Ecclesiastes 8 Study Notes

8:1-6 A wise person respects authority and knows how to approach an authority figure tactfully and at the right moment. No matter how bad things seem (even though a person’s troubles are heavy on him), approach a person in authority in the right way and at the right time.

8:7-8 We mortals are by nature frail, limited in our understanding, and incapable of predicting the future. Ultimately, everything is in God’s hands.

8:9-9:1 This passage focuses on God’s governance of the world; it struggles with the question of why evil sometimes seems to triumph. Examples of this include cruel people rising to power (8:9), wicked people being honored in public (8:10), wicked people avoiding punishment (8:11), and good people suffering while the wicked do well (8:14). Against this, Ecclesiastes affirms that God does set things right (8:12-13) and asserts that a person should enjoy life and not always brood over evil (8:15). More than that, we must acknowledge that God alone knows what he is doing and why he does it, and we must be content to let him rule the world (8:16-9:1).