Imymeminemyself
Go ahead and read the title again. It’s not really gibberish. It’s a composite word of the many variables Solomon used to address himself when he wrote Ecclesiastes 2, 5 words to be more explicit: I, My, Me, Mine, Myself.
Solomon was the son of David and, it seems, a prolific writer. Among known writings of his were the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the “let’s not talk about this in church” book The Song of Solomon.
When we look at this chapter of Ecclesiastes, we find Solomon uses the subject words as follows: “I” 87 times; “My” 22 times; “Me” 17 times; “Mine” 9 times and “Myself” 4 times. That’s a total of 139 words directly regarding himself.
And more, there are only 760 words in chapter 2. That means he used these variant words of narcissism more than 18%, (18.2894737%) of the time, one in every 5 words, nearly one fifth of the chapter.
He was also rich and wasteful, 1st Kings 10, a womanizer, 1st Kings 11:3, an idolater, 1st Kings 11:5 and an abortionist by agreement, 1st Kings 11:7. He would have been a near perfect politician today. But his well-known wisdom was his saving grace.
But it seems his words here were a lament about his own life. Though he was born of position and money, he still had the standard flaws of man and here he exposes them for us to see, I think in shame.
Solomon, unlike many of today’s rich and powerful, recognized the futility of chasing relevance, self-importance, carnal things and the almighty dollar. He had done all these.
And now, it appears in the later years of life, he looked back at what he had done and, in remorse, considers what he could have accomplished for his people, and family.
We opened with a look at the main words of our composite title. They were narcissistic and egotistical in form, but used in the opposite.
Solomon is not bragging about his life. He is being contrite. He is warning us, all of us, from the time of his writing to today, “I have done these things. I am not proud of having done these things. Don’t make the mistakes I made.”
He ends the book with a direct comment on all the issues:
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14; (13) Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. (14) For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.