“For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.”
The complaint about the person who labors with wisdom and knowledge, only to give their wealth to someone who has not labored for it, crystallizes the injustice that appears to pervade human affairs. The randomness of inheritance, the contingency of dynasty, the fact that effort and reward disconnect—these realities suggest that the universe operates without the just order that conventional wisdom assumes. Yet this very observation of injustice testifies to Qohelet's deep attachment to justice; the complaint arises from the expectation that reality should conform to moral order.
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