Doesn’t Solomon disprove his own assertion that ‘there is nothing new thing under the sun’? Doesn’t he break his own rule when he says, ‘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’ (Ecclesiastes 1:16) and also ‘I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me’ (Ecclesiastes 2:7) and ‘so I was great, and increased more than all that were before me’ (Ecclesiastes 2:9)? Is he not claiming to have done what had never been done before? This helps us to understand what he means when he says that there is nothing new under the sun, for evidently, he did not regard these advances as exceptions to this rule. Though men may discover new lands and climb mountains they have never climbed before, these accomplishments are trivial compared to what Solomon has in mind. Though they may build taller houses and place bridges over wider rivers than ever before, they have not overcome any of the real limits that bind man. They have not made the slightest difference to all of the vanities which afflict man. He is about to tell us in the rest of the book how vanity still binds mankind. His character has not changed. No intrinsic human limitations have been breached. He still spends his life trying to get satisfaction out of things that are passing away. He still fails to look beyond his immediate craving to any genuine peace of the soul. He still thinks he can live without God. He still spends his life accruing goods that he cannot take with him into the next life.