8/16/20 MSB Introduction to Ecclesiastes:
The title, in its Greek form, means "preacher".  Along with Ruth, Song of Solomon, Esther, and Lamentations, Ecclesiastes stands with the OT books of the Megilloth, or "five scrolls."  Later rabbis read these books in the synagogue on 5 special occasions during the year - Ecclesiastes being read on Pentecost.  There are many many reasons to believe that Solomon wrote the book.  Once that is established, the time of its writing is pretty easy to determine.  This was written, most likely, in the latter years of Solomon's life, no later than 931 BC.  MSB says "He warned them to avoid walking through life on the path of human wisdom; he exhorted them to live by the revealed wisdom of God (12:9-14)." 

The aim of Ecclesiastes is to answer some of life's most challenging questions, particularly where they seem contrary to Solomon's expectations.  (Expectations based on his own human wisdom - which he had in plenty?) 

There is little of historical narrative in the book, other than the inference of Solomon's own personal journey.  This paragraph in MSB says that the things Solomon decried "he acknowledged were due to the curse", but no specific reference is given to corroborate this.  This is also a quote from MSB:  "Ecclesiastes represents the painful autobiography of Solomon who, for much of his life, squandered God's blessings on his own personal pleasure rather than God's glory.  He wrote to war subsequent generations not to make the same tragic error..."
Vanity, vanities, and vain life, all translations of the same underlying word, expresses the futile attempt to be satisfied apart from God.  It is used 38 times in the book.  All earthly goals and ambitions, when pursued as ends in themselves, produce only emptiness.  Solomon viewed life after the curse as tantamount to "chasing after wind". 
Also from MSB:  "A proper balance of the prominent "enjoy life" theme with that of "divine judgement" tethers the reader to Solomon's God with the sure cord of faith.  For much of his life, Solomon focused on enjoying his own life, without the sideboards of service and obedience to God which would keep him from God's judgement, and on a more balanced path.  Enjoying each day as it comes, and being content with how God provisions that day, leads to a rich full life in receipt of the gifts of God.  On the other hand, any efforts to be content apart from God leads to futility regardless of what worldly goods are accumulated.

In the book, "vanity" is used in three ways.  1, "fleeting", with the transitory, brief, and vapor-like nature of human life, 2, futile or meaningless, which focuses on the cursed condition of the universe and the debilitating effect that has on mans earthly experience, and 3, incomprehensible or enigmatic which gives consideration to life's unanswerable questions.


Chapter 1
Clearly claims to be written by Solomon while he was King.
2021 - The Hebrew word transliterated hebel is used five times in vs. 2.  Hebel hebel says the preacher.  Hebel hebel all is hebel.  In fact, after hearing the pronunciation guide, let me write it all out phonetically:
Hevel, hevel, amer koheleth.  Hevel hevel coal hevel.
The introduction is about the ephemeral nature of our lives.  Of our world really.  The sun goes up and down.  Has and always will.  It is never "finished" with rising.  Streams flow to the ocean, but they never fill it.  The wind goes round and round.  There is nothing new under the sun.  We have forgotten those who came before us.  Those who come after us will not remember us.  Life is mist, vapor, passing.
2021-The streams flow to the ocean, but the ocean doesn't fill up.  Sound goes into our ears, but our ears do not fill up.  Things of nature endure - the sun rising and setting, streams flowing, wind blowing, sounds, vision.  They continue but they never finish.  These things just continue.  The things of man are the same  We think we do new things, have new thoughts, invent what was never invented.  Solomon says we don't.  Man also continues to cycle, never "finishing", just repeating what was, to be forgotten by future people, and so repeated again.  We get so full of ourselves, so sure we are new and unique.  We are not.

2024 - Look at this verse:
[13] And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.  Ecc 1:13.
Does Solomon mean he is going to try and learn all there is to know?  Like science claims it can do today?  If that's what this is about it is an affliction, not a noble undertaking, to be obsessed with learning.  Here is the ESV version.  Seems even more clear:
13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.  
Pretty much all the translations agree here.  So...is this saying we ought not worry so much about it...because we'll just weary ourselves anyway?

Chapter 1 concludes this way, according to the wisest man who ever lived:
18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. [Ecc 1:18 ESV
[18] Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.  Ecclesiastes 1:18 NASB1995
Not very promising so far...

Chapter 2
2021 - The TCR/ESV title before vss 2:1-11 is "The Vanity of Self-Indulgence".
Solomon's search first turns to pleasure of all kinds.  He tries to find fulfillment and meaning in pleasure.  Pure hedonism I think.  He denied himself nothing that he might like.  He indulged.  Here is the definition of hedonism from Merriam-Webster:  the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life.  Solomon experimented with making this so in his life.  It failed.  He is trying to extract meaning from these things.  To find some worthy "end" or objective to a man's life.  Something enduring.
Interestingly, though, he includes building houses, gardens, vineyards in this version of hedonism.  He built gardens so that he might sit and enjoy them perhaps, vineyards that he might enjoy his own wine, and so on.  He accumulated massive wealth of all kinds, however measured - quantity, quality, and so on.  This verse:
[Ecc 2:10 ESV] And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

Solomon had everything, and more.  He owned fields and slaves and had concubines, and herds and flocks. 
This verse is a key verse to the book:
3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine--my heart still guiding me with wisdom--and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. [Ecc 2:3 ESV]
In vs 11 Solomon concludes that all seeking after pleasure is just vanity.  No substance to it.

2021 - TCR/ESV calls vss 12-17 The Vanity of Living Wisely.  Now that is an interesting title.
Next, he tries living wisely.  vs 13:
13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. [Ecc 2:13 ESV]
But then, the fool and the wise will both be forgotten.  There is no enduring difference between them. 
This is indeed depressing...and is it quite right?  We remember Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived.  We remember his name.  We don't remember the fools who lived in the same era.  Do we?  

2021 - Vss 18-26 are called The Vanity of Toil
So he tries working himself hard.  Toil and labor.  This was not fulfilling either, because all he accomplished with that toil he would someday leave to someone else who had not toiled for it.  AND, there was no way to know if the one who "inherited" what you built would be wise or be a fool.  So you can't even know if what you've intricately, brilliantly, wisely done will even be appreciated by the one who takes it over.  
But there is vs. 24:
24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, [Ecc 2:24 ESV]  Because this kind of living keeps everything current?   You aren't "creating" much, but you aren't leaving what you've built, or accumulated or earned to someone who didn't do a day's work for it.  No regret about who inherits, no regret that the unappreciative spray paint what you built.  A days work, eat dinner, drink wine, and go to bed.  Do it all again tomorrow.  This is as good as it gets.  This is existentialism it seems to me.  But I think Solomon demeans that as a philosophy a bit later in the book.   Perhaps he means that after having tried pleasurable living and wise living, it turned out that physical work, and the simple daily things of life, are the best that can be had.  Ties in with those verses in the NT about Christians working with their hands to provide for their own needs.
2023 - Pride in today's  accomplishments might be a better way to say it.  If I get to the end of a day and can say "look at that, it shows my work...today", then I feel very good about that day.  Perhaps toil, a day at a time, is the best it gets.  Building.  Mowing.  Flowers.  Pretty cars.  All those things that "show" are worthwhile, too.

2021 - No, there is a lot more to this paragraph - a conclusion, a summary that I had not noticed before:
[Ecc 2:25 ESV] for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?
[Ecc 2:26 ESV] For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
What Solomon found out was that our best life comes if we toil for God, if we are wise for God, if we do all for the purpose of pleasing God rather than of elevating ourselves in the eyes of men,   If we do this right, God's blessings accrue, and we have peace and pleasure in our existence.  But if we ignore Him, there can be no satisfaction with toil and no accomplishment is ever going to be enough, NOR will we be remembered if we strive ONLY for ourselves!  
Who do we put up statues for?  Men who made themselves rich by walking on the backs of others?  No.  People who bettered mankind in some way.  Penicillin comes to mind.  We wouldn't remember Pasteur if he'd only cured himself and his own family.  He cured the world.  Salk and polio.  Ahh...but did these men do it for God's glory?  Maybe we are back to the wise and foolish being equally treated by history.  Maybe the point is that how history treats us is irrelevant because it treats all alike.  What endures is what we do for God.  The important things are those that God Himself will reward us for doing.  In those we find our fulfillment, not just in this life, but eternally.  Yes.  This is the point being made.

2023 - If we use the tools God gave us to bring glory to the one who gave them, then we are blessed with peace of mind and a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.  Each day is its own reward.  Maybe.

Chapter 3
A time for everything...
2021 - That long poem about everything having its time and place.  This is vss 1-8.  
vss 9-15 are titled The God-Given Task

Then vs 11:
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. [Ecc 3:11 ESV]
And 12 seems to be a continuation, or an addition maybe, to 2:24:
12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; [Ecc 3:12 ESV]
In fact, 12 and 13 repeat 2:24, so they are to be taken together.  Be joyful, do good, eat, drink, and take pleasure in your work.  This is the best of life.
He calls these things God's gift to man.  Only what God does endures, not what we do.  At the risk of being repetitive, here is 3:13:
12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil--this is God's gift to man. [Ecc 3:12-13 ESV]

These verses:
14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away. [Ecc 3:14-15 ESV]
These seem profound, yet I don't quite get the whole point.  I see that the difference between God and man is that what God does, stays, endures, remains.  He made earth, heaven, man, and all that is.  It is all still here.  What man makes passes away with time.  But God made the things that man uses to make things.  What God made will always be here.
2023 - The things that God made are cyclical, enduring, and cannot be changed or improved.  What man makes decays, stops working, or is superseded by automation and technology and advancing knowledge.  Therefore, the rising and setting sun, the turning of the seasons, the rotation of the Milky Way - these have no beginning and no end, they do not decay and grow old, they continue as they always have.  There is nothing "new" about the sun coming up today.  What do men admire?  Things that endure, and so man seeks to make himself a god by building that which endures.  It is why we are so enamored with the pyramids in Egypt...and South America, with the Roman aqueducts, the Taj Mahal.   Endurance is an attribute of the divine, and that is why we are so obsessed with that which endures.  The closest we can come to this, perhaps, is in children and grandchildren.  

2021 - The point is that what God made endures forever.  The works of man fade and are forgotten.  God's creation is new every morning.  Every sunrise and sunset...these endure, these are God's.  We realize at some level, everyone realizes, that there is a transcendent order to things.  Aligning with that - with the God that is the only source of enduring work or thought or purpose - is the only source of a good life.  This all speaks directly to Peterson trying to put responsibility in God's place.  It does not work, it too is empty, because it is for individual or corporate good, and no matter how much you get that right, it does not endure, no more than the antics of a Friday night fool.  There has to be something greater, else there is no purpose to life.  This is what Peterson misses.

Vss 16-22 are titled From Dust to Dust
Here are some interesting thoughts from Solomon about animals:
In vs 18 he says God tests us so we see "...we are but beasts."  Our end and the end of beasts is the same.  We both die.  We both came from dust, we both return to dust.  19b says "...They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage of the beasts..."  And 21 is the real kicker:
21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? [Ecc 3:21 ESV]  Maybe it is true after all that all dogs go to heaven.

