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Old Testament · Poetry and Wisdom · Book 21 of 66

Ecclesiastes

The Preacher, king in Jerusalem, tests everything done under the sun, calls it vanity, receives joy as God’s gift, and concludes: fear God and keep his commandments.

  • 12 chapters
  • 222 verses
  • About 25 minutes to read
Read Ecclesiastes 1 Listen 29:32 Ask about Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes is the search of a king who had the means to try everything a man can gain in this life. The Preacher, “king over Israel in Jerusalem” (Ecclesiastes 1:12), gives his heart to wisdom, then to mirth, great works, gardens, servants and silver, and weighs each by one question: “What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?” (1:3). His answer stands at the beginning of the book and again at its end: “Vanity of vanities … all is vanity” (1:2; 12:8).

Two refrains run under that verdict. One is “under the sun”, in twenty-seven verses: the field the Preacher surveys, where the wise man dies as the fool and the wicked prolong their days. The other is the gift of God, bread eaten with joy and a portion received from his hand. The book ends where wisdom begins, with the fear of God: “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (12:13).

Key verse
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV

The rivers Ecclesiastes 1:7
The threefold cord Ecclesiastes 4:12
The golden bowl Ecclesiastes 12:6

Before you read

Who wrote it
The book calls him “the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (Ecclesiastes 1:1); in Hebrew Qoheleth, one who gathers an assembly. He never gives his name. Traditionally he is Solomon, the son of David who reigned over Israel in Jerusalem.

Jerome, Basil and Gregory the Great, among others Solomon wrote it. He alone was both David’s son and king over Israel in Jerusalem, his wisdom and works match the Preacher’s, and the many proverbs the Preacher set in order answer to the three thousand Solomon spoke.

Grounds Ecclesiastes 1:1Ecclesiastes 1:16Ecclesiastes 12:91 Kings 4:29–32Jerome 420 · Commentary On Ecclesiastes 1:1Basil of Caesarea 379 · Concerning FaithGregory the Dialogist 604 · Dialogue 3:37

Some faithful Christian readers An inspired later writer speaks in Solomon’s person. They note that the book never names Solomon, that the Preacher says he “was king” over Israel, and that its closing verses speak of the Preacher in the third person.

Grounds Ecclesiastes 1:12Ecclesiastes 12:9–10

Where
Jerusalem, the city of the Preacher’s reign (1:12), his great works and his wealth (2:4–9).
To whom
The people, whom the Preacher “still taught … knowledge” (12:9), and the reader addressed as “my son” (12:12).

How Ecclesiastes is laid out

8 movements · 49 passages · 222 verses

1:23:115:25:187:299:1011:112:13
11:1–1121:12–2:2633:1–2244–556–869–10711:1–12:8812:9–14

Vanity of vanities

1:1–11 · 11 verses

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, open on their verdict: “all is vanity.” A man gains no profit from his labour under the sun. Generations pass while the earth abides; the sun, the wind and the rivers go round and return. There is “no new thing under the sun,” and no remembrance of former things.

2 passages

  1. 1:1–3 The Words of the Preacher: All Is Vanity
  2. 1:4–11 The Cycles of Wearisome Repetition

The king tests everything

1:12–2:26 · 33 verses

As king over Israel, the Preacher searches out by wisdom all that is done under heaven and finds it “vanity and vexation of spirit.” He proves mirth, wine, great works, gardens, servants, silver and singers, and finds no profit. The wise man dies as the fool, and his labour goes to an heir. Eating, drinking and joy in labour come “from the hand of God.”

6 passages

  1. 1:12–18 Qoheleth’s Investigation into Wisdom
  2. 2:1–3 Testing Pleasure and Folly
  3. 2:4–11 Testing Achievements and Wealth
  4. 2:12–17 The Futility of Wisdom and Folly
  5. 2:18–23 The Anxiety of Labor and Inheritance
  6. 2:24–26 The Gift of Enjoyment from God

A time to every purpose

Chapter 3 · 22 verses

Every purpose under heaven has its season, from birth to death, planting to plucking up. God has made everything beautiful in its time and set the world in man’s heart, yet no man can find out his work; to rejoice and do good is God’s gift. Wickedness sits in the place of judgment, but God shall judge. Man and beast alike return to dust.

3 passages

  1. 3:1–10 The Appointed Times for Everything
  2. 3:11–15 God's Eternal Plan and Human Joy
  3. 3:16–22 The Problem of Injustice and Mortality

Toil, worship and riches

Chapters 4–5 · 36 verses

The Preacher sees the tears of the oppressed with no comforter, labour driven by envy, and a lone man toiling for no heir. Two are better than one. At the house of God, let words be few and vows be paid. Silver never satisfies the man who loves it, and he leaves naked as he came. To enjoy one’s portion is the gift of God.

