Ecclesiastes 3 Study Notes

3:15 The phrase God seeks justice for the persecuted is literally “God seeks the pursued” or “God seeks the persecuted.” Such a translation suggests that God cares about and seeks out those who are harassed and oppressed. An alternate interpretation is that God is concerned with repeating (“seeks to do”) what has occurred in the past (“what was driven away”). The first alternative, as found in the CSB, better anticipates the text on injustice that follows (vv. 16-17).

3:16-17 An absurdity of life is that where there ought to be justice in the law courts, there is often corruption, oppression, and a perversion of justice. Even so, we may take comfort in the fact that God has appointed a final day for judging the world.

3:18-22 These verses are disturbing to Christian readers because they appear to deny the hope of eternal life. What they actually deny is that people within themselves have the power to transcend death. By contrast, Egyptian religion was so certain that people were immortal that the ancient Egyptians were obsessed with preparing their tombs for the afterlife. According to the Bible, death is an enemy (1Co 15:26); it is not merely a doorway to a new level of existence. God’s people will experience eternal life only because they are known by God and will be raised by his power. Our hope is based entirely on the resurrection of Christ. The Teacher of Ecclesiastes wanted people to take death seriously so they would use well the time they had under the sun. It does not deny that God can raise us from the dead.