Troublesome Topic: Why Is Ecclesiastes So Dark?

What We Know For Sure from Scripture

The book of Ecclesiastes is a very dark book. I counted them using the NIV, and I found that 77 of the 220 verses of Ecclesiastes have something to do with death, the grave, those that have died, etc. That is 34.68%! If I took the time to count them in my own paraphrase the number might be higher, but you get the point. We are not told what was driving him to think so much about death, but it had to have been something that rocked his world.

A Safe Assumption Based on Inferences in Scripture

One possibility for the reason Ecclesiastes is so dark is that the Shulammite may have died young. I believe this to be the case, although I cannot prove it. Many women of ancient times died in childbirth.

If Solomon suffered a deep loss, such as the early death of the Shulammite, he had to keep going; he couldn’t just stop doing what kings do. The Biblical narrative seems to imply that building projects continued unabated, he kept receiving guests and speaking proverbs. We are given the impression that everything continued in a normal way. On the outside everything looked normal, but if my hunch is right that the Shulammite died early, all this “normalcy” means that he stuffed his feelings and kept them inside, which we all know is detrimental in the end.

Possible but More Speculative Assumptions about Solomon’s Life

After the Shulammite’s death Solomon went into a deep depression. He got angry at God. I think he also forbade the mention of her name and had any references to her scrubbed from the records (if any such references existed; her being from the poor classes might mean that she was never mentioned). The other option is that his reaction to her death was so strong that no one wanted to make him angry by bringing up her name. I think it was the former.

At the time he wrote Ecclesiastes he was still struggling with her death, with God, with himself. That is why it is so dark. When he wrote that dark book he was still trying to hold on to God, but his soul was troubled, and his mind was fixated on death.

One more thing: Death is not the foremost theme of Ecclesiastes. Solomon’s main point is that life here on earth is like a vapor with all of the 6 characteristics that vapors possess.

This too could have been awakened in Solomon when he lost the love of his life. After that, nothing really mattered.

The next lesson is: Why Did Solomon Turn from God to Idols?

The next lesson in Ecclesiastes is: The Various Uses of the Word “Vapor”