statement of the theme of the book. Verse 2 and its virtual repetition in 12:8 are an inclusion that states the theme of Ecclesiastes. It is common in biblical literature to find a theme stated at the beginning and end of a section as a way of indicating what the section is all about. The word for “enigmatic” is hebel, which occurs here twice in a superlative construction and once in relation to “everything.” In Hebrew, the way to express a superlative is to say “enigma of enigmas,” which means “utterly enigmatic.” Similar expressions in the OT are “holy of holies” (that is, most holy) and “song of songs” (that is, the best song).[20] This thematic statement by Qohelet is thus strong and emphatic. This is further enhanced (as if it needed it) by the repetition of the superlative, the further statement that everything is enigmatic, and the repetitive alliteration in the Hebrew of the letter h.[21] Qohelet here is represented as making as strongly as possible his point that he sees everything as utterly enigmatic. This shocking statement of the theme by the ruler of God’s people in Jerusalem anticipates the journey he will embark on and the conclusions he will come to.

Hebel is a key word in Ecclesiastes, occurring thirty-eight times. Traditionally translated as “vanity,” in recent decades an astonishing variety of translations of hebel have been proposed, such as “meaningless,”[22] “useless” (GNB), “absurd,”[23] “futility,”[24] “bubble,”[25] “trace,”[26] “transience,”[27] and “breath.”[28] The literal meaning of hebel would appear to be breath or vapor. Isaiah 57:13 is an example of this usage, in which hebel parallels rûaḥ (wind): “When you cry out, let your assemblage of idols deliver you! But the wind will carry them off; a breath [hebel] will take them away. But the one who takes refuge in me shall inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.”[29] However, in the majority of places in the OT where hebel is used—and in Ecclesiastes in particular—it is used metaphorically, and the challenge is to work out in this context the connotations of hebel.

Seow, with others, maintains that Ecclesiastes uses hebel in a variety of ways, so that no one translation covers all uses. He retains “vanity” as the translation “for want of an adequate alternative.”[30] He notes the clear negative connotation of hebel in Ecclesiastes and points out that hebel is used of human life and experience, not of God or the universe in general. “The view that ‘everything’ is hebel, then, reflects not so much Qohelet’s cosmology as it does his anthropology. What is hebel cannot be grasped—neither physically nor intellectually. It cannot be controlled.”[31]

Seow’s approach alerts us that how we translate hebel will depend to a significant extent on how we read the book as a whole; thus the hermeneutical spiral of interpretation is unavoidable. Rather than his anthropology, what is at stake in Qohelet’s quest is his epistemology, how we come to know such that we can trust the results of our explorations. Qohelet embarks on a quest for knowledge, and it ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Series Preface
• Author’s Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• I. Frame Narrative: Prologue (1:1-11)
• II. Qohelet’s Exploration of the Meaning of Life (1:12–12:7)
• III. Frame Narrative: Epilogue (12:8–14)
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Subject Index
• Author Index
• Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Writings
• Back Cover