The chapter ends with this repeated conclusion.  This is the third time we've seen this thought:
22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? [Ecc 3:22 ESV]

2021 - This last is quite depressing.  Why does it come after what was said in vs 14, which seemed to be the answer?  
This last paragraph says that men die, and animals die, and both return to the dust.  Not only are we forgotten by men, but we are as forgotten as a dead donkey.  This phrase in vs 18 - "God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts".   Really?  Solomon thinks the whole reason for all things is just to make us realize how menially useless and unimportant our noblest accomplishments are?  So we understand that our labor is just labor in the same way an ox's work is just plowing, just like the last ox and the next ox?  What is the difference?  Solomon says there isn't any.  And perhaps this is the depressing truth.  We're just beasts.  
BUT, I still go back to vss 11, 12.  There is purpose there.  I think.

Chapter 4
Section title is "Evil Under the Sun"

Starts off this way:
1 Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. [Ecc 4:1 ESV]
The earth is full of evil, and of those who do evil, those who take advantage of those with fewer resources, and the oppressed have no help nor hope of it.  Solomon thinks those who have not yet been born are better off than the living, because they have yet to experience evil.  What a verse for a service for a premature child, or a stillborn:
2 And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. [Ecc 4:2-3 ESV]
2021-Here is ranking.  It is better to be dead than alive.  But it is better to be yet unborn than to be either alive or dead.  Can there be a more hopeless picture of humanity than this?
2024 - Abortion?  Better aborted than ever born?  Doubtful that's what was meant in context, but it does seem to fit.
2024 - Perhaps the most depressing chapter in the Bible.  
Then this...I'm starting to get a little depressed...
4  Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy  of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. [Ecc 4:4  ESV]
It reads this way in NASB:
4  I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is [the result of] rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity  and striving after wind. [Ecc 4:4 NASB]
These two read like "keeping up with the Jones's".  
And here is NKJV:
4  Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied  by his neighbor. This also [is] vanity and grasping for the wind. [Ecc  4:4 NKJV]
This translation turns it around a  bit.  In this translation, the successful neighbor finds himself the  envy of those around him.  Perhaps the best translation to express what  is common between these verses is that dissatisfaction with our lot in life leads some to believe everyone else has it better than they do.   Rivalry is then the motivation to work harder, to "get" more and so on.   Work done for this reason will never satisfy, never fulfill, never  achieve our goals.  The end of this kind of effort is mist and vapor,  wasted energy, wasted brain cells.

5 The fool folds his hands And consumes his own flesh. [Ecc 4:5 NKJV]  This verse is about the same in all translations.  The truly hopeless "withdraw" from the system, go underground, check out of the labor pool, and exist by stealing from others.  This doesn't work either.  The self will never be satisfied with existing by taking advantage of others.  The end result is self-destruction.  This is foolish.
The section concludes with this:
6 Better a handful [with] quietness Than both hands full, [together with] toil and grasping for the wind. [Ecc 4:6 NKJV]
Grasping for "affluence" is wasted time, wasted energy, wasted life.  Contentment with what we have - that daily work, food, and drink leave us with a quiet, peaceful mind, and this is the best available in this life.  Happiness is not based on possessions.  Socialism's intent is to equalize possessions.  It never works, and this paragraph explains why.
I sure wish this was compressible enough for FB..

2021-This does not seem to be talking so much about greed as a motivator, because the desire does not seem to be that intense - not seeking ultimate wealth.  What it seems to be saying is that even us little peons only work on our yards to one up the neighbor across the street.  This is all about keeping up with the Jones's as our primary motivator in life.  Better jet skis, better campers, better cars.  Always judging ourselves by the success that others have.  The summary is sort of buried out in the middle of vs 8:
[Ecc 4:8 ESV] ...yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, "For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?" This also is vanity and an unhappy business.
So busy that we never step back and look objectively at our situation.  The toil, the intense labor, according to Solomon, is mostly a waste of time, because it is going back to the dust anyway.  Why spend your life digging the world's grandest ditch when it will just fill up with water, then mud, then soil, then grow over as if it was never there after you're gone?  Why do that?  Surely there is something better.  But what?  He told us that before this punch line:   [Ecc 4:6 ESV] Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.

The next verse starts with those who eschew companionship and traditional family to pursue their work with passion.  All they  have is toil and labor.  There's no end to it, and it benefits no one, while denying a pleasant and peaceful life to the one consumed with his own labor.

The next verse starts with "Two are better than one..."  I believe this is about marriage.  One verse says two in a bed stay warm, where one cannot. 

Chapter 5
Section title is Fear God

2 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. [Ecc 5:2 ESV]
We should know our place, our insignificance before an infinite and perpetual God.  A God who can do works that endure forever, when our lives are but a breath.

2021 - At least these first 7 verses do seem to be about keeping quiet.  I don't know how that fits in exactly with the previous chapter.  It could be that the "fear God" part in the title is what it is really about.  If you fear God - or the King - then the less you say the better.  I don't understand this verse though:
[Ecc 5:6 ESV] Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?  MSB ties it back to making vows before the throne - or the altar in Solomon's case.  Don't make vows to God that your fleshly weaknesses will make you break at some point.  Don't vow more than you can keep.  And when the time comes, the verse above says don't be telling the priest that it really isn't that big a deal, and so anger God for your frivolous attitude and invoke His revenge.
So this makes sense, but I still don't see how it ties back to 4.

