The book presents itself as the words of Qoheleth, son of David, king in Jerusalem.
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Mode: The title
Related claims: 1:12-13 · 12:9-10
▸Evidence(2)
Limits: The title gives a description, not a name. It does not identify Qoheleth with Solomon, and the atlas does not read it as doing so.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
The framing voice announces the book's motto: vapour of vapours, everything is vapour.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
Mode: What gain is there?
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 12:8 · 1:14 · 2:11
▸Evidence(3)
Limits: This is the frame speaking about Qoheleth in the third person, not Qoheleth's own conclusion — and the Hebrew hevel is an image, not a moral verdict.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Qoheleth asks what yitron — surplus, what is left over — a person gets from all their labour under the sun.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
Mode: What gain is there?
In tension with: There is no profit under the sun — and wisdom is profitable
Related claims: 2:11 · 3:9 · 5:13-17
▸Evidence(2)
Limits: A question, not an answer. The book will deny a yitron under the sun without denying that wisdom has an advantage over folly.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Generations, sun, wind and rivers all move continually, and none of them arrives anywhere.
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
Mode: What gain is there?
Related claims: 1:9-11 · 3:15
▸Evidence
Limits: An image of ceaseless motion, not a cosmological claim. It says nothing about whether the motion is meaningless.
Everything is wearisome; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
Mode: What gain is there?
Related claims: 5:10-12 · 6:7-9
▸Evidence
Limits: A statement about human appetite, not about the objects of it.
There is nothing new under the sun, and no lasting remembrance of what came before or what comes after.
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Mode: What gain is there?
Related claims: 2:15-16 · 3:15 · 9:4-6
▸Evidence
Limits: "Nothing new" is set in the frame of what is observable under the sun; the claim is about recurrence and memory, not about the impossibility of novelty as such.
Qoheleth reports that he was king in Jerusalem and set himself to investigate everything done under heaven — a sore travail, he says, that God has given people to be exercised with.
I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
Mode: The great experiment
Related claims: 1:1 · 1:16-18 · 8:16-17
▸Evidence(2)
Limits: The past tense of "was king" has been read both as a straightforward retrospect and as a sign that the royal voice is adopted; the atlas records the dispute rather than resolving it.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
His first summary verdict: all the works done under the sun are hevel and a chasing after wind.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Mode: The great experiment
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 2:11 · 2:17-19
▸Evidence
Limits: A verdict on the investigation so far, scoped explicitly to what is done under the sun.
What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is missing cannot be counted.
That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
Mode: The great experiment
Related claims: 7:13-14
▸Evidence
Limits: A proverb about limits, quoted without an explanation of what the crookedness is.
He acquired great wisdom and knowledge — and found that increasing wisdom increases grief.
I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
Mode: The great experiment
In tension with: Wisdom is better — and the wise die like fools · Wisdom is worth having — and cannot find out God's work
Related claims: 2:12-14 · 7:23-25
▸Evidence
Limits: The finding is about the cost of understanding, not a recommendation against it; the same book will say wisdom excels folly.
He tested pleasure and mirth deliberately, and pronounced laughter mad and mirth of no use.
I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.
Mode: The great experiment
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 2:3-8 · 7:1-4
▸Evidence
Limits: This is the verdict on pleasure as an experiment in finding lasting gain, not on enjoyment as such — which the same chapter goes on to commend.
He gave himself to wine while guiding his heart with wisdom, and built houses, planted vineyards, made gardens and pools, acquired servants, herds, silver, gold and singers.
I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.
Mode: The great experiment
Related claims: 2:9-10 · 2:11
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: A catalogue of scale, reported as method rather than as boasting; the atlas treats it as the experiment's apparatus.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
He became great beyond all before him in Jerusalem, withheld nothing his eyes desired, and says his heart rejoiced in his labour — this was his portion.
So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
Mode: The great experiment
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 2:11 · 3:22 · 5:18-20
▸Evidence
Limits: The joy here is claimed as taken rather than received; it is the one enjoyment passage in the book with no gift language attached.