9 passages

  1. 4:1–3 The Misery of Oppression
  2. 4:4–6 Envy and the Vanity of Toil
  3. 4:7–8 The Futility of Solitary Labor
  4. 4:9–12 The Power of Two
  5. 4:13–16 The Fickleness of Royal Favor
  6. 5:1–7 Reverence and Wisdom in Worship
  7. 5:8–9 Observing Injustice and Authority
  8. 5:10–17 The Vanity and Peril of Riches
  9. 5:18–20 Enjoyment as God's Gift

Who knoweth what is good?

Chapters 6–8 · 58 verses

Wealth a man cannot enjoy is an evil, and who knoweth what is good for man? Sayings follow on what is better: a good name, the house of mourning, patience. Every just man sins, though God made man upright. Keep the king’s commandment. Delayed sentence emboldens the wicked, yet “it shall be well with them that fear God.” No man can find out the work of God.

13 passages

  1. 6:1–6 The Vanity of Unenjoyed Wealth
  2. 6:7–9 The Futility of Insatiable Desire
  3. 6:10–12 Human Limitations and Ignorance
  4. 7:1–10 Wisdom and the Acceptance of Reality
  5. 7:11–14 The Benefits and Limits of Wisdom
  6. 7:15–22 The Problem of Injustice
  7. 7:23–26 The Elusive Nature of Wisdom
  8. 7:27–29 The Preacher's Conclusion
  9. 8:1–8 Wisdom and Submission to Authority
  10. 8:9–10 The Injustice of Power
  11. 8:11–13 Delayed Justice and the Rise of Evil
  12. 8:14–15 The Paradox of Life and the Commendation of Mirth
  13. 8:16–17 The Limits of Human Understanding

One event unto all

Chapters 9–10 · 38 verses

The righteous and the wise are in the hand of God, yet one event comes to all, and the dead know nothing. So eat thy bread with joy and work with thy might before the grave. The race is not to the swift. A poor wise man delivers a city and is forgotten. A little folly spoils wisdom, as dead flies the ointment, and fools sit in high places.

10 passages

  1. 9:1–6 The Uncertainty of Life and Death
  2. 9:7–10 Embracing Joy in a Fleeting Life
  3. 9:11–12 The Role of Chance and Time
  4. 9:13–16 The Parable of the Poor Wise Man
  5. 9:17–18 The Power of Quiet Wisdom
  6. 10:1–3 The Weight of Folly and Wisdom
  7. 10:4–7 Prudence in Dealing with Rulers
  8. 10:8–11 Practical Risks and the Value of Skill
  9. 10:12–15 The Destructive Speech of the Fool
  10. 10:16–20 Governance, Sloth, and Stability

Remember thy Creator

11:1–12:8 · 18 verses

Cast thy bread upon the waters and sow in morning and evening, for no man knows the work of God. Let the young man rejoice, knowing God will bring him into judgment. Remember thy Creator before the evil days, when the grinders cease and the silver cord is loosed. Then the dust returns to the earth and the spirit to God, and the Preacher says again, “all is vanity.”

4 passages

  1. 11:1–3 Generosity and Investing Wisely
  2. 11:4–6 Diligent Sowing Without Knowing the Outcome
  3. 11:7–10 Youthful Joy and Divine Judgment
  4. 12:1–8 Remember Your Creator in Your Youth

The conclusion of the matter

12:9–14 · 6 verses

The Preacher taught the people knowledge, set in order many proverbs, and sought acceptable words, upright and true. The words of the wise are goads and nails, given from one shepherd, and of making many books there is no end. The conclusion: fear God and keep his commandments, the whole duty of man, for God shall bring every work into judgment.

2 passages

  1. 12:9–12 The Preacher's Wisdom and Teaching
  2. 12:13–14 The Whole Duty of Man

The words Ecclesiastes turns on

The Preacher asks what profit labour brings under the sun, calls it vanity, and finds instead a portion from God and the fear of him.

See these words across the whole Bible

What Ecclesiastes teaches

hebel · vanity

Vanity under the sun

Hebel is breath or vapour, and the Preacher sets it over all he examines: “Vanity of vanities … all is vanity” (1:2). Jerome put the question plainly: If everything that God made is very good, then how can everything be vanity? The book answers by its frame. The verdict falls on “all the works that are done under the sun” (1:14) and on what a man can keep from them: “there was no profit under the sun” (2:11). It is not a verdict on the Maker, who “hath made every thing beautiful in his time” (3:11). The wise man dies as the fool, and a man must leave his labour to one who never laboured for it (2:18–21). That is vanity: not that the world is worthless, but that nothing in it can be held.

chêleq · portion

A portion from the hand of God

Again and again the Preacher stops to commend eating, drinking and joy in labour (3:12–13, 22; 8:15; 9:7–10). Each time it is God’s gift, not man’s gain: “it was from the hand of God” (2:24); “it is the gift of God” (3:13); “for it is his portion” (5:18). Profit is what a man would keep from his labour and cannot; a portion is what God gives him for the days of his life. The joy is not licence. God “giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy” (2:26), and the young man bidden to rejoice is told in the same verse, “for all these things God will bring thee into judgment” (11:9).

rûwach · spirit, breath

Who knoweth the spirit of man?

