Ecclesiastes 1:12 Commentary and Bible Study

Solomon now gives us his testimony, a description of the experiment he conducted in life and the conclusion that he came to at the end of it. There can be no reasonable doubt about the author of the book. The significance of his being king in Jerusalem, and a king with unrivalled riches at his disposal, is that the experiment he is about to describe did not end as it did because of any lack of resources. He is noted in Scripture for being the king who brought such wealth into Jerusalem that he ‘made silver and gold at Jerusalem as plenteous as stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycomore trees that are in the vale for abundance’ (2 Chronicles 1:15). It is this great king of Israel, God’s chosen nation, who now gives us an account of his personal experience in labouring to understand the nature of life, and he tells us all the different ways in which he tried to find satisfaction here below. He tried riches and wisdom. He said, ‘If I can know more than any other, then I will be satisfied.’ Pleasure – entertainment – architecture – gardens – he got a little satisfaction from them, but it was soon gone. Then he tried the bizarre, the absurd, to see if that would give him a lift. He tried intoxicants available to him then. But he was still the same restless person at the end of this experiment. He hated himself. He was on the verge of taking his own life: all was emptiness and striving after wind. He was overcome by the futility of everything. His hopes were high as he set out on this quest, but he has already given us his conclusion which he reached by painful first-hand knowledge – ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity’.