I said in my heart that this also is vanity' (ii. 14b F1: formatting as italicized - doubtful this is beta, though possibly superscript], 15), i.e. that this undiscriminating fate is a fresh proof of the delusiveness of all things.
And in this strain Koheleth runs on to nearly the end of
the chapter, with an added touch of bitterness at the thought
of the doubtful character of his successor (ii. 18, 19). Then
occurs one of those abrupt transitions which so often puzzle
the student of Ecclesiastes. In ii. 1-11 Koheleth has rejected
the life of sensuous pleasure, even when wisely regulated,
as 'vanity.' He now returns to the subject, and declares this
to be, not of course the ideally highest good, but the highest
good open to man, if it were only in his power to secure it.
But he has seen that both sensuous enjoyment and the wisdom
which regulates it come from God, who grants these
blessings to the man who is good in his sight, while profitless
trouble is the portion of the sinner. He repeats therefore
that even wisdom and knowledge and joy, the highest attainable
goods, are, by reason of their uncertainty, 'vanity and
pursuit of wind' (ii. 26).
At the end of this long speech of Koheleth, we naturally ask how far it can be regarded as autobiographical. Only, I think, in a qualified sense. Its psychological depth points to similar experiences on the part of the author, but to experiences which have been deepened in their imaginative reproduction. It is truth mingled with fiction—Wahrheit und Dichtung—which we meet with in the first two chapters. A more strictly biographical narrative appears to begin in chap. iii., from which point the allusions to Solomon cease, and are replaced by scattered references to contemporary history. The confidences of the author are introduced by a passage (iii. 1-8) in the gnomic style, containing a catalogue of the various actions, emotions, and states of feeling which make up human life. Each of these, we are told, has its own allotted season in the fixed order of nature, but as this is beyond the ken and influence of man, the question arises, 'What profit hath he that worketh in that wherewith he wearieth himself?' (iii. 9.) Thus, the 'wearisome trouble' of the 'sons of men' has no permanent result. All that you can
