Joy at the End of the Tether: The Inscrutable Wisdom of Ecclesiastes

Wilson, in his usual wit and way with words, takes you through Solomon's wisdom coherently and thoughtfully so that the Christian may understand the vanities of life.

This treatise on Ecclesiastes contains hits and misses, and if you are truly short on time the bottom line is that I cannot recommend it. However, I hope that the few minutes it will take you to peruse this review will point you in the right direction before choosing a book you will spend your upcoming days or even weeks reading. (Skip straight to the last paragraph if your clock is really ticking.)The writer, Douglas Wilson, does get out of the starting blocks well by ascribing Solomon as the author, with which I am in full agreement. Solomonic authorship is also the simplest and most straightforward, adhering to an “Ockham’s razor” approach to exegesis that the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one. Wilson also successfully latches on to the one point I believe is absolutely key to understanding this entire book: “. . . the phrase under the sun . . . occurs numerous times and is extremely significant. ‘Under the sun’ is the realm where vanity reigns and should be understood as this world...” So far, so good.From there, the author proceeds onto shaky ground with occasionally solid, but at other times very questionable, exegesis of this admittedly most difficult book of the Bible. Probably the biggest misinterpretation, which permeates the entire rest of this work, is his position that “. . . God alone gives the power to enjoy vanity.” Not enjoying or enduring life DESPITE the vanity of it, but actually ENJOYING VANITY ITSELF. Firstly, the word translated “vanity” is “hebel,” which literally means vapor or smoke. That makes Wilson’s interpretation somewhat nonsensical, but even if you accept “vanity” or “meaningless” as the best translation it simply does not make sense to actually enjoy it. Part of the issue may lie with the author’s unfortunate use of the Authorized Version, rather than a more literal or word-for-word translation like the NASB. This is the first time I’ve seen this “enjoy the vanity” approach taken with Ecclesiastes, and by the end of the book I was still completely baffled in trying to understand it.The author also treats Solomon unfairly as he introduces the book. Describing Solomon’s acknowledged foray into folly, he states “He then turned and experimented with everything he could eat, drink, smoke, or sleep with . . .” which is simply unbiblical and unsupported by any external evidence. In particular smoking infers drug experimentation of which there is absolutely no suggestion whatsoever, and “everything he could . . . sleep with” implies far more than even Solomon’s infamous seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines suggests. Especially considering that Solomon embarked on his experimental journey with “my mind still guiding me with wisdom,” what I think may be an attempt at hyperbole falls flat and is at best simply untrue.Ecclesiastes 3 (“A time to be born and a time to die . . .”) often presents a challenge to expositors of this book. But here Wilson tries to ascribe ALL these contrasting statements to God. Shoehorning God into this framework simply does not work, and the exegetical contortions required for the attempt become rather ridiculous. A couple of examples:“Sometimes we cast stones, and other times we gather them. God gives the time of demolition; He gives the time of construction.”And: “Prosperity is His gift, and so are stock-market crashes . . .”Stock market crashes are a gift of God??And in this same chapter arises another hermeneutical “device” I have seen at least one other author apply to Ecclesiastes. He states what he thinks the passage means, and then quotes from another book of the Bible that says the same thing — but that doesn’t AT ALL support that is what the specific passage IN ECCLESIASTES means. For "A time to be silent and a time to speak":“God enables a man to say nothing, keeping his silence. God gives him words to speak (v. 7). ‘The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord’ (Prov. 16:1).”I agree with Proverbs, but simply quoting it does not make those words the correct interpretation for an unrelated verse in Ecclesiastes. (The author who uses this approach profusely is Jeffrey Meyers in “Ecclesiastes Through New Eyes: A Table in the Mist.” I do recommend that book — with some caveats — but definitely NOT as a first read into Ecclesiastes.)In Ecclesiastes 4 the author makes a flat-out reading error that raised warning bells and caused me to scrutinize the rest of the book with a much more cynical eye than even before: “Men who are already dead are better off than the men still alive, or the men not yet born.” Even the Authorized Version is clear here:“Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.”Clearly (in multiple translations that I double-checked) Ecclesiastes states that the unborn are better off than the dead, which the author reverses. A plain-reading mistake like this one certainly casts doubts on ALL the interpretive work of the author, especially where complex exegesis is required, although I will say that while I disagreed with the author in many places I did not find any other outright errors like this one.One final note as I conclude my review is that the author provides a full book summary at the end of every chapter. This was somewhat helpful in keeping the “big picture” of the entire book (both Ecclesiastes and the author’s) in view, but it was rephrased slightly differently every time which became confusing and sometimes felt contradictory. In particular the author kept labeling the last entire quarter of Ecclesiastes as:“Fourth division (8:16–12:14): The last section of the book is a miscellany, removing various obstacles and addressing practical concerns.”Or: “The last section clears up remaining problems.”This felt like the author didn’t have a good grasp of Ecclesiastes, or didn’t spend enough time thinking about how to clearly organize their book.Unfortunately I cannot recommend this book. For the layperson or church teacher I continue to point to Executable Outlines for a solid and very straightforward introduction to Ecclesiastes. For pastors and those with some formal Bible education, I also recommend the “Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs NIV Application Commentary” by Iain Provan — though I will warn you that while the Ecclesiastes treatment is quite sound I found his interpretation of Song of Songs (the second half of the book) to be quite unbiblical. In that review I also provide some classroom teaching suggestions for Ecclesiastes.

Excellent. Just excellent. For the majority of my Christian life, Ecclesiastes has been one of my favorite books of the Bible. Chasing the wind is frequently a temptation. The vanity of life will also frequently interfere with that chase. Work must be done. Grass must be mowed. Bills must be paid. Consequences must come as the Lord is not mocked. I see all around me people spending their lives to make the darkness of their final days free of vanity. Safety. Security. Sure, make your plans. Obey. Take care of your body and bank accounts. Go for your hikes. If you are able to find enjoyment in any of that, it is a gift of God. If your story is one where you have caught the wind and it proves joyless, heed the advice of Solomon. Fear the Lord. This is the beginning of wisdom. Turn from chasing the wind, seek what it means to fear the Lord, and ask that he would show you what it means to find joy at the end of the tether.

First off, I am not a theologian, so I won't take any theological angles with this review. However, I have read this book a couple of times and I find it to be a very refreshing perspective on biblical joy as it's presented in the book of Ecclesiastes. I very much enjoy the format that Douglas Wilson uses -- this book is fairly short, and he takes Ecclesiastes through from beginning to end without jumping around; nevertheless, he looks at every verse within context of its passage as well as the entirety of Ecclesiastes. It satisfies my number one rule with any Biblical study or narrative by remaining tied to scripture. Wilson does take a few occasional opportunities to insert what could be considered more political opinion than scriptural truth, but these segue ways are brief, easily distinguished from the teaching, and in my opinion they do not detract from the rest of the book. Ecclesiastes is a fantastic book to study, and is often very misunderstood or taken out of context, and this is the the best writing I've read on it.

There’s some great Biblical wisdom and advice in this commentary. Unfortunately, it’s not based on the text of Ecclesiastes. A good read, but not a good resource for understanding the book.