Looking at everything he had made and laboured to do, he found all of it hevel and no yitron under the sun.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
Mode: The great experiment
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy · There is no profit under the sun — and wisdom is profitable
Related claims: 1:3 · 1:14 · 2:17-19
▸Evidence
Limits: A verdict on his own project, explicitly scoped under the sun, and reached at the end of an experiment rather than as an axiom.
Wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness: the wise have eyes in their head, the fool walks in darkness.
And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.
Mode: The great experiment
In tension with: Wisdom is better — and the wise die like fools · There is no profit under the sun — and wisdom is profitable
Related claims: 2:15-16 · 9:13-16 · 10:8-11
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: The advantage is real and is stated without qualification here — the qualification comes in the next verses, not in this one.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
The same event happens to the wise and the fool, and neither is remembered afterwards — so, he says, why was I then more wise?
Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.
Mode: The great experiment
In tension with: Wisdom is better — and the wise die like fools
Related claims: 2:12-14 · 9:1-3 · 1:9-11
▸Evidence(1)
For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: A complaint registered against the advantage he has just affirmed. Read alone it cancels 2:13; read with it, it bounds it.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
He came to hate life and to hate his labour, because he must leave what he built to a successor who may be wise or a fool.
Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Mode: The great experiment
In tension with: Enjoy your labour — which you cannot keep · Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 2:20-23 · 6:1-2
▸Evidence
Limits: The hatred is reported as a reaction to a specific problem — loss of control over outcomes — not as a settled disposition toward existence.
A person may labour with wisdom and skill and leave the whole of it to someone who did not labour for it; his days are sorrows and his heart takes no rest.
Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.
Mode: The great experiment
In tension with: Enjoy your labour — which you cannot keep
Related claims: 2:17-19 · 4:4 · 5:13-17
▸Evidence
Limits: The grievance is about transfer without desert, which is a specific injustice rather than a general verdict on work.
There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink and find good in their labour — and this, he says, is from the hand of God.
There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.
Mode: The great experiment
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy · Enjoy your labour — which you cannot keep
Related claims: 3:12-13 · 5:18-20 · 8:15 · 9:7-9
▸Evidence(2)
There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: "Nothing better" is a recommendation within the frame he has just described, not a claim that the problem has been answered; and what he commends is received, not achieved.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
To everything there is a season: fourteen paired times, from birth and death to war and peace.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Mode: Time, limits and God's work
Related claims: 3:9 · 3:10-11 · 8:6-8
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: The poem lists times without saying who assigns them or how a person is to know which time they are in.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
He repeats the book's opening question: what profit has the worker from their labour?
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
Mode: Time, limits and God's work
In tension with: There is no profit under the sun — and wisdom is profitable
Related claims: 1:3 · 2:11
▸Evidence
Limits: The question is repeated, not answered, and it is scoped to profit rather than to value.
God has made everything beautiful in its time and has set olam in the human heart — yet no one can find out the work God does from beginning to end.
I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
Mode: Time, limits and God's work
In tension with: Wisdom is worth having — and cannot find out God's work
Related claims: 8:16-17 · 11:3-6
▸Evidence(2)
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: What olam means here is genuinely unsettled: eternity, the world, a sense of duration, or something else. The atlas records the readings and adopts none.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
There is nothing better than to rejoice and do good, and that everyone should eat, drink and enjoy the good of their labour — it is the gift of God.
I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
Mode: Time, limits and God's work
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 2:24-26 · 3:22 · 5:18-20
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: Stated as a finding about what is available, with the gift language explicit. It does not claim the enjoyment can be secured or kept.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Whatever God does is for ever, with nothing to add or take away — and God does it so that people should fear before him.
I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
Mode: Time, limits and God's work
In tension with: Fear God and keep his commandments — do not be righteous over much
Related claims: 5:1-3 · 12:13-14
▸Evidence
Limits: A theological statement in Qoheleth's own voice, and one of the places the book's God-language sits inside its bleakest section.
What has been is now, and what is to be has already been.
That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
Mode: Time, limits and God's work
Related claims: 1:9-11
▸Evidence
Limits: A restatement of 1:9 with no further explanation offered.
He saw wickedness in the place of judgment — and said in his heart that God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every purpose.
