Hebel, Joy, and the Fear of God

Is life vanity? Does time erase our meaning? Are the evils of society and one’s lot inescapable? Are we consigned to scavenge for scraps of enjoyment in our fleeting existence? In the end, does anything even matter? With refreshingly brutal honesty, Qoheleth (the primary speaker in the book of Ecclesiastes) delves into life’s difficulties, evils, and mysteries. But he does not stay there. In Hebel, Joy, and the Fear of God, Ryan Ball investigates Qoheleth’s primary motifs and demonstrates a narrative progression in which Qoheleth’s failed endeavors become the context for his instruction for life. Succumbing neither to a meaningless existence nor to a hedonistic resignation, Qoheleth offers hard-earned wisdom rooted in his inherited wisdom tradition and covenantal faith. In a striking and welcome departure from the majority of scholarship, this book offers a Qoheleth that complements the rest of the Old Testament writers as he stands in the canon as a faithful witness.