"Dear Reverend Doc, what does Ecclesiastes 1:2 mean?"
you'reeeee so vainnnnnn, you probably think this song is about youuuuuuuu
I grew up on the windy side of Montana, and when I say windy, I don’t mean a light breeze. No, no, no…I mean the kind of wind that will literally knock you over. Just a few weeks ago, a roof got completely blown off of a school not far from my hometown.
So, yeah, the wind is a little intense at times and, when you’re a kid, you don’t really understand how bad the wind is. Your mom will tell you not to go outside because it’s too windy, but you’ll still go outside, and hypothetically get completely blown off the porch while she hears the faint and distant scream of “MAMAAAAAA!”
Hypothetical, of course. This absolutely did not happen to me as a kid.
I was actually on the phone with my mom (who was recounting this story to me at 8 AM) when I received this from a Viewer Like You:
“Dear Reverend Doc, what the heck does Ecclesiastes 1:2 mean?”
Fantastic question, Viewer! Here is the verse in question:
“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
How many times can one person write the word “vanity” before “vanity” stops being a legible word? Asking for a friend.
Quick Note from the Reverend Doc: If you need a refresher on what Ecclesiastes is about, check out the Basics of Ecclesiastes.
The word “vanity” is used 38 times in this wee little book.
Dang. Once again I say, that’s a lot of vanities and while it may feel easy to say that vanity can be equated to the Carly Simon’s song, or perhaps to Kate Hudson singing to Matthew McConaughey, I would argue it’s a bit deeper than that.
Vanity, or hebel (pronounced heh-bell), actually equates to breath or vapor, meaning that Ecclesiastes 1:2 would be translated literally as:
“Breath of breath, says the Preacher, breath of breath! All is breath.”
In the book of Job, he uses hebel when he describes his currently horrible situation by saying: “I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath (hebel).”
Hebel can also mean something temporary, so Job saying that his “days are a breath” is his roundabout way of expressing that his struggles are short-term.
And in Isaiah 57:13, hebel is used again: “The wind (rûah) will carry them all off, a breath (hebel) will take them away.”
In Hebrew, rûah means wind, breath, mind, or spirit, and to ancient eyes, hebel and rûah were leaning toward the same idea.
Isaiah was (1) showing that wind and breath are both temporary, and (2) hinting at a Hebrew idiom: “like striving after the wind” (or, for the Hebrew nerds, re’ut ruach). This little ol’ saying means exactly as it sounds, where no matter how hard you run, or how far you go, you’ll never catch the wind. It’s like chasing a rainbow or chasing a sunset; striving after the wind is a fruitless endeavor because the wind is temporary and impossible to grab a hold of.
This idiom was relatively common in the ancient Near East. In the Epic of Gilgamesh (a 4000 year old Mesopotamian poem), the main character (Gilgamesh) says to his friend: “Who, my friend, can scale heaven? Only the gods live forever under the sun. As for mankind, numbered are their days; whatever they achieve is but the wind!”
Whether you read “vanity of vanities” or “breath of breath,” the writer is trying to express this:
“Temporary of temporaries, says the Preacher, temporary of temporaries; all is temporary.”
That’s Ecclesiastes 1:2.
All is temporary…until we reach the eternal.
Was the writer going through a mid-life crisis? It’s possible, especially considering that it was probably Solomon and he had 1000 wives. Only the truly destitute and most existential of men would have 1000 wives, and I stand by that…as does my husband.
So, next time you feel like you’re going through your own mid-life crisis, go outside and feel the wind on your face. Your struggles are temporary. And, if the wind is a little gusty, try not to fly off your porch because that certainly will NOT help your situation.
Go read with confidence. Thanks for being here.
