There is no book in the OT that is as maligned and criticized as the book of Ecclesiastes. People point to the teachings of vanity, skepticism, and fatalism that they see so dominant in the writing. Why live, one asks, if the writer of Ecclesiastes is right that life is without meaning and purpose? Indeed, everything seems to be in a process of decay and deterioration. H. Wheeler Robinson pronounced this verdict on the book: ‘the book has the smell of the tomb about it.’ This is a common