2021 - Beginning in vs 8, the section title is The Vanity of Wealth and Honor
There seems to be some difficulty in translating this verse.  The TCR footnotes says "the meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain".  There is surely some variation in the various translations.  Here is vs 8, which introduces the more confusing 9, and then verse 9 in three versions:
[Ecc 5:8 ESV] If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them.
So this verse says that if you observe widespread oppression in a "state", don't make the mistake of thinking it either a horrible state of affairs, or a localized corruption.  Such a situation goes all the way to the top, and this is what vs 9 tries to hammer down:
[Ecc 5:9 ESV] But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.
It could be trying to say that if the King insists that the land be worked, then yes, he makes money, his officials make money, everyone but the peasants make money, but the peasants do eat even in such a situation.  So oppression has its upside.  Now normally I wouldn't expect the Bible to say that, but this is Solomon - the planets most depressed and hopeless man - adding cynicism to his list.  Or, 
[Ecc 5:9 KJV] Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king [himself] is served by the field.
Maybe it is not saying the peasants are doing well at all, but certainly everyone else is doing well.  Even the King is profiting from the taxes on abundant harvests.  Don't be surprised if you see corruption - in fact, expect it because in such a system all the officials get wealthy.
[Ecc 5:9 NASB95] After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.
Then this last one, perhaps means that if even the King profits off the labor of the poor, then even the King will look after them, at least in the same way he would a good team of oxen.  Could it mean that?  Feed them and keep them working, and they eat well and everyone else gets wealthy.

2023 - I can't figure this one out.  It seems to me that socialism fits this scenario.  Russia, China...They oppressed their people and the corruption did and still does run all the way to the top.  Surely in these verses Solomon says this is a good thing...but where is the good?  Is the key the fact that this is about a king and his kingdom instead of about an oppressive communist dictatorship?  I don't see how that makes it any better.  Perhaps it means that even in an oppressive and unjust system, any system is better than no system, and if the profit from the land accrues all the way up to the king himself, then it is in the best interest of ALL these oppressors to keep the fields cultivated and producing.  To keep the people working.  And there is just so much oppression that can be dished out before everyone's profits start to suffer.  Cynical...but this actually starts to make a little sense.  Solomon is not recommending such a system, but he is pointing out that even in this system, productivity is above the baseline, and that benefits all.  And I suspect that in such a system, good people are better - the light of good people shines more brightly - than in ho hum eezy peezy systems.  And...if all the oppressors are making good money, perhaps they will be less tyrannical than if there we a general lack.  And...those who have nothing in life but eating, sleeping, and working, miss out on greed and envy and bitterness.  They are not tempted into these "nothing but vapor" pursuits that only to depression and unhappiness.  Hmm...do I have this right?  It sure seems to have a socialist ring to it.  But not for the reasons socialist supporters would tout!  Remember 4:4.

Vs 10-12 seem to continue the point that the oppressed are the winners in a corrupt system.  Those trying to get rich will be obsessed with it and never have a peaceful night's sleep for worrying.  But those who toil, the bottom rung of the ladder, will be worn out from their work, and sleep like babies, no matter their material lot in life.  And Solomon says these are the best off of that system.
2023 - This ties back to 3:22.  Be happy with your work, that's as good as it gets.  And in this kind of system, you work is all that you have anyway.  You sleep well at night, envy of the neighbors is minimized...What an anti-American concept this is...from the wisest man in the world.  As Christians, we ought to see this as an indictment of our consumer mentality.  The founding fathers got a lot of things right...and they were especially right that only a godly people, bent toward self-sacrifice instead of self-enrichment, were capable of prolonging such a country.  And we have left that behind.  We don't seek to do good work anymore, look at all the shorts about doing less, turning down responsibility, checking out.  Solomon says to work hard even if you're oppressed, because that work you're doing is your most valuable possession.  Hard, thankless work is what makes your life bearable.  I think that might be what he is saying.

Then Solomon turns to wealth.  He says if we love money, that it will never satisfy us.  There is this verse:
12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. [Ecc 5:12 ESV]
We can't take wealth with us when we go.  Though we work all our lives and sacrifice and give up other things for wealth, when we die...it stays behind.
Verse 18 repeats the running theme of the book so far:
18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. [Ecc 5:18 ESV]
Look at that last phrase.  Solomon calls the fact that we come into life with nothing, and we can take nothing out when we die an evil thing.  But this is our lot.  This is the bane of mortality, and the source of all unhappiness.  But it is all there is.  This life will never satisfy.  The next will.  BUT, if you don't focus on this, if you focus on the basics and put away envy, life is good. 

2024 - It is not the result of the labor we do that brings true enjoyment to our lives.  It is the labor itself.  It is the act of working, not the ditch that results.  That, and eating, and drinking.  
2024 - Hmm...think of this in terms of Peterson's views on finding meaning in life.  You do it by shouldering as much responsibility, as much of the load, as you can.  And you labor to carry it, and your pleasure is not in the result of carrying it, but in effort of carrying it.
Here are the summary verses, here is hope and happiness:
19 Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil--this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. [Ecc 5:19-20 ESV]
This is a FB post also, but needs much condensing.

2021 - I'm about worn out...reading on through from 5:13-6:12.  Very long verses in Ecclesiastes.  
Except...two grievous evils observed in 13-17.  One is hanging onto money to our own hurt.  Accumulated wealth cannot just sit.  The more there is the more we are compelled to make more with it instead of just spend it to do good.  And sooner or later, we will invest poorly, lose it all, and make paupers of our children.
The second is that no matter what we do, we came into the world naked, with nothing, and we will certainly exit the same way.

Ahh...once again a little bit of respite from the depression, looking all the way back to 3:12, 13.  Here is how he states it in 5:
[Ecc 5:18 ESV] Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.
[Ecc 5:19 ESV] Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil--this is the gift of God.
[Ecc 5:20 ESV] For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
Seems a bit existential again.  Lamp unto my feet before a light to my path.  Focus on that illuminated by the lamp.  If you are poor, do good work, and enjoy the labor of your hands.  If you are rich, enjoy riches don't become a slave to them.

