Ecclesiastes

I spent the small hours of last night reading most of Ecclesiastes through sleep-encrusted eyes.

If you are the kind of person who never reads the Bible as a matter of principle, you might think about making an exception for Ecclesiastes. It's a very philosophical chapter, and much less moralistic than most other parts of the Bible.

The main message seems to be our helplessness to change things in the face of the vast forces that control the universe. It is strange that this message of despair, improbably cast across the void of time, gives me great comfort in my own despair.

The clarity and coherence of early Ecclesiastes seems to break down into a static of jumbled ideas and messages towards the end (... or was this me going back to sleep?) In particular, Ecclesiastes seems unclear on whether wisdom is an essential virtue, or just another flavor of human folly.

The following are some of my favorite passages:


Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
What do people gain from all the toil, at which they toil under the sun?
A generation comes, a generation goes, but the earth remains forever....
All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full....


And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly.
I perceived that this also is but a chasing after wind.
For in much wisdom is much vexation,
and those who increase knowledge increase sorrow...


What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun?
For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation;
even at night their minds do not rest.
This also is vanity.
There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink,
and find enjoyment in their toil...


Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun.
Look, the tears of the oppressed - with no one to comfort them!
On the side of their oppressors there was power -
with no one to comfort them...


Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person's envy of another.
This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
'Fools fold their hands,
and consume their own flesh.
Better is a handful with quiet
than two handfuls with toil,
and a chasing after wind'...

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