Ecclesiastes1chapter 1

The speaker calls himself Qoheleth — a word built from the root for "assembly," so something like the Convener or the Preacher: the man who calls the congregation together and addresses it. He identifies himself in the first verse as the son of David, king in Jerusalem, and the traditional and house position takes that at face value: this is Solomon, near the end, giving his account.

The critical case for a much later date rests on language. The book uses a handful of words scholars associate with the Persian period — including the word for a park or orchard that shows up in chapter two — and its Hebrew style differs from other tenth-century writing, so many date it to the fourth or third century BC. The traditional answer is that Solomon's court was the most internationally connected in Israel's history, with trade running to Phoenicia, Egypt, Arabia, and beyond, and that loanwords and an unusual register are exactly what a cosmopolitan royal writer would produce. The dispute is real and worth naming; the book itself claims Solomon.

The word translated "vanity" is hevel — vapour, breath, mist. Not "worthless," but what you cannot grab: it is there, you can see it on a cold morning, and it is gone before you close your hand. That word runs through every chapter of the book.

The observations of nature are the ordinary sights of that country. The sun crossing the same sky, the wind turning about from north to south (the region's winds genuinely do swing seasonally), and the rivers running to the sea without filling it. That last one is an accurate description of the Jordan pouring into the Dead Sea, which has no outlet and never rises, because the heat takes back what the river brings.