A Commentary in Simple English on Ecclesiastes

Chapter 1 Man without God

Verses 1 - 11: Look around!

In these verses, it is the writer who speaks.

(Verse 1) We have said that we would call the book ‘The Teacher’. The Hebrew word is ‘Koheleth’. ‘The Preacher’ would also be right, or ‘The Arguer’. Some people think that the word really means ‘Leader of the people who have met together’! Members of David’s family were kings in Jerusalem for hundreds of years. They would all have called themselves ‘sons of David’. Other reasons why we should think of Solomon are his great wisdom, riches and power. [1.1]

(Verse 2) Now we meet one of the words for which ‘The Teacher’ is well known. It is ‘vanity’. It may be ‘meaningless’ in your Bible. The Writer uses the word again and again in this verse. This is to make the meaning stronger. So we need to do our best to find out what the word means here. The Hebrew word is ‘Hebel’. We shall often meet this word in the book. Each time we shall have to ask whether we really know what it means. Perhaps ‘empty’ is an easy way for us to think about it.

It may help if we look at Genesis 4:1-2. There Eve gives birth to her first son. She calls him ‘Cain’. She is proud and happy. With the help, which God gave to her, she has given birth to Cain. Eve does not know that Cain will kill his brother. Then later on Eve has another son. She is not so proud or happy this time. She calls him ‘Abel’ and this is just the word that the Teacher uses so often. Eve calls her second son by this name, and she means: ‘He does not amount to anything much.’

So the Writer says: ‘I look at people. I look at life. I look at the world. It is all empty.’ Many people think like this today. They look at their life and find that it is empty. It does not mean anything. Now Christians can say something very different. If we leave God out, then life is empty. This is because people try to push God out of his world. We do not have to bring God in. God does not only fill this world. He fills heaven as well (Jeremiah 23:24). His love fills the world (Psalm 119:64). We pray that it may be like this (Psalm 72:19). His glory fills the world (Isaiah 6:3). We are to know that this is true (Hebrews 2:14). God fills us too. He fills us with joy (Psalm 16:11). He fills us with good things (Psalm 103:5; 81:10). The Bible is full of things like this!

Yet there is something more. Jesus is full of grace and truth (John 1:14). He gives that grace and truth to us (John 1:16). The Lord Jesus Christ is the ‘All-filler’ (Ephesians 1:23). [1.2] Jesus fills everything in every way. The church is his ‘fullness’. Then in Colossians 1:19, we read that God was pleased that all his fullness should stay in Jesus. Paul brings the two ideas together in Colossians 2:9 and 10. Christ is not only the Son of God. He is also a real man. And in Jesus, there is all the ‘fullness’ of God. We are one with Jesus. We are small, but we too are full.

In verse 3 the Writer asks a question. It is the question that the Teacher tries to answer all through the book. He uses another word that we shall find again. This is ‘yitron’ in Hebrew. It means ‘gain’ or profit. So in this verse we have a picture of a man. He works away all his life. He works ‘under the sun’. God has no place in this man’s life and work. At the end of this man’s life, everything is just the same as it was at the start of his life. He has gained nothing. ‘What does a man have to show for all his hard work?’ Nothing!

(Verses 4-9) These verses are a poem. We use the word ‘generation’ (verse 4) in more than one way. It may mean about thirty or forty years. It may mean all the people who are alive at the same time. Our father and mother are the ‘generation’ before us. Our children are the ‘generation’ after us. So the first part of the verse means this: -

‘The people who are older than us die. We have children, so another generation comes.’ The Hebrew word for ‘generation’ is ‘dor’. Part of the meaning of this word may be ‘a circle’. This may help us to understand the next two verses.

So then, people come into the world. People die. The earth is still there. Nothing really changes. In verse 5, the sun seems to go round and round. Here we have the idea of a circle, which may be present in the word ‘generation’. The sun goes round from east to west (verse 6). The wind blows first from the north. Then it blows from the south. Here is another circle. It has no end. It just goes on and on. We saw that the idea in the word ‘vanity’ was ‘empty’. So (verse 7) we read that the rivers empty their water into the sea. Yet the sea is never full. A man is the same (verse 8). We can say as much as we like. There is always more to say. Our eyes are never full up. There is always something more to see. Our ears are never full up. There is always more for us to hear.

The poem, which began at verse 4, may end here. [1.3] Or it may go on to verse 11.

In verses 10 and 11 the Writer says what he thinks about the poem. We may feel that verses 10 and 11 are not quite as true as some of the other things that the Writer says. Many things today really are new. Yet we have all known someone who was very excited. They thought that they had found something which was new. We had known about it for a long time. This is what the Writer means here. People who come after us will forget all about us. Yet we thought we were so important. Life goes on. What matters too is that things may change but really people do not change.

As Christians we know that God changes things. God changes people, too. He changed everything when He sent Jesus into the world. God promises that He will make everything new. (Revelation 21:5)

Verses 12-18: Look at them! Look at me!

Now we begin to hear what the Teacher himself has to say.

In these verses we have two proverbs. These are in verses 15 and 18. Verse 14 may also be a proverb. In the other verses the Teacher tells us what he tries to do. First in verse 12, he tells us that he has been king over Israel and that he ruled in Jerusalem. This was only true of David and Solomon. Verse 13 tells us how ‘wisdom’ worked. Wise men before him had passed ideas down the years. He studied these. Then he watched people. Then he thought. This was all ‘under heaven’. The Teacher knew that God was in heaven, but he tried to make sense of life without God. The life that God has given to me is a heavy load. God has given men work to keep them busy. Another word is here which the Preacher often uses. It is ‘ra’ - ‘a bad business’. So verse 14 says that if you add up all that men do, it has no meaning.

In the last part of the verse there may be a picture. ‘Chasing’ may just mean ‘shepherding’. Sheep are silly animals. We can never be quite sure what they will do or where they will go. Yet a shepherd is used to them. Given a little time, he can make them do what he wants. But you cannot ‘shepherd’ the wind. [1.4]

Then we have the ‘proverb’ or saying in verse 15. Any man has to work within limits. There are many things in life that we would like to change. They seem to us to be badly bent or twisted. If we cannot change them, we must work with them. Then you cannot count what is not there. If you have no money, you cannot count it.

Now if we leave God out, we shall think sadly like this. As soon as God comes into our minds and thoughts, there is more hope. It was God who made things twisted. He had His reasons for what He did. We do not have to try to make it straight.

In verses 12-15, the Teacher looked all round him. He looked at other people and at what they did. Verses 16-18 may at first look rather like verses 12-15, but now the Teacher will look at himself.

(Verse 16) The Teacher has more wisdom than other people have had. There had been many rulers and kings in Jerusalem. That was before David took the city and made it the chief city of his kingdom. None of them had as much wisdom as the Teacher. Now (verse 17) he wants to ‘understand wisdom’. That means he will look into himself. He wants to know how to use his wisdom. If he can do this, at the same time he will understand ‘madness and folly’. These are the opposites of wisdom. The Teacher learns the same thing. It is all like a man who chases the wind. (See also verse 14)

So in verse 18 we have another ‘saying’ or proverb. Verse 15 said that wisdom could not put the world right. That is sad. That is also what verse 18 says. ‘The more you understand, the more you ache’. Many people had wisdom but they did not use it. Many people had ‘folly’ but they did not fight against it. We should always try to get more knowledge but we must never expect it to make us really happy. Only the knowledge of God by grace will do that