“That which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts … as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath” (3:19), and the Preacher asks, “Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” (3:21). Breath and spirit are one word, rûach. The Fathers read the passage two ways. Gregory the Great held that here, when he speaks from the minds of the infirm, our Preacher voices an opinion based on suspicion, which he later answers from reason. Didymus took it as the Preacher’s own word about death: he does not mean what happens to reason but what happens to the outward body. The book’s last chapter gives its answer: “the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (12:7).

yârêʼ · fear

Fear God

The conclusion gathers a line the Preacher has drawn throughout. God’s works stand for ever, “and God doeth it, that men should fear before him” (3:14). After the warning against rash words and unpaid vows comes “but fear thou God” (5:7). When a sinner’s days are prolonged, “yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God” (8:12). The epilogue sets it down as “the whole duty of man” (12:13), in the law’s own terms: to “fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments” (Deuteronomy 6:2). Its ground is judgment. The wrongs the Preacher saw go unanswered under the sun are not the end, for God will bring every work into judgment, “with every secret thing” (12:14).

Christ in Ecclesiastes

Paul takes up the Preacher’s first word. The Greek Old Testament renders hebel by mataiotēs, and Paul uses that word for the whole creation: “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” (Romans 8:20). That vanity came with the curse, when man was told, “unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19). Yet the creation “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Paul ends his chapter on the resurrection with what could not be said under the sun: “your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

The Preacher found “not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). The Son of David “did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22), and of himself he said, “a greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42). The judgment of “every secret thing” on which the book closes (Ecclesiastes 12:14) is given to him: “God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16).

People

By how many verses name them

Places

1 named

The passages it leans on, and the ones that lean on it

Books Ecclesiastes links to most

  1. Psalms382
  2. Proverbs281
  3. Job214
  4. Isaiah189
  5. Genesis176
  6. Luke139

Cross-references from Ecclesiastes into each book · 62 books in all

See every thread

The Church Fathers on Ecclesiastes

548 quotations from 44 writers before AD 800 · the ten most quoted, in date order

  1. Origen253
  2. Gregory270
  3. Gregory395
  4. Ambrose397
  5. Didymus398
  6. Evagrius Ponticus399
  7. Jerome420
  8. Augustine430
  9. John Cassian435
  10. Gregory604

Jerome, on the Preacher’s Hebrew name: one who gathers the assembly.

Solomon is here given the Greek name Ecclesiastes [Heb Qōhelet], for he gathers the assembly [qāhāl], that is, the church. But we can call him the Preacher because he speaks to the people and his word is directed not only to one person but to everyone.
Jerome 420 · Commentary On Ecclesiastes 1:1 · on Ecclesiastes 1:1

Bede read the Preacher’s complaints under the sun in the light of a judge above it.

He complained that he had seen deceit beneath the sun because he knew that above the sun there is a just judge “who dwells on high and looks down upon humble things.”
Bede 735 · Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, 2 Peter 3:13 · on Ecclesiastes 4:1

Origen read the verse on the just man as leaving one exception: Christ, who alone does not sin.

If you wish to recall some other of the saints, the word of Scripture replies to you, saying, “There is no one upon the earth who does good and sins not.” Therefore only Jesus rightly “has perfect hands”; who alone “does not sin,” that is, who has perfect and whole works of his hands.
Origen of Alexandria 253 · Homilies On Leviticus 12:3.2 · on Ecclesiastes 7:20

Augustine, on the book’s last word: the whole duty of man.

What could be briefer, truer, better for the soul to know? For this is all a person is—a keeper of God’s commandments. Not being such, he is, so to say, nothing at all, because instead of being constantly reshaped to the image of the truth, he remains bogged down in the likeness of shadow.
Augustine of Hippo 430 · City of God 20.3 · on Ecclesiastes 12:13
Matthew Henry · 42 sections on Ecclesiastes“Here is, I. An account of the penman of this book”

Keep studying

Articles

Book introductionAn Introduction to Ecclesiastes: The Search for MeaningDevotional · Ecclesiastes 4:5The Cynical Opt-OutMeaning mapWhere Ecclesiastes’s verses sit among the whole Bible’sAsk AIAsk a question about Ecclesiastes