What Is Better? (7:1-14): In this section Qohelet qualifies the negative conclusion of 6:12, which was that knowledge about what is good in life is unavailable to humans. Here Qohelet makes claims about what is good.

The section begins with a segment organized around “better” sayings. Although Qohelet has been unable to claim absolute good, there is relative good: some things are better than others. In the central segment, wisdom is judged to be good—at least when accompanied by an inheritance. The final segment discusses God explicitly; here, both good and bad times are attributed to the deity.

Initially, the reader may be relieved at the simplicity of form in the sayings that begin this chapter. The movement of the section, however, is as disturbing as that of the previous one. The positiv…