Ecclesiastes 1:2

2. The theme 1:2

"Solomon has put the key to Ecclesiastes right at the front door: ’Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?’ (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3). Just in case we missed it, he put the same key at the back door (Ecclesiastes 12:8)." [Note: Warren W. Wiersbe, "Ecclesiastes," in The Bible Exposition Commentary/Wisdom and Poetry, p. 478.]

"Vanity" (Heb. hebel) probably does not mean "meaningless." As Solomon used this word in Ecclesiastes he meant lacking real substance, value, permanence, or significance. [Note: Hebel appears 38 times in Ecclesiastes and only 35 other times elsewhere in the Old Testament. In 13 of these passages the word describes idols.] "Vapor," "breath-like," or "ephemeral" captures the idea (cf. Proverbs 21:6; Isaiah 57:13). [Note: See Kathleen A. Farmer, Who Knows What Is Good? A Commentary on the Books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, pp. 142-46; Graham S. Ogden, Qoheleth, pp. 17-22; and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, p. 219.] One writer favored the words "absurd" or "absurdity." [Note: See Michael V. Fox, "The Meaning of Hebel for Qoheleth," Journal of Biblical Literature 105:3 (September 1986):409-27.]

"It appears to imply here both (1) that which is transitory, and (2) that which is futile. It emphasizes how swiftly earthly things pass away, and how little they offer while one has them (cf. James 4:14)." [Note: Laurin, p. 586.]

"You think you have all the dishes washed and from a bedroom or a bathroom there appears, as from a ghost, another dirty glass. And even when all the dishes are washed, it is only a few hours until they demand washing again. So much of our work is cyclical, and so much of it futile." [Note: David A. Hubbard, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, p. 48.]

"All" in the context of what he proceeded to describe refers to all human endeavors (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:3). David Hubbard understood it in a slightly different way.

"Hebel stands more for human inability to grasp the meaning of God’s way than for an ultimate emptiness in life. It speaks of human limitation and frustration caused by the vast gap between God’s knowledge and power and our relative ignorance and impotence. The deepest issues of lasting profit, of enlightening wisdom, of ability to change life’s workings, of confidence that we have grasped the highest happiness-all these are beyond our reach in Koheleth’s view." [Note: Ibid., pp. 21-22.]

The phrase "is vanity" is the most popular one in Ecclesiastes (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:14; Ecclesiastes 2:1; Ecclesiastes 2:11; Ecclesiastes 2:15; Ecclesiastes 2:17; Ecclesiastes 2:19; Ecclesiastes 2:21; Ecclesiastes 2:23; Ecclesiastes 2:26; Ecclesiastes 3:19; Ecclesiastes 4:4; Ecclesiastes 4:7-8; Ecclesiastes 4:16; Ecclesiastes 5:7; Ecclesiastes 5:10; Ecclesiastes 6:2; Ecclesiastes 6:4; Ecclesiastes 6:9; Ecclesiastes 6:11-12; Ecclesiastes 7:6; Ecclesiastes 7:15; Ecclesiastes 8:10; Ecclesiastes 8:14; Ecclesiastes 9:9; Ecclesiastes 11:8; Ecclesiastes 11:10; Ecclesiastes 12:8. [Note: See H. Carl Shank, "Qoheleth’s World and Life View as Seen in His Recurring Phrases," Westminster Theological Journal 37 (1974):65-67.] It forms an inclusio with Ecclesiastes 12:8 surrounding the evidence that Solomon offered to prove that all is vanity.

This verse contains Solomon’s "big idea" or proposition. It is the point he proceeded to support, prove, and apply in the chapters that follow. Some writers, however, believed there is no logical development in the writer’s thought. [Note: E.g., Svend Holm-Nielsen, "The Book of Ecclesiastes and the Interpretation of It in Jewish and Christian Theology," Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute 10 (1976):48.] Proverbs 1:7 is such a statement in that book. This is the first hint that Solomon’s viewpoint includes "exclusively the world we can observe, and that our observation point is at ground level." [Note: Derek Kidner, The Message of Ecclesiastes: A Time to Mourn, and a Time to Dance, p. 23. See also Edwin M. Good, "The Unfilled Sea: Style and Meaning in Ecclesiastes 1:2-11," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien, pp. 59-73.]

"Because it apparently contradicts other portions of Scripture and presents a pessimistic outlook on life, in a mood of existential despair, many have viewed Ecclesiastes as running counter to the rest of Scripture or have concluded that is [sic] presents only man’s reasoning apart from divine revelation." [Note: Roy B. Zuck, "A Theology of the Wisdom Books and the Song of Songs," in A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, p. 243. This essay also contains studies of the doctrines of God (pp. 246-47) and man (pp. 248-51) in Ecclesiastes. See also idem, "God and Man in Ecclesiastes," Bibliotheca Sacra 148:589 (January-March 1991):46-56, which is an adaptation of the former essay.]

". . . it is no exaggeration to say that there may be less agreement about the interpretation of Koheleth than there is about any other biblical book, even the Revelation of John!" [Note: Hubbard, p. 23.]