The Kingdom
- When
- By tradition, Solomon’s old age
- Written by
- Qoheleth, the Preacher
- Chapters
- 12
The big idea
The Preacher tests pleasure, work, wealth and wisdom and finds them all vapor under the sun. The answer is to fear God, keep his commands and receive life as a gift.
Themes
- Joy as a gift
- Vanity under the sun
- Time and seasons
- Fear God
Memory verse
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Key passages
- 1:2Vanity of vanities
- 3:1–8A time for everything
- 5:1–7Coming before God
- 12:13–14The end of the matter
Links to other Scripture
- Romans 8:20–21Creation made subject to vanity
- Matthew 6:19–21Treasure in heaven
- Luke 12:16–21The rich fool
- 1 Timothy 6:17Not to trust in riches
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- The Preacher says everything under the sun is vapor. What are you chasing that you suspect cannot satisfy?
- Write about a season of your life using “a time to…” from chapter 3.
- He ends with fear God and keep his commandments. What does a simple life of that kind look like for you this week?
- In one sentence, this book is about…