Ecclesiastes (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms | BCOTWP)

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“Ecclesiastes is more nuanced than this. Qohelet demonstrates the futility of trying to find meaning in a fallen world apart from remembering one’s Creator and starting with the fear of the Lord, but he also affirms life, and he resolves this tension at the conclusion of his journey precisely through his exhortation to remember one’s Creator. Thus the futility Ecclesiastes exposes is that of trying to find meaning while embracing human autonomy in a world that depends at every point on its Creator.” (Page 97)

“‘remember’ governs 12:1–7. Here ‘remember’ means much more than intellectual acknowledgment of God as Creator.³⁴ It refers to allowing the notion of God as Creator to shape one’s view of life and one’s handling of life’s enigmas now.” (Page 345)

“Miller discerns three referents of hebel in Ecclesiastes: insubstantiality, transience, and foulness.” (Page 106)

“In my view scholars continually fall into the trap of leveling Qohelet toward his hebel pole, or toward his carpe diem—affirmation-of-joy pole. This is to ignore the literary juxtaposition of contradictory views that is central to the book and the life-death tension it embodies. Qohelet’s autonomous epistemology, depending on observation, experience, and reason alone,³⁹⁸ leads him continually to the hebel conclusion, which is juxtaposed again and again with his carpe diem confessions of the goodness of life. The book is about the struggle to live with and resolve the agonized tension between these two poles.” (Page 93)

“The sacrifice of the fools should be thought of not as a denial of the value of sacrifice per se but as a critique of superficial religion that goes through the rituals with many words but no awareness of God.” (Pages 203–204)