Unfortunately, the meaning eternity, something that transcends the present, still involves interpretive controversy. Some suggest this indicates the human yearning for the “big picture” (a sense of past and future, NRSV), or a consciousness of that which is eternal, or possibly the afterlife. Perhaps the first of these best fits the remainder of verse 11. Qohelet is saying that God is responsible for both time and eternity, and the human being is caught in the tension between the two. The phrase