Queen's Road Cell

  I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. 2  I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3  I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4  I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5  I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6  I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7  I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8  I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons

12  I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13  And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14  I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. 15  What is crooked cannot be made straight,      and what is lacking cannot be counted. 16  I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17  And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. 18  For in much wisdom is much vexation,      and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.   These verses provides a transition from the preceding poem to Qoheleth's experiment in 2:1–26ff.  1. a) How does Qoheleth describe himself here? What is his q

  1 1  The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2  Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,      vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3  What does man gain by all the toil      at which he toils under the sun? 4  A generation goes, and a generation comes,      but the earth remains forever. 5  The sun rises, and the sun goes down,      and hastens to the place where it rises. 6  The wind blows to the south      and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind,      and on its circuits the wind returns. 7  All streams run to the sea,      but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow,      there they flow again. 8  All things are full of weariness;      a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing,      nor the ear filled with hearing. 9  What has been is what will be,      and what has been done is what will be done,      and there is nothing new under the sun. 10  Is there a thing of which it is said,      “See, this is n

 I looked at the open-ended questions in Ecclesiastes (below). In fact, it was interesting to me that the questions Qoheleth asked are all in the first half of the book - another hint that he really does know the answers but wants to make us think about them! 1.3 What does man gain by all the toil     at which he toils under the sun? 1:10 Is there a thing of which it is said,     “See, this is new”? 2:12 For what can the man do who comes after the king?   2:15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” 2:18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19  and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?   2:22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 3:9 What gain has the worker from his toil?   3:21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth