Old Testament
The Book of Ecclesiastes
The Book of Ecclesiastes is the twenty-third of the 46 books of the Old Testament: 12 chapters and 222 verses.
About Ecclesiastes
About Ecclesiastes · Wisdom meditation
Ecclesiastes is the Bible's starkest book: a teacher who calls himself Qoheleth, writing in Solomon's persona, examines wealth, pleasure, work, and learning, and finds them all vanity — breath, mist, gone. His name and date are unknown; his voice is unlike anything else in Scripture. He wrote to strip his students of illusions, so that they would stop demanding permanence from things that cannot give it and receive their days, their bread, and their work as gifts from God. The Church kept this unsettling book because honest disillusion is a doorway to real faith.
| Testament | Old Testament — book 23 of 46, 23 of 73 in the Bible |
|---|---|
| Canon | Protocanonical (in every Christian canon) |
| Chapters | 12 |
| Verses | 222, as Bless numbers them |
| Latin | Clementine Vulgate, every chapter |
| Bp. Challoner | Summaries of all 12 chapters · 12 notes |
| Catechism | 2 paragraphs cite it |
Chapter by chapter
All 12 chapters, in brief.
Bishop Richard Challoner’s summary of each chapter, from his revision of the Douay-Rheims (1749–52). Open a chapter for the full text.
Ecclesiastes 1
18 versesThe vanity of all temporal things.
Ecclesiastes 2
26 versesThe vanity of pleasures, riches, and worldly labours.
Ecclesiastes 3
22 versesAll human things are liable to perpetual changes. We are to rest on God's providence, and cast away fruitless cares.
Ecclesiastes 4
17 versesOther instances of human miseries.
Ecclesiastes 5
19 versesCaution in words. Vows are to be paid. Riches are often pernicious: the moderate use of them is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 6
11 versesThe misery of the covetous man.
Ecclesiastes 7
30 versesPrescriptions against worldly vanities: mortification, patience, and seeking wisdom.
Ecclesiastes 8
17 versesTrue wisdom is to observe God's commandments. The ways of God are unsearchable.
Ecclesiastes 9
18 versesMan knows not certainty that he is in God's grace. After death no more work or merit.
Ecclesiastes 10
20 versesObservations on wisdom and folly, ambition and detraction.
Ecclesiastes 11
10 versesExhortation to works of mercy, while we have time, to diligence in good, and to the remembrance of death and judgment.
Ecclesiastes 12
14 versesThe Creator is to be remembered in the days of our youth: all worldly things are vain: we should fear God and keep his commandments.
Bp. Richard Challoner · chapter summaries
In the comments
What the saints said.
3 quotations from 3 saints linked to passages of Ecclesiastes in Bless. Each names the work it comes from.
St. Cyprian · on Ecclesiastes 5:2
On this theme
Let our speech and petition when we pray be under discipline, observing quietness and modesty. Let us consider that we are standing in God's sight.
On the Lord's Prayer, 4, c. 252
St. John Bosco · on Ecclesiastes 11:9
On this theme
Enjoy yourself as much as you like, if only you keep from sin.
The Companion of Youth, 1847
St. Ignatius of Loyola · on Ecclesiastes 12:13
On this theme
Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
Spiritual Exercises, 23, 1548
Coming up
Read at Mass.
From October 29, 2026 to October 28, 2027, Ecclesiastes is read at the principal Mass on 0 days in the US calendar. The next 2 readings:
| Date | Celebration | Reading | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| computed | Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time | First Reading | Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 |
| computed | St. Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church | First Reading | Ecclesiastes 11:9—12:8 |
No more readings are listed here; the liturgical calendar has every date through December 31, 2028.
Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.