Chapter 6
2121 - No new section title here, apparently more of a continuation.  I see that I have one line of notes only on this chapter.  Likely because 4, 5 have always bogged me down.  Previously, I read 1-6 the same day, so no wonder.

Solomon sees an evil in that some who have wealth have no capacity to enjoy it.  He thinks it  better never to have been born than to have the best of everything and not be able to enjoy it.  The idea is that peace, joy, happiness don't come from what we have, but from inside.
2021 - A third "grievous evil" in the goings and comings of mankind.  Not being able to enjoy what you have.  You cannot disconnect.  You cannot let go and just sip the champagne.  "Yeah, he's rich, but he ain't happy" is a way to look at it.  Peterson talks about how the ultra-hyer-rich have no lives no relationships.  They can't stop and enjoy it.  They are jealous of every second that could be used to make still more instead of stopping and enjoying a few of those seconds.

Chapter 7
Section title is The Contrast of Wisdom and Folly.  In hindsight, I think it's a poor choice.
2021 - I note that in both NASB and ESV the first 13 verses of this chapter are set off in what I call "prose format".  They are not blocks, but lines, offset and punctuated.  First of all, where did that come from?  Is it present in the oldest scrolls available?  (I did a quick search, but didn't find any answers even to how old the oldest copy of Ecclesiastes might be.  I have done a little search like this several times, and I am surprised that the only copies of the Bible that we have are not all that old.  They found some scripture on some silver bracelets/necklaces in Jerusalem from the 6th or 7th Century BC.  They have the same words as Numbers 6 - the Lord bless thee and keep thee verses.  These verses were surely copied from a text of the time.  So there was an OT at that time - or at least there was a Pentateuch.  NT scriptures only go back to 120-140 AD.  The complete Masoretic text is around 1000 AD - this is the one that put in all the vowel and inflection marks so there would be no ambiguous words.  The first Quran was put together in about 651 AD, but I don't know if we still have any that old.  
So.  A pretty long rabbit trail, but no answer to why we have this different format in Ecc 7:1-13.  They look more like Proverbs than anything else.

Some interesting comparisons:
1 ... the day of death than the day of birth. [Ecc 7:1 ESV]
2021 - MSB says this means that a good man may well be honored at his death for the things he has done, but not so much on the day of birth.  Jesus would be an exception.
2021 - MSB also says vss 2-6 are saying that we learn more from trial and adversity than we do from good times.  That's just how life works.  The end of vs 6, where this is called vanity, shows that Solomon would rather it wasn't that way.

3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. [Ecc 7:3 ESV]

2021 - This verse:
[Ecc 7:7 ESV] Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
What in the world does this mean?  MSB doesn't even have a comment.  Maybe that oppression squelches the freedom of mind of the wise?  Being unable to express their learning, their thoughts, their ideas - unless they conform with what the oppressors want - drives them mad?  Could be that I guess.

8 Better is the end of a thing than its beginning... [Ecc 7:8 ESV]
MSB says these verses are showing that more is learned of wisdom from times of adversity than from pleasure.

2024 -
[10] Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.  Ecclesiastes 7:10 NASB1995.
I can never find this one when I look for it.  I want it to start Ask not thou wherefore the former days...but no version but the one in my head seems to phrase it that way.  But now when I search, it'll be here.

These "proverbs", if that is what they really are, seem to be of a different quality than those in the 31 chapters of Proverbs.  These seem deeper, more complex, more "packed up".  A person could spend a lot of time unraveling these.  And isn't it interesting that they show up in Chapter 7.  Wonder who decided on that?

This one is difficult:
15 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. 16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? [Ecc 7:15-16 ESV]
Makes no sense to me.  MSB says this is about being overly "self-righteous" and "Pharisaical".  But that would only apply to 16.  Doesn't help me with 15.  MSB implies that they are unconnected verses. 

2021 - 
[Ecc 7:13 ESV] Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?  Perhaps instead of the last "proverb", this is the opening of the next section?
Solomon may be saying that God is so far above us that He has concealed ultimate truth and meaning within the convolutions of everyday life.  Truth and meaning may only be discoverable as infinites.  That is to say, God pre-existed all that is, and he especially pre-existed "time".  There was no such thing as time until God created orbits to mark its passing, right?  Well perhaps what is ultimate can only be know in a "place" without time, and God created man as mortal and imprisoned by time so that we could never unravel the deepest things of God.  That is reserved for eternity.  So start this section with that - The universe in which God placed man has different "metaphysics" (this definition of metaphysics - a study of what is outside objective experience) than the place where God abides.  The rules of God's place cannot be translated into our place.
Next verse seems to go ahead and run with that, with the fact that we won't be able to understand God, because we are not where He is:
[Ecc 7:14 ESV] In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.  Again, the observation that God made both prosperity and adversity - complete opposites - and we cannot discover the cause and effect of either.  No theory works to discover why some have it good, some have it bad, and so on.  We don't know, we cannot find out.  If we cannot determine this causal, driving factor of our universe, then we cannot predict what is to come next.  Therefore, we cannot produce anything eternal.  Eternity/infinity is exclusively the realm of God.  And our universe only makes sense when viewed from eternity!  Oh my, that's a good sentence!!!
I do wish I could get this in shape for a FB post...but I'm not sure I (got it done in 2023.)
Then we launch into vss 15-19:
Is he saying that neither pristine righteousness of mind and person nor unchecked wickedness and non-compliance, nor unbridled foolishness of behavior will have any effect on the ultimate end of a man?  Because some evil men get rich and live long lives.  Just about as many good people spend their lives poor, sick and downtrodden.  There is no explaining this, no understanding this.  So don't spend your life ascetically that you may be purer, nor aggressively that you may be powerful.  Just live, the best you can, with the circumstances in which you find yourself.  I think that's what he means.  It is not about blowing off being good.  It's about living the life you can, because it is going to be short and full of trouble no matter what you do.  And that last verse, 18, seems to say that God-fearing men can arise from either path also.  That matters.

