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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...

1:1 The words of Koheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem On the identity of Koheleth, see Title and Author in the introduction. Since the word can appear with the article, ha-kohelet (“the Koheleth”; 7:27 [see Comment] and 12:8), it is a title, not a personal name. The word means, approximately, “one who does something in the assembly (kahal).” Compare the usages in Ezra 2:55, 57 and Neh. 7:57, 59. Bickermann likens the word to the street-preachers of
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