And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
Mode: Time, limits and God's work
In tension with: God will judge — and the sentence is not executed speedily
Related claims: 4:1-3 · 8:9-13 · 8:14 · 12:13-14
▸Evidence(2)
Limits: The observation and the expectation stand side by side without a timetable; the book never says when the judging happens.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
People and animals share one breath and one event, and no one knows whether the spirit of a human goes upward and the spirit of a beast downward.
I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Mode: Time, limits and God's work
In tension with: Who knows whether the spirit goes upward — and the spirit returns to God · The dead know nothing — and every work comes into judgment
Related claims: 9:1-3 · 12:1-7
▸Evidence(2)
Limits: This is a question about what anyone can know, not a denial. Reading it as a doctrine of the afterlife goes well beyond what the verse says, and 12:7 speaks differently.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
There is nothing better than that a person should rejoice in their own works, for that is their portion.
Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
Mode: Time, limits and God's work
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 2:24-26 · 5:18-20 · 9:7-9
▸Evidence
Limits: The reason given is that no one can show them what comes after — the enjoyment is recommended because of the limit, not in spite of it.
He saw the oppressions done under the sun, the tears of the oppressed with no comforter, power on the side of the oppressors — and praised the dead above the living, and the never-born above both.
So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
Mode: Oppression, rivalry and company
In tension with: God will judge — and the sentence is not executed speedily · Better the day of death — better a living dog
Related claims: 3:16-17 · 5:8-9 · 8:9-13
▸Evidence(1)
So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: A protest at a specific horror, in a rhetorical register the book itself later reverses at 9:4. It is not a doctrine of despair.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
All labour and every skilful work come from a person's rivalry with their neighbour.
Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
Mode: Oppression, rivalry and company
Related claims: 4:5-6 · 2:20-23
▸Evidence
Limits: A generalisation about motive, offered as observation; the same chapter recommends companionship and shared work.
The fool folds his hands and consumes himself — yet better is a handful with quietness than both hands full with striving.
The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
Mode: Oppression, rivalry and company
Related claims: 4:4 · 6:7-9
▸Evidence
Limits: Two sayings held together: idleness is destructive and so is overreach. Neither is offered as the whole counsel.
He saw a man alone, without child or brother, whose eye was never satisfied with riches, asking for whom he laboured and deprived himself of good.
Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun.
Mode: Oppression, rivalry and company
Related claims: 4:9-12 · 5:10-12
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: The question is the man's own, quoted by Qoheleth. It is evidence of what he observed, not Qoheleth's assertion.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour, can lift each other, keep each other warm and withstand what one alone cannot.
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
Mode: Oppression, rivalry and company
Related claims: 4:7-8 · 9:7-9
▸Evidence
Limits: One of the least hedged recommendations in the book — and still framed in terms of practical advantage rather than of meaning.
Better a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who will no longer take advice — yet the crowd that followed the successor will not rejoice in him either.
Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.
Mode: Oppression, rivalry and company
In tension with: Wisdom is better — and the wise die like fools
Related claims: 9:13-16 · 2:15-16
▸Evidence
Limits: The saying's application is left open, and the identity of the figures is not specified anywhere in the text.
Guard your step when you go to the house of God; be readier to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools; do not be rash with your mouth, for God is in heaven and you on earth.
Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
Mode: Before God, and about money
Related claims: 5:4-7 · 3:14
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: Counsel about restraint before God; it prescribes fewer words, not fewer approaches.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Pay what you vow — better not to vow than to vow and not pay — and in the multitude of dreams and words, fear God.
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
Mode: Before God, and about money
In tension with: Fear God and keep his commandments — do not be righteous over much
Related claims: 5:1-3 · 12:13-14
▸Evidence
Limits: The fear of God here functions as the alternative to careless speech, not as a summary of the book.
If you see the oppression of the poor and the perversion of judgment in a province, do not be astonished: one official watches another, and above them are higher ones.
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
Mode: Before God, and about money
In tension with: God will judge — and the sentence is not executed speedily
Related claims: 4:1-3 · 3:16-17
▸Evidence
Limits: The passage's syntax and sense are debated, and it stops short of saying whether the layered oversight helps or compounds the problem.