2021 - Vss 14-18 seem to be a kind of "moderation in all things" speech.  It starts with more "vanity"...no wait.  We might need to back up even more.  Look at vs 13:  

Be righteous - but don't be pure as the driven snow.  But that doesn't seem like good advice.  

2024 - This one:
Ecclesiastes 7:24 NASB1995
[24] What has been is remote and exceedingly mysterious. Who can discover it? 
Like creation details?  The fossil record?  All that?

This verse:
26 And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. [Ecc 7:26 ESV]
Many proverbs talk about this kind of woman and her aims and ambitions, which are for no one but herself.  I think this statement, this attitude is a reference to the fact that Solomon was led astray by his "willingness" to let his wives sacrifice to false gods, perhaps even participating and assisting in these rituals.  Instead of loving him and adopting his religion, they seductively, with snares and nets and traps, held to their own sins, and pulled Solomon in with them.  These women - beautiful certainly, many in number - were NOT sent to give him pleasure, but were sent by Satan to entrap and destroy.

Chapter 8
Obey the King, even to your own hurt.  
I say: Keep the king's command, because of God's oath to him.
Because it is part of obeying God.
The wicked die, just like everyone else, and they are quickly forgotten.
11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. [Ecc 8:11 ESV]
Slow justice "fixes" men to do evil.  I think that means that slow justice makes evil the easier way, and once set upon it, men don't change.  Reminds me of that guy in Seattle who'd been arrested 150 times, and still had not received justice.
HOWEVER, MSB says I've missed the point here.  It says that God's mercy in allowing men to sin and not receive immediate justice for those sins is taken as an open door to further disobedience.  Delayed retribution from God imparts a feeling of "getting away with it" or maybe "sins so small that they don't matter to God", that sort of thing.  Solomon says these "delays" on God's part do not diminish at all the certainty of final justice.  So the principle I think still applies to earthly judgement by kings, juries, and so on.  But the big picture is that even if you "get off scott free" while you live, justice will always come.

So when the culture is one of slow justice, does it then help to have a microcosm that has swift justice?  Family justice, church discipline, and so on?  Can we fight evil as long as justice is swift in our little corner?
Solomon says even where justice is slow, it is still better for an individual if he chooses to fear God.

I don't understand vs 14.
14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. [Ecc 8:14 ESV]
Per MSB, Solomon is saying right out loud what we have all sometimes observed.  Sometimes the good guy loses, sometimes the bad guys win.  Solomon thinks this is enigmatic and sad, just like we do.  In general, on earth, God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked.  But there ARE exceptions, and these are "enigmatic and discouraging" to those striving to do right.  That's all it means.
vs 15 we've all heard before:
15 And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. [Ecc 8:15 ESV]
This comes right after 14, and the point is that despite the exceptions to justice, we should resolve to enjoy life despite the injustice that we see all around us.

I believe 16 and 17 say that man can never fully understand what the world is about;
16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out. [Ecc 8:16-17 ESV]
There are questions unanswerable, unknowable, to the feeble mind of man.  We will always have questions.  Some rail against this, but the wisest man who ever lived couldn't "know" what God was going about.

Chapter 9
2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. [Ecc 9:2 ESV]
Hard work will make you successful.  Work harder and you will win.  Be good and you will be rewarded.  Or the other way around:  The bad guys always lose.  Mean people will get what they deserve.  Crime doesn't pay.  NONE OF THESE ARE UNIVERSAL TRUTHS!  

3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all.  Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. [Ecc 9:3 ESV]
The event that happens to both righteous and wicked is that all die, and then all are judged - fairly, consistently, precisely.  This is because no one is wholly righteous.  All have sinned.  All die.  All are judged in eternity.  The unfairness we all observe in this life is insignificant in the face of the absolute justice of the next.  None of us ultimately "gets away with" anything.  Therefore, we should devote ourselves to avoiding sin and embracing good - as God defines it - and so live a balanced, harmonious life while we can.
Possible FB posts, vs 2 and vs 3 on successive posts. 

Does this get back to the loss of cause and effect when sin entered the world?  This is why things sometimes don't work as they should.  Why anything can happen to anyone, despite the kind of life they've lived, good or bad?

4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. [Ecc 9:4 ESV]
Surely some day a situation will arise where I can quote the last part of this.  Doesn't it say that "Run away" is a viable, useful strategy, even a desirable strategy?  You are not going to fix anything after you're dead.

2024 - This one:
Ecclesiastes 9:7 NASB1995
[7] Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works. 
I think this is about regret.  We all have regrets, we will all regret something we do tomorrow or the next day.  This says not tp waste today regretting what you did yesterday.  God already knows what we will do and we are still breathing.  Be better today than yesterday...but don't shut down when you fail.

15 But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. [Ecc 9:15 ESV]

Chapter 10
2021 - This chapter also starts with "prose format", like 7 did.  This time it continues with one short exception until 11: 4.
There is no new section title before 10.  Sure looks like there should be.

It only takes a small screw up to ruin a lot of character built up over years.  So easy to undo even a lifetime of good.
1 Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. [Ecc 10:1 ESV]

2021 - Some interesting verses here...wise to the right, fools to the left.  What would that have meant in the days of Solomon?  
Vs 3, Even when you get a fool on the right road, he's obviously not there of his own design, and it will be obvious that he is a fool.
vs 4, Don't run when the might of government is directed against you - or perhaps it means when a single bureaucrat decides to make your life hell.  "...for calmness will lay great offenses to rest."  Hard to tell if the offender is me, or the bureaucrat though.

