I’ve made this summary a bit more detailed since it contains a lot of ideas not expressed in other books of the Bible, the following should express every major idea in the text.
[The words of Kohelet: the text says this is King Solomon.] All is vanity! Generations come and go but the world remains the same. Everything that happens has already happened before and will happen again; nothing’s new under the sun. People who consider something as new they have forgotten history. I was king of Jerusalem and grew richer and wiser than any Israelite king before me. In the end, I found it’s all futile; increasing knowledge just increases sorrow.
I held feasts, built houses, bought slaves: this was all pointless. I turned to wisdom but a dead wise man is forgotten just like a fool is. I loathed life and my “accomplishments”. The wealth and legacy I acquired through intelligence might pass to someone unworthy anyway. In the end, you might as well eat and drink and enjoy yourself since everything is transient. YHWH gives those he favours the wisdom not to hoard but to enjoy life’s simple pleasures.
There’s an appropriate time for all sorts of experiences: a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. Whatever YHWH desires will pass, we cannot affect it. The righteous and wicked live side by side; YHWH will judge both in the end. People’s fate is the same as that of animals: both die similarly and who knows if the person’s soul goes up and a beast’s soul goes down? Therefore, people aren’t superior to animals — in the end both end up as nothing.
I’ve seen oppressed people who have none to comfort them. Truly the dead are more fortunate than the living: they don’t have to endure the world’s miseries. The fruits of human labour are futile, coming mainly from envy. A man without family who amasses riches, for whom does he do it? Two people are better, they can help and warm each other, how can a single person warm himself? Don’t be too eager to speak before YHWH, know your place. Better to be silent than seem a fool, better not to vow than to speak and break your vow.
A lover of wealth will never be satisfied; a worker’s sleep is sweeter. You can’t take wealth to the grave, so why bother? Just enjoy the days YHWH has given you. Sometimes YHWH lets someone get rich but doesn’t let him enjoy his wealth. Even an unburied stillborn is better off. Whatever happens was predestined long ago; there’s no point talking much about it. But, since we don’t know what the future holds, who can really say what the best way to live is?
A good name is better than precious oil. A house of mourning is better than a house of revelry, which is for fools. Enjoy yourself during good fortune and reflect during bad fortune: both are from YHWH. Bad things happen to good people and vice versa, so don’t overdo goodness or badness, wisdom or folly or you may die early. A woman is more bitter than death: she snares. Whoever YHWH favours will escape her. In my experience only one person out of a thousand is [good], and never a woman. A wise man knows there’s a time for everything including death. However nobody has control over death. I’ve seen scoundrels buried with pomp in Jerusalem while righteous people were forgotten. A wicked person’s punishment may come decades later, which only emboldens the wicked.
The actions of the righteous are determined by YHWH but everyone ultimately gets the same fate. People are sad and mad while alive and then it’s off to death! At least the living have something to look forward to. For the dead, all their loves and hates are gone and they will never again participate in the world. Your life is fleeting so enjoy it and shack up with a woman you love, knowing that YHWH has willed it. This is the most you can get out of life. The race is not worn by the swift nor battle by the valiant.
Once, a great king besieged a city. A wise poor man lived there who had the know-how to build good fortifications. Nobody listened to him. So even though wisdom is better than valour, a poor man’s wisdom is scorned. Just as a few dead flies stink up a whole bottle of perfume, a little folly outweighs lots of wisdom. If an official gets mad at you, wait it out because when the wrath abates, people are forgiving. Whoever digs a pit [for someone else] will fall into it himself. A fool’s talk is his undoing. Don’t badmouth a king or rich man, even in your home or to your mates: even a little bird may tell on you.
Just as you don’t know how life passes into a newborn, you don’t know what YHWH’s actions will be. Enjoy each moment: there will be plenty of darkness ahead. Banish sorrow and worry for youth is fleeting. Appreciate life before you will say “I have no pleasure in it”; before the sun and moon grow dim; before the guards get shaky; before the maids that grind grow few; before the jar is shattered and dust returns to the earth. Everything is futile! such is the summary of the Kohelet’s words. Kohelet’s addendum: My son! Don’t overthink: the making of books is endless; excessive study wearies the flesh. [Later interponation*]: The sum of the matter is to revere YHWH and observe his commandments, for he will call every creature to account.
*According to standard scholarhip: after all it’s very inconsistent with the rest of the book’s themes so it seems to be there to make the book seem less corrosive to Biblical religion.
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