Whoever loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; goods increase and so do those who eat them; the labourer's sleep is sweet whether they eat little or much.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
Mode: Before God, and about money
Related claims: 5:13-17 · 6:7-9 · 1:8
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: An observation about appetite and about sleep, not a prohibition of wealth — which the next passages treat as something God may give.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Riches kept by their owner to their own hurt, lost in a bad venture, leaving nothing to pass on: as a person came, so they go, and what profit is there in labouring for the wind?
There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
Mode: Before God, and about money
In tension with: Enjoy your labour — which you cannot keep
Related claims: 2:17-19 · 6:1-2
▸Evidence
Limits: The case described is a specific one — riches lost — and the conclusion is drawn from it rather than from wealth as such.
It is good and fitting to eat, drink and enjoy the good of one's labour: God gives the wealth, God gives the power to eat of it and to take one's portion, and God answers a person in the joy of their heart.
Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.
Mode: Before God, and about money
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy · Enjoy your labour — which you cannot keep
Related claims: 2:24-26 · 3:12-13 · 6:1-2
▸Evidence(1)
Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: The clearest gift language in the book — and precisely because the power to enjoy is described as given, the passage does not put enjoyment inside anyone's control.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
A man to whom God gives riches, wealth and honour so that he lacks nothing he desires — and God does not give him power to eat of it, and a stranger eats it instead.
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:
Mode: Before God, and about money
In tension with: Enjoy your labour — which you cannot keep · Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 5:18-20 · 5:13-17
▸Evidence
Limits: The exact inverse of 5:19, and the reason the enjoyment passages cannot be read as a technique. It describes a case, not a rule about who receives what.
A man might have a hundred children and long years, and if his soul is not filled with good and he has no burial, a stillborn child is better off than he.
If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
Mode: Before God, and about money
In tension with: Better the day of death — better a living dog
Related claims: 4:1-3 · 7:1-4
▸Evidence
Limits: A comparative saying in the harshest register the book uses; 9:4 states the opposite preference, and both are in the dataset.
All a person's labour is for their mouth, and the appetite is not filled; better the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire.
All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
Mode: Before God, and about money
Related claims: 1:8 · 5:10-12
▸Evidence
Limits: A better-than saying about attention, not a claim that desire is illegitimate.
Whatever exists has already been named, and no one can contend with what is stronger — who knows what is good for a person in this fleeting life, or what will be after them under the sun?
That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.
Mode: Before God, and about money
In tension with: Wisdom is worth having — and cannot find out God's work
Related claims: 8:16-17 · 3:10-11
▸Evidence
Limits: Closing questions, posed as unanswerable in the frame the book is working in.
A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth; it is better to go to the house of mourning than of feasting, because that is the end of all people.
A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: Better the day of death — better a living dog
Related claims: 6:3-6 · 9:4-6 · 2:1-2
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: A sequence of better-than sayings about what teaches, not a preference for death; the reason given is instructional.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than the song of fools — the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns under a pot.
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
Related claims: 7:1-4 · 10:12-15
▸Evidence
Limits: The target is empty laughter, not joy; the same book commends a merry heart at 9:7.
Oppression makes a wise person foolish; the end of a thing is better than its beginning; be slow to anger; do not ask why the former days were better than these.
Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
Related claims: 4:1-3 · 1:9-11
▸Evidence
Limits: Practical counsel, including a warning against nostalgia that sits oddly with a book people read as nostalgic.
Wisdom is good with an inheritance and profitable to those who see the sun: it is a defence as money is a defence, and its excellency is that it gives life to those who have it.
Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: There is no profit under the sun — and wisdom is profitable · Wisdom is better — and the wise die like fools
Related claims: 2:12-14 · 9:17-18 · 10:8-11
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: One of the strongest positive statements about wisdom in the book, and it uses the same yitron vocabulary the opening question denied under the sun.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In prosperity be joyful, in adversity consider — God has set the one over against the other so that no one can find out anything after them.
Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: Wisdom is worth having — and cannot find out God's work
Related claims: 1:15 · 3:10-11 · 11:3-6
▸Evidence(1)
In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: The counsel is to consider, not to explain; the stated purpose of the arrangement is that the future stays hidden.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
He has seen a righteous person perishing in their righteousness and a wicked person prolonging life in wickedness — so, he says, do not be righteous over much, and do not be over wicked; whoever fears God comes through both.
All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: God will judge — and the sentence is not executed speedily · Fear God and keep his commandments — do not be righteous over much
Related claims: 8:14 · 9:1-3 · 3:16-17
▸Evidence(2)
All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: What "righteous over much" warns against is genuinely disputed — self-destructive scrupulosity, self-righteousness, or something else — and the atlas does not choose.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten rulers in a city; there is no one on earth who does good and does not sin; and you know in your own heart that you have cursed others yourself.
Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: There is no profit under the sun — and wisdom is profitable
Related claims: 7:11-12 · 9:17-18
▸Evidence
Limits: The universality of failing is stated in passing, as grounds for not attending to every word spoken against you.
He says he tested all this by wisdom and said "I will be wise" — but it was far from him; what is far off and deep, who can find it out?
All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: Wisdom is worth having — and cannot find out God's work
Related claims: 1:16-18 · 8:16-17
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: An admission of failure by the book's own investigator, which is the passage most often left out of summaries of what Ecclesiastes concludes.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
He reports finding something more bitter than death, a search that turned up one in a thousand, and the conclusion that God made humanity upright while they sought out many devices.
And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
Related claims: 7:23-25 · 1:2
▸Evidence(2)
Limits: This passage is among the most contested in the book, including whether the harsh lines are Qoheleth's own position or a view he is reporting. The atlas records it as disputed and does not adjudicate.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Who is like the wise? Keep the king's command; do not be hasty to leave his presence; whoever keeps the command will know no evil thing, and a wise heart discerns time and judgment.
Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
Related claims: 10:4-7 · 10:16-20
▸Evidence
Limits: Court counsel about prudence under power. "Will know no evil thing" is a maxim, not a guarantee — 8:14 states the exception a few verses later.
Every purpose has its time and judgment, and a person's trouble is heavy because they do not know what will be — no one has power over the spirit, or over the day of death.
Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: Wisdom is worth having — and cannot find out God's work
Related claims: 3:1-8 · 9:11-12 · 12:1-7
▸Evidence(1)
There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: The limit named is knowledge and power over death; nothing is said here about what lies beyond it.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
He has seen one person rule another to their hurt, and the wicked buried and forgotten in the city where they had done so — because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, people's hearts are set to do evil; yet it will be well with those who fear God.
All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: God will judge — and the sentence is not executed speedily
Related claims: 8:14 · 3:16-17 · 12:13-14
▸Evidence(3)
Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: Observation and expectation are placed side by side without reconciliation, and 8:14 immediately restates the problem.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
There is a hevel done on the earth: righteous people to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked, and wicked people to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous.
There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: God will judge — and the sentence is not executed speedily
Related claims: 7:15-18 · 9:1-3 · 3:16-17
▸Evidence(1)
There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: This is the book's sharpest statement of the injustice problem, and it is not withdrawn anywhere. The dataset classifies it as absurd and enigmatic, not as merely futile.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
So he commended enjoyment: a person has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink and be merry, and that will abide with them in their labour through the days God gives.
Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 2:24-26 · 5:18-20 · 9:7-9
▸Evidence
Limits: The recommendation follows immediately from 8:14 — it is what he says in the face of the reversal, not a claim that the reversal is resolved.
When he applied his heart to know wisdom, he saw that no one can find out the work done under the sun: however much a person labours to seek it, they will not find it, and even a wise person who claims to know cannot find it.
When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
Mode: Wisdom under uncertainty
In tension with: Wisdom is worth having — and cannot find out God's work
Related claims: 3:10-11 · 7:23-25 · 11:3-6
▸Evidence(1)
Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: The claim is about the limits of finding out, stated explicitly under the sun, and it is aimed as much at confident wisdom as at ignorance.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
The righteous and the wise and their works are in God's hand; no one knows love or hatred by what lies before them; one event happens to all, and this is an evil in everything done under the sun.
