Ecclesiastes

Chapter 1 - Solomon is a bitter, sorrowful old man. He ponders creation, but not in awe, but in how futile existence is. He claims that the wiser he was, the more sorrowful he became.

Chapter 2 - Solomon tried to find meaning for his life in his wealth, power, palaces women, and alcohol. He became depressed and claims that everything he turned to were meaningless.

Chapter 3 - this has the famous list of "seasons". A time to live, a time to die, etc...Solomon still respects God, but seems to have a more complicated, nuanced, and even saddened view of God. It is hard to summarize how Solomon views God other than to say he definitely does not seem to get joy and peace from God. Perhaps he blames God for turning his wisdom from a source of joy to a source of pain because he is aware of the magnitude of suffering.

v. 22 - he seems to lack a belief in any afterlife at all. This seems to make him think of the meaningless of it all. He even concluded the dead are better than the living. (4:2)

Chapter 4 - this contains more examples of the meaningless - friends and political power. Friends do have the advantage of supporting you, but he still thinks they are meaningless. Political power is meaningless because the people will revolt in time. Solomon had several revolts, but only after he turned away from God. Maybe that's why the author of Kings specifically emphasized that.

Chapter 5 - He respects God and cautions people not to make promises with God. Otherwise, God might take everything you own away. It seems that Solomon feels like he could not keep his end of the bargain with God and in turn, God punished him.

Chapter 6

Since he has identified pleasure as the only meaning of life, he finds despair because not everyone can enjoy their own lives. His example is the wealthy people who cannot enjoy their own wealth.

He also states that God has already decided everything far in advance of events occurring. It smells of some of the more extreme views of Calvinism, which I'm not comfortable with. But considering the rest of Ecclesiastes (everything is meaningless) I wouldn't rest much theology on Solomon's complaints about the futility of life.

Chapter 7

He tries to makes some "wise" proverbs. There are a few that I think are true (nothing in life is certain, v.14), but the majority sound very jaded and disappointed with life. He seems to have come to expect evil from other people (dont ease drop on them or you might hear your servant curse you, v. 21) and especially women (only one of 1000 men is virtuous but not one woman, v. 28).

Chapters 8-9

He again suggests pleasure is the only meaning in life. He comments on the injustice of the world, how good people are treated as wicked while the wicked go unpunished. Good or bad, we all must answer to death.

Chapter 10-11

He actually makes a few decent proverbs, but they are not structured like the ones before. Rather, they come off as helpful every day advice - use sharp axes or you'll get tired, don't make fun of powerful people even in secret or someone might tell on you, diversify your investments, etc...

Overall thoughts on the book

It has a very heavy and sour tone and you wonder if this is the same person who wrote Proverbs and Song of Solomon. All the joy and passion from Song of Solomon are long gone. Based on that, I would think that the Song of Solomon was written much earlier in his life.

In Ecclesiastes, it seems that Solomon still has a deep respect for God. However, that respect seems to be focused on a capricious, arbitrary God who takes things away. So, this seems to have been the final fruit of his falling away from God. Solomon seems to blame all the women in his life for it all.