2021 - Here is another of the "great evils" Solomon observed.  It would be remiss not to go back and gather these up one by one.  These are things he believes are fundamentally destructive in the way the world is set up.  I think destructive is a pretty good word for it.  Here are the verses:
[Ecc 10:5 ESV] There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler:
[Ecc 10:6 ESV] folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place.
[Ecc 10:7 ESV] I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves.
The idea seems to be that there is an order of things - a hierarchy of things - that is natural and useful and correct. Some are "made" to be in charge, others to be their slaves.  What is evil is when the hierarchy is reversed.  When ignorant fools are put in the highest positions and those with knowledge wisdom and experience are ignored.  No, not just ignored.  Forcefully subjugated to the foolish.
Note also that we break from prose format to block for these three verses, then we jump back into prose.

[[[2021 - Here is the complete list of evils that Solomon points out in Ecclesiastes.  Mostly, they need a few more verses for context, but here is the basic list.  What a great side study this would be!
[Ecc 5:13 ESV] There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt,

[Ecc 6:1 ESV] There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind:
[Ecc 6:2 ESV] a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.

[Ecc 9:3 ESV] This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

[Ecc 10:5 ESV] There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler:
[Ecc 10:6 ESV] folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place.
[Ecc 10:7 ESV] I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves.

There are four of them.  Four is the number of man I believe in Biblical numerology.  Doubt that is coincidence.]]]


8-10, I have no idea what the point of these verses might be, or whether this follows on from vs 5.  Maybe Solomon is just too wise for this fool to comprehend.  MSB summarizes with "Dangers and uncertainties abound in life."  That seems far too glib to describe these verses.  Maybe it means that our work, no matter how intensely done, no matter how expert it is, no matter our intent, may lead us to nothing but maiming accidents, unpredictable adverse consequences, disappointment, or death.  BECAUSE, life if full of "glitches".  Because the good guys do NOT always win.

2021 - It just seems to me that these prose formatted "proverbs" in Ecclesiastes are much deeper than those in the book of Proverbs.    Do 8-11 go together?  Or is each a stand alone pillar of wisdom?
[Ecc 10:8 ESV] He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall.
[Ecc 10:9 ESV] He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them.
[Ecc 10:10 ESV] If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed.
[Ecc 10:11 ESV] If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer.
These four are set off as if they go together in the TCR ESV.  Vss 8,9, on simple inspection, say that manual labor is dangerous.  Inherently dangerous.  Random things can happen and hurt you.  These things are unpredictable (sorry OSHA), and cannot be entirely eliminated.  To work is to take a risk.  Is the idea that to participate in life, the rules are that you must work to eat, and if you work, there is risk.  Therefore, to get up every morning is to take a risk.  And then vss 10, 11 seem to say there are some mitigations that should be considered.  Take care of your tools - because maintained tools are safer tools, and preparation before commencing is better than "learning the hard way".  This works I think.  This makes sense.  But is that really all he is saying?

2021 - Then we get four more verses together:
[Ecc 10:12 ESV] The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him.
[Ecc 10:13 ESV] The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness.
[Ecc 10:14 ESV] A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him?
[Ecc 10:15 ESV] The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.
Again, we don't know who divided these up into fours.  It is in TCR that way, but BLB ESV does not divide them, nor does it put in the prose format.  NASB does not divide any of it at all, nor is there a format change in 10...but there was in 7!  Why????
These are about fools talking too much.  Perhaps it also says those who talk too much are fools.  This truly reminds me of men like Al Gore who tell us what we must do today so that things will be better in a hundred years.  He makes a living with "much words" talking about what "will be after him", though he cannot possibly know it.  And that last verse...for all their words, starting at foolishness and ending at madness...they can't even find their own way back to town.  I wonder if it is true that the predictions and/or the recommendations go from foolishness to madness as they go along?  I bet you really could do a study like that.  I wonder if Solomon is giving us an evaluative tool for determining who is wise and who is foolish?
2023 - This hit me again as a guideline for how to take the climate change activists and the fossil fuel haters...We can surely see that originally, as they predicted what the earth would look like in 100 years or 1000 years, that we didn't give them much credibility.  So they escalated the consequences and they ramped up the imminence of the consequences of ignoring them.  It started with a need to consider what MIGHT be coming and escalated to we must spend billions today or the whole planet will die.  So...from foolishness to madness.  Solomon has said over and over that the future is unknowable because we cannot accurately describe the initial state, much less what will happen tomorrow or next week.  As to the climate, a worldwide outbreak of volcanism could undo trillions of dollars worth of carbon remediation in a month.  Can the volcanoes be predicted?  A socialist conqueror in South America could burn the rain forest to the ground and force its people into an agricultural economy and undo a trillion dollars worth of prevention.  And, a brilliant physicist could conceive a way to contain a fusion reaction and generate electricity so cheaply that in hindsight, the trillion dollars worth of prevention would be considered a complete waste of money.  So what is the principle?  The more certain the predictability, the more money spent on improving.  The opposite is also true.  The  less certain the prediction, the less we ought to spend on it.  And on the most fundamental level, wise men talk about what WILL happen, fools rant on and on about how to prevent what MIGHT happen.
2023 - That last verse...does that mean a fool doesn't know when to shut up and go home?