For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
In tension with: Wisdom is better — and the wise die like fools · The dead know nothing — and every work comes into judgment
Related claims: 2:15-16 · 3:18-21 · 8:14
▸Evidence(2)
For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: "In God's hand" and "one event to all" are stated in the same breath. The passage protests the levelling without denying the hand.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
A living dog is better than a dead lion, for the living know they will die and the dead know nothing — they have no more reward, their memory is forgotten, and they have no more portion in anything done under the sun.
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
In tension with: The dead know nothing — and every work comes into judgment · Better the day of death — better a living dog
Related claims: 9:1-3 · 9:10 · 12:13-14
▸Evidence(3)
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: Every clause here is scoped under the sun, to the world of reward, memory and portion that the living can observe. Reading it as a complete doctrine of what happens after death goes past what the sentence says, and the atlas holds it in tension with 12:7 and 12:14 rather than resolving it either way.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted your works; let your garments be white and your head lack no ointment; live joyfully with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life.
Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 2:24-26 · 5:18-20 · 11:7-8
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: The most direct instruction in the book, placed immediately after its bleakest paragraph — and framed with hevel language of its own, "the days of thy vanity".
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work, device, knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
In tension with: The dead know nothing — and every work comes into judgment
Related claims: 9:4-6 · 11:1-2
▸Evidence
Limits: A reason for urgency in this life; the statement about Sheol describes the absence of work and planning there, not a systematic account of the state of the dead.
The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise — time and chance happen to them all, and no one knows their time.
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
In tension with: Wisdom is better — and the wise die like fools
Related claims: 8:6-8 · 11:3-6
▸Evidence(1)
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: The claim is that competence does not determine outcome, not that competence is worthless; 9:16–18 immediately says wisdom is better than strength.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
A little city, a great king besieging it, a poor wise man who delivered it by his wisdom — and no one remembered that poor man; so wisdom is better than strength, though the poor man's wisdom is despised.
This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
In tension with: There is no profit under the sun — and wisdom is profitable · Wisdom is better — and the wise die like fools
Related claims: 4:13-16 · 9:17-18
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: Both halves are held: the wisdom worked, and it earned nothing. The story is offered as a case, and no name or date is given for it.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
The quiet words of the wise are heard more than the shouting of a ruler among fools; wisdom is better than weapons of war — but one sinner destroys much good.
The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
In tension with: There is no profit under the sun — and wisdom is profitable
Related claims: 7:11-12 · 10:1-3
▸Evidence
Limits: The advantage is affirmed and then immediately bounded in the same verse.
Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment stink; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honour, and a fool's lack of sense shows to everyone as he walks.
Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
In tension with: There is no profit under the sun — and wisdom is profitable
Related claims: 9:17-18 · 10:12-15
▸Evidence
Limits: An image about asymmetry — small damage to a good thing — rather than a claim that wisdom is fragile in every respect.
If a ruler's temper rises against you, do not leave your place; there is an evil he has seen under the sun, an error from a ruler: folly set in great dignity, servants on horses and princes walking on foot.
If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences.
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
Related claims: 8:1-5 · 10:16-20
▸Evidence
Limits: The inversion described is presented as an observed disorder, not as a social programme.
Whoever digs a pit may fall into it and whoever breaks a hedge may be bitten; if the iron is blunt and the edge not whetted, more strength is needed — but wisdom is profitable to direct.
He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
In tension with: There is no profit under the sun — and wisdom is profitable
Related claims: 7:11-12 · 9:11-12
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: A run of sayings about risk and technique; the wisdom claim uses the same profit vocabulary the book denied a surplus for under the sun.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
The words of a wise mouth are gracious, but a fool's lips swallow himself; a fool is full of words and no one can tell what will be — and the labour of fools wearies them, because they do not know the way to the city.
The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
Related claims: 10:1-3 · 6:10-12
▸Evidence
Limits: Sayings about speech and disorientation, with no stated application.
Woe to the land whose king is a child and whose princes feast in the morning; blessed the land whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat in due season — and do not curse the king even in your thought.
Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!
