Inmaculada Concepción

Qoheleth’s concern for the brevity of human life is similar to that of other writers in the Old Testament. The psalmist inquires about the connection between the

significance of an individual and his brief existence in this world in Ps 144:3–4, O LORD, what is a human being that you know him,

or a son of man that you think of him? A human being is like a breath (lbh); his days pass like a shadow (lc).

The simile “like a shadow (lc)” suggests the quick and passing nature of human life and the parallelism between the similes “like a breath (_{lbh)” and “like a shadow} (lc)” suggests that life is short and constantly moving ahead and away. The psalmist’s lament about his fleeting existence on earth, however, does not diminish the value of life because God is in control of his subsistence. On the contrary, his grief is caused by the fact that this life ends too soon,29

29 _{When speaking about the nation of Israel, the Psalmist states: “So he made their days vanish}

like a breath (lbh) … a passing wind (xwr) that does not return” (Ps 78:33, 39). This thought is elaborated upon in Psalm 103: “A human being is like grass; his days are like a flower of the field; in the same way he blooms. As the wind passes over him, he is gone, and his place does not recognize him again” (Ps 103:15–16).The author of Psalm 90 also compares the length of human life to grass that blooms in the morning and fades by evening: “You sweep [the people] away; they are like a

Oh Lord, declare to me my end and what the measure of my days is, So I should know how fleeting I am.

You have set my days a few handbreadths, and my duration is like nothing in your sight. Surely everyone stands as a breath (lbh).

Surely everyone goes about like a shadow (Mlc). (Ps 39:4–6)

Further the psalmist speaks about a human life that constantly moves towards its end like an evening shadow, “My days are like a lengthened shadow (_{lc), And I dry up} like grass” (Ps 102:12 [Eng. 11]).30

In addition, the psalmist finds the reason for transience in God’s ordering of the world (Ps 90:3, 5, 6, 10, 12). He believes that God’s discernment is needed to guide people in accepting this fact in order to live wisely, even if briefly,

You turn people back to dust and say, “Come back, o mortals.” You sweep them away with sleep;

in the morning they are like renewed grass, In the morning it sprouts and grows; by the evening it withers and dries.

The days of our lives are seventy year, eighty, if we are strong... They pass away in haste and we fly away.

Teach us to count our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Job also recognizes the transient nature of human existence and mentions it several times in his speech and even makes use of the same vocabulary as Qoheleth. Job declares that a person’s days are short-lived, for he goes through life like a shadow (lc),

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle... Remember that my life is but breath;

my eyes will never again see good... (Job 7:6–7)

A man, born of a woman, few are his day and full of trouble, like a flower which comes up and withers,

and flees like a shadow (lc) and does not stand. (Job 14:1–2)

Earlier on Job enquires: “Are not my days few?” (Job 10:20) and even poses a question similar to that of the psalmist in Ps 144:3–4, “Leave me alone, for breath (lbh) like are my days. What is a human being that you set your mind to honour him?” (Job 7:16–17) He goes on to say that God has determined the span of people’s

dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers” (Ps 90:5–6). While this passage speaks of a human life in terms of blossoming and withering grass rather than a shadow or a breath, the picture is still the same: life passes too swiftly. See also Fredericks and Estes, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, 24-26.

life of just a short number (rpsm) of months (Job 14:5). Further he affirms that after a short number (rpsm) of years he will be gone never to return (Job 16:22).

The short span and fragility of human existence of which Job speaks is an accepted fact in the Old Testament. God himself promises to bless and sustain his people during rpsm “short number” of years he has allotted to them (Exod. 23:26). King David expresses his acknowledgment of the transient nature of human life and its impermanence when he describes the duration of human life as inextricably short and yet determined by God to be such,

For we are sojourners before you and passing visitors, as all our ancestors were;

our days on the earth are like a shadow (lc), and there is no hope. (1 Chr 29:15)

When King Hezekiah prays to God to spare his life during his illness (2 Kgs 20:1–11), the king asks for his shadow to move backward as a sign of God’s favour, “It is easy for the shadow (lc) to stretch forward ten steps; No, let the shadow (lc) return backwards ten steps” (2 Kgs 20:10). Hezekiah understands that human beings can never control their shadow and the way it is constantly moving ahead.31 In the same way people lack control over their life and its passing nature.

There is great affinity between the language used by Qoheleth and other Old Testament writers, who express their concern for the brevity of human life. They recognize and accept the fact that God has arranged the world in such a way that human existence is brief, transient and often is gone without leaving a memory. Qoheleth’s concern for the transiency of human existence is not particular to the Hebrew thought. Ancient Near Eastern wisdom writers share a similar concern in their texts and use a similar terms to describe the brevity of life. Images of fleeting of life used in the ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature will be discussed in the following section.