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This isn’t a thought particularly related to this passage but something Christians frequently say about Ecclesiastes is “it’s a book about the futility of life without God”. I think there’s some truth in that statement but I think there’s a danger too. I think many people want to put the difficult messages in this book to one side and taken the wrong way the generalisation above could be taken to mean it’s a book with nothing to say to Christians. I don’t think that’s true of any book in the Bible. The generalisation can also minimise that the book was not written by an atheist, nor a pagan but a believer. And it was written from painful, bitter first hand experience. It’s not a fictionalised account of an unbeliever but a warning from a believer with regrets to other believers who will heed warnings and listen to wisdom. This all struck me when I was reflecting on a youthful desire I had to use the messages in this book to show unbelievers the hollowness in their lives. I ended up realising the book had much to say to me about the hollowness of my motivations, my pride and how I wanted to appear to others.