2021 - The last five verses are taken together:
[Ecc 10:16 ESV] Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning!
[Ecc 10:17 ESV] Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
[Ecc 10:18 ESV] Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks.
[Ecc 10:19 ESV] Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything.
[Ecc 10:20 ESV] Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.
Vss 16, 17 tell us that good leadership matters.  And it says that leadership is hierarchical.  I'm pretty sure it says your leaders should come from the uppermost class.  Take care of your business.  Enjoy your life.  But don't criticize the rich and powerful.  Just don't.  They will find out.  Right Alexa?  Right Google?  We'd never invite a full time spy into our houses to record all we say and "fly" it to those who are interested.  And yet, we put these little spies in, and are proud of ourselves for doing so.  This last verse is quite prophetic.

2025 - In the NASB95, vs 19 says it this way:
19 [Men] prepare a meal for enjoyment, and wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything. [Ecc 10:19 NASB95].  MSB says we need to refer back to the subject of this paragraph, which is a king who parties too much.  Things fall into ruin, no one worries about keeping up with maintenance, and then that last phrase means that he figures he can just raise taxes at some point and bring everything  back up to par.  So in context, we understand that as a general rule, money does not fix everything.  But foolish rulers depend on taxes to cover for their slackness.


Chapter 11
2021 - This chapter is titled Cast  your bread upon the waters.  The first four verses are prose format, then we go back to block through the end of the book.
Here are the four prose verses:
[Ecc 11:1 ESV] Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.
[Ecc 11:2 ESV] Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.
[Ecc 11:3 ESV] If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
[Ecc 11:4 ESV] He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
So how do you "maintain" in an unpredictable world?  First, be generous and kind.  Do for others, and they will, at some future time, do something for you. Share  your knowledge and insight, and perhaps they will do the same for you.  Vs 2 seems to be about diversified investing.  I suspect it is saying get into 7 or so industries.  Because you do not know which ones will prosper and grow and which ones will be displaced and just fade away.  Be in many things, unrelated to each other.  Vs 3 - the natural world is going to do what it does and there is no changing that part.  Don't bet against the rain, don't go long on next years harvest?  Perhaps vs 4 goes with it also.  If you are waiting for the perfect opportunity but your work is outside, you will never get there.  Natural things are never perfect.  Always reason to wait, always reason to go.  Don't be so OCD about it that you end up paralyzed.  I am probably oversimplifying, because I am simple, but this sure seems to be what Solomon is saying.
Before, all I got out of this book was that life is unpredictable and so you need to pull into the moment and just try and enjoy that.  But this time, especially in these last few chapters, there is advice for living a good life.  There are guidelines, sideboards.  You don't know, so take your best shot...but shoot.  If you work with a hammer, you're going to hit your thumb.  If you don't do a cost estimate, you may run out of money and not finish the project.  So you look ahead, but only so far as you can really see.  Not 100 years.  Not 50 years.  What can you see in 20?  You'd have to be good to even see that.  Was Elon Musk even a blip on the radar 20 years ago?  You get the idea.  There is much to think about here in Ecclesiastes.

2021 - Surely this verse confirms the above paragraph: [Ecc 11:6 ESV] In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.  Do as much as you can, as diversified as you can.  Nothing may work, or all of it may work.


Do what needs doing.  Work.  Because things are not in your control, you don't know what the future holds.  So do your work and fear God, and don't waste time predicting and fretting.
10 ... youth and the dawn of life are vanity. [Ecc 11:10 ESV]
Enjoy youth though, and strength, but remember you will be judged for your choices.

Chapter 12
2021 - Section title is Remember your Creator in your youth
This chapter seems like a continuation of 11.  Not sure there should have been a break here.

2021 - The first 8 verses seem to be about decline.  He's talking about a person getting old and being able to do less and less, to appreciate less, retreating inside, closing up shop, and only rousing to hear a bird rather than rising to accept some challenge.  But he is also talking about the earth I think.  All of creation is going to go that way, to get old, to waste away, to be used up.  Many things will start to fail.  Life will start to get harder, rather than the easier we all are expecting.  We are using up creation, and it groans at the abuse.  Eventually, like an old person, it will end, and nothing will endure, and it will all have been vanity.  I think that's what he's saying here.  It is not a pretty picture, but it is the right perspective.  This chapter is the long view.

1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"; [Ecc 12:1 ESV]
Turn to God, remember God, before your time to die arrives.  The pleasures of life diminish with time, we all will die.  As our bodies crumble, pain, difficulty, loss of independence, acuity, and usefulness begin to pile up.  We can come to resent those things to the point where if we have not previously put our faith, our trust, and our eternity in God's hands, we may resent our present state so much, and blame God for it so much, that we refuse to turn to him at the end, sealing our fate in hell.  So the admonishment is to turn to God before the diminishing turns you against Him.

vs 9 begins a summary in the third person.  All before this was 1st person. 

2021 - This verse:
[Ecc 12:12 ESV] My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
With the two verses before it, I think Solomon is saying he's put together all you need to know, here and in Proverbs.  They are enough.  Do with what he's given us - after all, remember who Solomon is.  The wisest ever, and he wrote down (vs. 9 says he weighed and studied and arranged these proverbs with great care) the essentials - he wrote down sufficient proverbs to be sufficient for a life well lived.  We don't need more.

This is one of my favorite verses of all time:
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. [Ecc 12:13 ESV]

I wonder how much of Ecclesiastes was written after God said this to Solomon:
11 Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. 12 Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. [1Ki 11:11-12 ESV]
God said this to Solomon when he was old, and when he had let his foreign wives lead him into idolatry and worship of abominable gods.  So he ended his life knowing that all he had build, all he had achieved, all that he had done with the long view in mind, had been wasted time, because a servant - a nobody from amongst the commoners, not even one of royal blood from elsewhere, was going to inherit all Solomon had done.  And as we see later, Jeroboam not only got most of it, but it took him very little time to undo it all.