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The JPS Bible Commentary: Ecclesiastes is unavailable, but you can change that!

Fox’s potent commentary is a terrific introduction to Ecclesiastes for the educated layman or scholar who wishes to better understand this fascinating and sometimes frustrating book. The author succinctly presents the consensus of modern thought on Ecclesiastes: that it is a fairly late production as books of the Bible go and that it is a series of philosophical reflections, not a systematic work...

The Catalogue proper (vv. 1–9) is a memorable poem proceeding in a stately march by a series of pairs, or antinomies, one thing and its opposite. Each pair underscores the point already stated in verse 1; the amassing of pairs drives home that everything has its time. Verses 10–15 then draw out the implications of this principle, namely that we do not understand or control the course of events, so the only reasonable approach is to enjoy life as it comes. The teaching of this unit is reformulated
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