No matter how you interpret Ecclesiastes, one of its messages is that the pursuit of riches is like striving after wind. Riches are unstable and there’s no guarantee that the person who inherits those riches will use them wisely.

Solomon is the perfect example of this. The description of the riches of Solomon’s kingdom, from the temple to his own palace, to the amount of gold he received every year, is beyond belief. Everything in the temple it seems was overlaid with gold and silver was as of no value because there was so much of it.

Unfortunately, within one generation, all those treasures were taken away. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, turned away from the Lord and the king of Egypt came and took it all away.

So everything that Solomon had, the riches that amazed the Queen of Sheba, profited nothing in the end.

Vanity of vanities indeed.