The most distinctive feature of the wisdom texts in the Old Testament is that they are full of proverbs that, in most cases, are grouped without following a single theme, as if the most important thing is that they are sayings of the wise, regardless of whether they are systematically ordered.
Ecclesiastes shares this same fate, and this new section exemplifies it. The topics covered are very diverse: mistakes and successes, the mindset of the wise and the fool, relationships with authorities, and injustice in public service. In fact, if we removed 10:5-7, we could say that this text could belong to the book of Proverbs or any other classic Old Testament wisdom literature. Let’s look at some examples: we find echoes of 10:4 in Proverbs 8:2-5; 10:13 aligns with Proverbs 18:6-7; the powerless boy of 10:16 is mentioned in Isa 5:11; 10:20b is an existing proverb, and a similar one appears in the wisdom of Ahikar, a Mesopotamian text from the 6th century B.C.
In the Old Testament, there is a belief that the wise are those who, among many other qualities, have been able to gather and create numerous proverbs, which express wisdom gained from experience. Qohelet provides a good example of this in this section.
Reading this section, we realize our duty to deepen our understanding of life, not to merely expand our knowledge, but to become more sensitive to appreciating God’s ways throughout history.