than' and in Psalm 73:5, `like' other men. The translation we offer is strictly in line with the Hebrew and yields good

`Wisdom is good, like an inheritance, and profitable to them that see the sun. In the shadow of wisdom, in the

shadow of silver, but the profit of knowledge (is) that wisdom giveth LIFE to them that have it'.

A

Wisdom like an inheritance.

B

C

Wisdom likened to silver.

Wisdom gives life.

Koheleth has said some hard things about life. We remember his early conclusion, `therefore I hated life' (2:17).

He calls it `vain life' and likens it to `a shadow' (6:12). Again he speaks of `the days of the life of thy vanity' (9:9).

He has given us his considered judgment even in this chapter, that the day of death is better than the day of birth,

and approaches the depths of Job's sounding when he cursed the day wherein he was born! How comes it then that

life being so, he finds the good that he is reaching for to be wisdom, and the reason, that wisdom gives LIFE!

Common sense, apart from inspiration, demands that the writer must mean something different from the life he has

considered so vain, otherwise the book may as well be closed for it is impossible to follow its arguments.

We saw previously that the fact that death was at the end of man's career, rendered all his labour profitless, and

summed up all in vanity. Resurrection life is the only thing that can make the crooked straight. That is the life

intended here. The Companion Bible in its note on Leviticus 18:5 draws attention to the Chaldee paraphrase which

reads, `shall live by them to life eternal' (Sol. Jarchi, `live in the world that is to come'). This being so, the problem

of 2:13-16 is solved. While he may still hate this life, Koheleth can now see that wisdom is not only excellent in

itself, but excellent in its results - it leads to LIFE that is life indeed.

Here light breaks. Granted that there is a life beyond the grave, then though wickedness may sit in the place of

judgment (3:16), and though many inequalities and perplexing mysteries of providence may still baffle us (6:12;

8:14,17), though the race be not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but all have to reckon with time and chance,

yet the conclusion of the matter sets all right. It will be our wisdom to fear God and keep His commandments, for a

day of judgment is coming, and if a day of judgment, then a day when the crooked shall be made straight, the

inequalities made equal, a day of LIFE from the dead, where vanity and vexation of spirit shall never more intrude,

for death and Hades shall be destroyed in the second death, and God shall solve all life's mysteries in the LIFE TO

COME.

Having considered the opening approach to the question `What is that good?' we now follow Ecclesiastes in his

wider search which occupies the remainder of the book and which can be subdivided into seven parts.

Ecclesiastes 7 to 12.

The answer to the question found.

Death, mourning and sorrow.

Effect of oppression.

Problem of good and evil.

Policy of Laodicea.

Reason of evil discovered.