My father, who lives in Florida and turned 90 last summer, can recite the following passage from Ecclesiastes by heart, along with an amazing array of other lengthy tracts, including most of the speeches that are integral to the Masonic order. He and my mother have greatly enjoyed my poem of the week service, but my dad asked me the other day if I was not aware that the Bible contained some wonderful poetry, and he proceeded to recite this passage from start to finish. So this week, I present one of my father's favorite, and one of Western literature's greatest, poems.

Tradition ascribes the authorship of Ecclesiastes to King Solomon, but virtually all modern biblical scholars dispute this, tracing its origins to a 3rd Century B.C. "preacher," who called himself Koheleth, which translated into Greek as Ecclesiastes, and which means "one who takes part in the debates of an assembly."

Rather than do my customary, free ranging discussion of the author and the work, I am going to borrow a few paragraphs from my beat-up old 1929 copy of The Abingdon Bible Commentary, still the best resource volume of its kind. I couldn't begin to write a better, more satisfying explanation of this passage than is done by this wonderful, scholarly biblical tome.

This passage "describes the gradual breaking down of the physical body, and the inevitable effects of senility. The house probably refers to the physical body; the keepers of the house are the hands, which often shake and tremble in old age; the grinders are the teeth, which become fewer as the years pass; while those that look out of the windows are the eyes, which frequently grow dim toward the end of life. The doors in the street are the ears, which often lose their keenness in riper years; and the daughters of music are the failing vocal cords of those who sing. The almond tree may hint at the appearance of gray hair; and the grasshopper may symbolize any trifling weight which to old people seems heavy; while the caperberry probably suggests an artificial stimulant to failing appetite. In a similar manner the silver cord may refer to the spinal cord; the golden bowl, to the skull or cranium; the pitcher, to the heart; and the wheel broken at the cistern, to the prostate gland, or other abdominal parts, which so frequently give way during failing years.

And then follows the climax of the whole book, which was a new revelation to Koheleth; not that the dust returns to the earth was new, but that the spirit returns unto God who gave it. At last Koheleth has discovered immortality in God. Like Job, he won the victory of faith (Job 1925). After a long life of struggle and doubt he has been given a new revelation, and it seizes hold upon him. Yet still he wails, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, probably because all earthly gains and achievements, profits and emoluments (apart from God) are empty and disappointing."