Mode: Death, chance and the value of wisdom
Related claims: 8:1-5 · 10:4-7
▸Evidence
Limits: Practical political caution, closing on the observation that word travels; no theory of government is offered.
Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days; give a portion to seven and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth.
Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
Mode: Risk, youth and the failing of the body
Related claims: 11:3-6 · 9:10
▸Evidence
Limits: Whether this counsels generosity, maritime trade or diversification of risk is debated, and the reason given for it — not knowing — is the same either way.
Whoever watches the wind will not sow and whoever regards the clouds will not reap; as you do not know the way of the spirit or how bones grow in the womb, so you do not know the works of God — sow in the morning and do not withhold your hand in the evening.
If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.
Mode: Risk, youth and the failing of the body
In tension with: Wisdom is worth having — and cannot find out God's work
Related claims: 8:16-17 · 3:10-11 · 9:11-12
▸Evidence(1)
As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: The counsel to act is grounded in ignorance rather than in confidence, which is why the atlas treats it as a counterbalance rather than a resolution.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Light is sweet and it is pleasant to see the sun; if a person lives many years, let them rejoice in them all — and remember the days of darkness, for they will be many.
Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
Mode: Risk, youth and the failing of the body
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 9:7-9 · 11:9-10 · 12:1-7
▸Evidence
Limits: Rejoicing and remembrance are commanded in the same sentence; the passage does not offer one as compensation for the other.
Rejoice, young man, in your youth, walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes — and know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment; remove sorrow from your heart, for childhood and youth are hevel.
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
Mode: Risk, youth and the failing of the body
In tension with: God will judge — and the sentence is not executed speedily · Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 12:1-7 · 12:13-14 · 9:7-9
▸Evidence(1)
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
Sources: The Book of Ecclesiastes — King James Version (Public domain (English))
Limits: The permission and the judgment clause are in the same verse. Reading either half without the other produces a Qoheleth the text does not contain.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come — the failing of light, hands, grinders and windows, the fear in the way, the broken bowl and the returning dust, and the spirit returning to God who gave it.
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
Mode: Risk, youth and the failing of the body
In tension with: Who knows whether the spirit goes upward — and the spirit returns to God
Related claims: 11:9-10 · 3:18-21 · 9:4-6
▸Evidence(2)
Limits: How far the images are an allegory of ageing and how far a picture of a household or a village in decline is debated; the closing statement about the spirit is stated plainly and is not explained.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
The framing voice closes as it opened: vapour of vapours, says Qoheleth; everything is vapour.
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
Mode: The motto returns
In tension with: Everything is hevel — so eat your bread with joy
Related claims: 1:2
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: An inclusio with 1:2 by the frame narrator, and whether it belongs to the body of the book or to the epilogue is disputed.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
A further voice reports that Qoheleth, being wise, went on teaching the people knowledge, weighed and searched out and set in order many proverbs, sought acceptable words, and that what was written was upright — words of truth.
And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
Mode: The epilogue
Related claims: 1:1 · 12:11 · 12:13-14
▸Evidence(2)
Limits: This is somebody else's assessment of Qoheleth. It commends his work; it does not state that every sentence of it is the book's final position.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
The words of the wise are like goads and like nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, given from one shepherd.
The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
Mode: The epilogue
Related claims: 12:9-10 · 12:12
▸Evidence(1)
Limits: Who the shepherd is, and whether the image commends the words or warns about their sharpness, are both debated.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.
Be warned: of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the flesh.
And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Mode: The epilogue
Related claims: 12:11 · 12:13-14
▸Evidence
Limits: The target of the warning — Qoheleth's book, other books, or scholarly excess in general — is not stated.
The conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of a person — and God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Mode: The epilogue
In tension with: God will judge — and the sentence is not executed speedily · The dead know nothing — and every work comes into judgment · Fear God and keep his commandments — do not be righteous over much
Related claims: 3:16-17 · 11:9-10 · 9:4-6 · 12:8
▸Evidence(3)
Limits: Whether this summarises Qoheleth, frames him, qualifies him or corrects him is genuinely unsettled, and the atlas presents it as the epilogue's word rather than as Qoheleth's own.
Quotations are from the translation committed for this locale, and never substituted from another language.