Qohelet vividly describes the skepticism and cynicism into which we are all tempted to fall if we base our philosophy of life only on the contradictions of our ordinary contingencies. The Bible is very realistic about our existential situation. The book of Job asks how to reconcile God’s justice with the suffering of the righteous and ends by declaring our inability to penetrate this mystery (Job 42:1–6) without offering any way out except Job’s confession of his ignorance of God’s transcendent designs.
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