Commentary: On Ecclesiastes (Hebrew)

This is a Hebrew translation, abbreviation, and partial reworking of an Arabic commentary by the Karaite Salmon ben Yerūḥīm, although some manuscripts (and even some modern scholars) have attributed it to Se‘adya Ga’on. Ecclesiastes was one of the most popular biblical books in the medieval period, especially among Karaites, and Jews saw it as a repository of King Solomon’s wisdom. Salmon composed this commentary in the mid-950s, when he was writing commentaries to many biblical books. He began by translating the biblical book into Arabic and then wrote a lengthy commentary focusing on theology, divine service, and reward and punishment. He also warned against the study of non-Jewish philosophy. This excerpt explicates in detail, line by line, the aging process described metaphorically in Ecclesiastes 12.