Book Of Ecclesiastes

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In the desire and quest to make sense of the world and our existence, three great sirens have lured men and women into a lull with the empty promise to make their lives meaningful. The great king of Israel, Solomon, though the wisest man, was not immune to their song. But at the end of his life, Solomon, in all of his God-given wisdom, stopped to contemplate on all that competed for his attention. He wrote his conclusions in the Book of Ecclesiastes.Tommy Nelson continues his study of Solomon's writings by taking an in-depth look at Ecclesiastes. In a world such as ours, where the search for meaning and purpose propels mankind to try everything under the sun, Solomon's conclusions ring louder than ever for a people who need answers more than ever.

What can we expect from life in a fallen world? How are we to live as redeemed people in such a world? In 22 concise chapters, Benjamin Shaw shows that the answers to these questions are to be found in the message of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Whereas some commentators have viewed the book of Ecclesiastes as an alien intrusion into the Old Testament, and have deemed it of little use for the New Testament believer, Benjamin Shaw does not hold to this misguided view. In this commentary, designed to be used by non-specialists, he shows that this divinely inspired book is far from being the muddled collection of disparate voices it is sometimes presented to be. He demonstrates that in reality, Ecclesiastes is an integral part of the word of God, and conveys a very distinct message to all who are willing to listen to its wisdom.

What if it is death that teaches us how to truly live? Keeping the end in mind shapes how we live our lives in the here and now. Living life backward means taking the one thing in our future that is certain—death—and letting that inform our journey before we get there. Looking to the book of Ecclesiastes for wisdom, Living Life Backward was written to shake up our expectations and priorities for what it means to live "the good life." Considering the reality of death helps us pay attention to our limitations as human beings and receive life as a wondrous gift from God—freeing us to live wisely, generously, and faithfully for God's glory and the good of his world.

The book of Ecclesiastes speaks eloquently to the uncertainties and anxieties that people have experienced through the centuries. James Limburg brings this ancient book to life for readers in our probing, questioning twenty-first-century times. He illuminates the contemporary existential themes in Ecclesiastes -- the quest for meaning in life, the incompleteness of our knowledge, the place of work in human lives, and the need to discover God amid life's uncertainties. A fresh, relevant discussion, arising from Limburg's extensive teaching experience, Encountering Ecclesiastes is ideal for any reader seeking to understand the timeless wisdom of Ecclesiastes.

In this contribution to The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, Trevor Longman takes a canonical-Christocentric approach to the meaning of the fascinating but puzzling book of Ecclesiastes.

Through the ages, the book of Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) has elicited a wide variety of interpretations. Its status as wisdom literature is secure, but its meaning for the religion of the Hebrew Bible and its heirs has been a matter of much debate. The debate has swung from claiming orthodoxy for the book to arguing that the message intended by its author is heterodox, in its entirety. There are a number of passages in the book that present difficulties for any comprehensive approach to the work. Martin Shields here fully acknowledges the heterodox nature of Qoheleth's words but offers an orthodox reading of the book as a whole through the eyes of the author of the epilogue. After a survey of attitudes regarding wisdom in the Hebrew Bible itself, which serves as an orientation to the monograph as a whole, Shields provides a detailed study of the epilogue (Qoh 12:9-14), which he believes is the key to the reading of the remainder of the book. He then addresses various problematic texts in the book in light of this perspective, arguing that the book could originally have functioned as a warning to students against joining a wisdom movement that existed at the time of the book's composition. Qoheleth is presented as a true adherent of this movement, and the divergence of his words from the theism presented in the rest of the Hebrew Bible becomes the basis of the epilogue's critique. Finally, Shields proposes a historical context in which just this scenario may have arisen, showing that the desire of the writer of the epilogue is to correct a wayward wisdom tradition.