There is also something very wrong with this world, the Koheleth observes, something that makes life far more difficult than it should be.

As already noted, Solomon’s inspired writings are packed with multiple meanings -- partly due to his careful choice of broad conceptual terms, and also by virtue of the nature of the original written Hebrew language, which consisted only of consonants, thereby allowing the reader's insertion of different vowel to create alternative words and meaning.

In this verse, for example, the original Hebrew word rendered Labour comes from a root meaning to Gasp, as if with exertion or exasperation, and so can also imply Boredom, Tiresomeness and Frustration. As a result the inspired phrase conveys both the Labour expended and the Exasperation at the futility of the final outcome.

We have just read about the endless labours of the sun, the wind and the sea and their vicious cycles of futility -- and all things are like this, says Solomon. We clean things, but they get dirty again; we vacuum and polish but the dust comes back, we buy new clothes but they wear out; we repair things but they break down; we weed the garden but the weeds return, we plant crops and pests attack them; we take care of our bodies but microbes infect them; we shower but the body odour returns; we try to do what is right but we make mistakes; we want things to be better and we try to be wise but we make foolish mistakes; we rely on people, but they let us down; we trust people, but they are dishonest.

We eat, but we become hungry again. We drink, but our thirst returns. We see and hear, and we like to be entertained, but we easily become bored and want to see and hear some more.

Perhaps Solomon is making a further comparison here, between the sea that absorbs the rivers but is never full, and the eyes and ears that absorbed the endless flows of light and sound waves that fall on them but are never satiated. Like the elements, all our efforts lead us nowhere in the end, except, it seems, to the grave.

Thus, flowers fade, and the most beautiful face becomes lined and drawn with age, and so the futility and frustration continues. That's life as we know it. No doubt when Adam and Eve finally saw the wrinkles appearing they began to suspect that something was seriously wrong, and that the awful thing called death that God had warned them about was an impending reality.

It's interesting, with regard to the warning they were given, that God himself sometimes makes puzzling statements which, on the surface, may even appear to be wrong -- so that the "day" in which Adam and Eve would die if they took the forbidden fruit turned out to be a metaphorical thousand-year day. No human being, not even Methuseleh, who lived over 900 years, has ever survived one of those thousand-year "days".

We see that although our world is potentially a place of joy, fun and achievement, populated by happy, healthy, beautiful, intelligent and caring people – for some reason, we actually experience a world scarred by poverty, crime, pollution, perversion and pornography, selfishness, ugliness, cruelty, violence, war and destruction, exploitation, fear, insanity, stupidity, ignorance, torture, suicide, disease and death. These basic patterns of human society are even illustrated in the animal kingdom, where we see predation, violence and insecurity, and a never-ending struggle for survival. By contrast, the original ecology of Eden at Creation was benign, and good in every way.

The Apostle Paul is citing the words of Solomon from this section when he says that God has, for a reason, subjected the whole creation to futility (Romans 8:20-21), a Greek term that is rendered in various translations as -- Vanity, Frailty, Frustration, Spoiling, a Curse, Confusion, and Disappointing Misery!

Solomon as the Koheleth lived a totally self-centred existence, as we see later, denying himself nothing and indulging in any and every pleasure life has to offer – and even today, many people see such a life as an ideal. However, pleasure has a way of fading and receding especially when pursued as a direct purpose, and I believe it was Robert Burns who said words to the effect that: "Pleasure's flower standeth tall, but when it's grasped, the petals fall."