With the attitude toward life that Ecclesiastes expresses so clearly, even suicide would perhaps not have looked like something out of the ordinary. But the thought of it, clearly, does not occur to the author of the book at all. He apparently understood that suicide is one of the most terrible sins before God. And therefore Ecclesiastes goes on living. And life without God is unthinkable for him. Still, Ecclesiastes is very far from that clear hearing of God's voice which is so characteristic of the prophets. He undoubtedly believes in God's providence.

But he is not a prophet; he is cautious in everything that concerns the experience of direct revelation. It is not worth saying too much when standing before God, for the quality of prayer is not determined by the number of words the one praying speaks (vv. 1-3). It is not worth making careless vows, and those that have been made must be fulfilled quickly and exactly (vv. 4-5). And it is not worth denying the truth of a revelation received from God: perhaps completely unexpected for a person, it may prove genuine, although, of course, it is also not worth believing every dream indiscriminately (vv. 6-7).

Caution, restraint, and a certain critical spirit — this is how Ecclesiastes' attitude toward everything connected with spiritual and mystical experience could be defined. This is not surprising: for he expects no special, new revelations from God. Everything has already been said, opened, and created; new revelations may concern certain private questions of a particular human life, but no more than that. From God one can expect new instructions, but not a new revelation. Apparently, this frame of mind was generally characteristic of the era of Ecclesiastes, when the rabbinic tradition replaced the prophetic tradition.

But no revelation can change anything radically; a country and a people should rather hope for a good king than for a new revelation or for the coming of the Messiah (vv. 8-9). But even then, in the final analysis, all human labors and efforts remain meaningless, and Ecclesiastes again returns to the image of a person who has spent the best years of his life in hard labor that has brought him no benefit at all (vv. 10-16). Enjoyment of the few joys of life during the brief days allotted by God to a person — this is the only happiness still possible in this hopelessly spoiled and hostile world (vv. 19-20).

What is the point of living in a world where wisdom brings no more good than foolishness, where righteousness is not rewarded and sin is not punished? At last Ecclesiastes says directly that in such a world the dead are happier than the living, and those who were never born and never lived in it are better off still (vv. 1-3). This conclusion, quite Buddhist in essence, does not appear by accident: the founder of Buddhism also looked at life so pessimistically for the same reasons as Ecclesiastes.

Indeed, if life is meaningless and unjust in principle, why is it needed? And how can it then be considered a good? Similar logic led people living at opposite ends of the earth, and unacquainted with one another, to the same conclusions. Not everyone may have the misfortune of falling under the power of a judge or tyrant-king who tramples all laws, but there is no person in the world who is not occupied with something, and every activity divides people (v. 4).

In the fallen world, labor has turned from a blessing into a curse. Even if it is crowned with success, one's neighbors will by no means rejoice in that success; their reaction to success will not be joy, but envy and hostility. With bitterness Ecclesiastes quotes the wise, who say that the lazy fool, unlike the wise person, will end by eating his own flesh out of hunger (v. 5). Even if that is so, he adds sadly, it is better to have less and be poor but live in peace than to be rich and have nothing but toil and anxiety (v. 6).

Ecclesiastes also notes another misfortune that threatens everyone: a person's loneliness in the face of a world hostile to him (vv. 7-8). And the point is not only that a lonely person has no one to whom he can leave the fruits of his labor. The point is also that loneliness is abnormal for a human being; a human being should not be alone (vv. 9-12). And if something good nevertheless happens in the world, it quickly passes and is forgotten. Ecclesiastes gives as an example the story of a certain wise young man who was born in a country ruled, judging from the author's words, by an unwise ruler (v. 13). The wise young man apparently managed not only to get out of prison to freedom, but also to take the throne after the death of the former king (v. 14). The wise young man, unlike his predecessor, apparently turned out to be a good ruler, so that the people welcomed his rule, which became an event in the history of the country he governed (v. 15). But even these golden times will pass into history, and everything will go on as before, so that descendants will not remember them and will not rejoice in what gladdened their ancestors (v. 16). Everything is transient before the face of eternity, and eternity turns toward the human being and toward all his deeds its darkest face, the face of inexorable and inevitable death, which makes everyone equal.

Labor on earth is also vanity; it not only brings no joy, but is oppression, and success in affairs increases envy and enmity among people. All this is also meaningless, but for some reason Ecclesiastes does not want to confine himself in his reasoning to such conclusions, and he begins to reflect on two people for whom it is better than for one. And although a little later we again hear sorrowful sighs that everything is still vanity and vexation of spirit, it is impossible to get rid of the impression that Ecclesiastes is looking for something to hold on to, something that could refute him.

And indeed, he returns to the familiar refrain only after his thoughts have moved on to another subject of reflection. As for the discussion of two people supporting and warming one another, or of the strength of a threefold cord, Ecclesiastes sets nothing against it. Apparently, he does not want to...