Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kevin P. Edgecomb" <kevin AT bombaxo.com>]

Quoting Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>:
> The book implies that Solomon wrote it....

I write:
But this is not necessarily so.  It states "Son of David, king in  
Jerusalem" (Qoh 1.1 NRSV).  All of the kings of Judah bore the  
appellation "Son of David" just as all the rulers in Damascus bore the  
appellation "Son of Hadad" and various Aramaean dynasts bore the  
appellation "Son of (PN)" as noted in Assyrian documents.  In view of  
this, it could be attributed to any of the rulers of Judah, including  
Jehoiachin who died in Babylon in the late sixth century.

For this practice, I recommend the following (I'll add other citations later):
Hélène Sader’s, _Les États Araméens de Syrie: Depuis leur fondation  
jusqu’à leur transformation en provinces assyriennes_. Beiruter Texte  
und Studien 36. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1987.

Some time ago I wrote a series of blog posts on the "Son of PN"/"House  
of PN" usage in Assyrian.  Those will explain this usage:
http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/index.php?s=bīt-pn

Qohelet neither states nor implies that Solomon is its author.  It is  
*traditional* to assign the book to Solomon through an intertextual  
reading of Ecclesiastes in light of the MT text of 1 Kings, in which a  
picture emerges of a repentant Solomon late in life providing sage  
advice to others so that they will avoid his own various earlier  
mistakes.  But he was not the only king of Judah with wealth,  
concubines, and so on, to which such reminiscences would apply.  But  
it could just as easily, and more fittingly in a linguistic sense, be  
applied to the former king Jehoiachin, revisiting his own prideful  
state as a king of however brief duration, and his direct suffering of  
the consequences of his actions and decisions, placed in context over  
the course of a difficult life, which lasted until at least about 560.  
 I suggest this as a distinct possibility.

Regards,
Kevin P. Edgecomb
Berkeley, California