Background
Books on Ecclesiastes
The books on Ecclesiastes behind this site, with one line on what each one is.
Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End
A short, clear walk through the whole book, built on one idea: let the end of life teach you how to live it, and receive life as gift, not gain.
Reason for Being: A Meditation on Ecclesiastes
A long, demanding meditation by a French thinker who lived with the book for years. It is best on why wisdom and vapor contradict each other, and why the Preacher keeps both.
Three Philosophies of Life: Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs
Three books of the Bible read as three views of life: vanity, suffering and love. Short and quotable.
Ecclesiastes Through New Eyes: A Table in the Mist
Reads the book around the table and the meal. Good on why wisdom does not give you control.
Everything Is Never Enough: Ecclesiastes’ Surprising Path to Resilient Happiness
A recent, readable book on Ecclesiastes and a happiness that holds up. Good on why enjoyment cannot be stored for later.
Eat, Drink, and Be Merry: A Gospel Call to Bold Enjoyment
A short book by a pastor on 11:9–10, arguing that enjoying what God gives is part of faith and not a distraction from it.
Hearing the Message of Ecclesiastes: Questioning Faith in a Baffling World
A readable commentary by an Old Testament scholar, written for ordinary readers.
Ecclesiastes (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms)
A scholarly commentary that takes the passages about eating, drinking and joy as seriously as the passages about vapor.
The Book of Ecclesiastes (New International Commentary on the Old Testament)
A full scholarly commentary, verse by verse, for the reader who wants the Hebrew and the arguments behind the translations. Longman reads the Preacher as bleaker than this site does.