Eclesiastes 1

Eclesiastes 1

Vernon McGee points out, “Vanity here speaks of emptiness. It is to waste life without any purpose or any goal (ED: I DO NOT TOTALLY AGREE WITH THAT STATEMENT - SOLOMON HAD GOALS, MANY OF THEM, SO IT IS MORE ABOUT WHETHER THE GOAL HAS ANY ETERNAL VALUE). It means to live like an animal or a bird lives. There are a great many people who live like that. Without God and without a relationship to the person of Jesus Christ this is truly a summary of life. It (ED: VANITY) is sort of like eating cotton candy. When you put it in your mouth, it just sort of disappears. (BORROW Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon) Don Anderson echoes McGee - What does it mean “meaningless?” It’s kind of like taking the cotton candy in your mouth—it disappears when you put your mouth on it. It’s like when we were kids, we always get this bubble stuff and fill the air with bubbles. But every time you reached out to try to touch one, you know, it disappeared in thin air. It’s a bubble that pops. It’s cotton candy that disappears when you try to bite into it. There’s no content. Life is as empty as possible. It’s utter futility. It’s emptiness. NET NOTE - Vanity of vanities - Heb “futility of futilities.” The phrase “absolutely futile” (הֲבֵל הֲבָלִים, havel havalim) is a superlative genitive construction (GKC 431 §133.i). When a plural genitive follows a singular construct noun of the same root, it indicates the most outstanding example of the person or thing described. Examples: קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים (qodesh haqqodashim, “holy of holies”), i.e., “the most holy place” (Exod 26:33); שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים (shir hashirim, “song of songs”), i.e., “the most excellent song” (Song 1:1); אֱלֹהֵי הָאֱלֹהִים וַאֲדֹנֵי הַאֱדֹנִים (’elohe ha’elohim va’adone ha’edonim, “the God of gods and Lord of lords”), i.e., “the highest God and the supreme Lord” (Deut 10:17). See also R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 17–18, §80; IBHS 154 §9.5.3j. David