Destiny (9:1-10): This short section considers divine omnipotence and human limitations: everything is in God’s power, and humans have nothing but consciousness. Qohelet observes that there is a single fate for all people, a further specification of the theme developed concerning humans and animals in 3:18–22. Verses 7–10 comprise the longest version of Qohelet’s call to joy, typically tempered by context. The benefit of living is that one knows that one will die. The references to meaninglessness (or transience) and Sheol within the call itself put it in further perspective.

The reader experiences the entire section as tempered by the preceding insistence that “no one can comprehend” and “even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it” (8:17). The “common destiny” that …