Ecclesiastes 1 Footnotes

1:2 The word translated “futile” could be rendered “fleeting.” It literally means “breath” and implies that something only has fleeting value and then evaporates, like a puff of air. In Hebrew the word appears five times in this verse, twice in a construction that is translated into English as an intensification (“breath of breaths,” or “absolute futility”). This is not the same word used for the “breath of life” (Gn 2:7). The verse is not saying that everything is worthless, but that everything is short-lived and quickly passing. Nothing under the sun lasts forever. This passage illustrates the unique character of OT language; where Western writers would use an abstraction (“futility”), the biblical author uses a more concrete expression.

1:8 We long for truth and knowledge but are never satisfied with the explanations given us. We are unable to voice what we cannot comprehend. Taken in its full context, this is not an expression of cynical distrust in all belief systems. It is, rather, a humble recognition of our limitations as mortals. Unable to explain the world, we can only turn to God himself as the source of truth (Pr 30:1-4). Again, the concreteness of Hebrew thought is seen in the way the writer expressed our inability to understand; it is the eye and ear that fail, not the invisible intellect (Mk 9:43-45).