הבל as "Worthless" in Qoheleth: A Critique of Michael V. Fox's "Absurd" Thesis

This essay critiques the thesis that Michael V. Fox first published in 1986 and has since supplemented that the word [inline-graphic 02] in Ecclesiastes (38x) should always be translated as "absurd." Fox's argument has convinced many other Qoheleth experts to adopt this translation. In this essay, I will demonstrate that Fox's argument is untenable for the following reasons: it constitutes a new usage for [inline-graphic 03] not found in the rest of the Hebrew Bible and, thus, is lexically and semantically fallacious; it is anachronistic both for Qoheleth and for the ancient Near East; it downplays the carpe-diem ethic and, thus, Qoheleth's primarily ethical intent. Following the critique and relying on Klaus Seybold, I propose that a word in the sphere of values such as "worthless" is a better translation of [inline-graphic 04] for the majority of usages in Qoheleth.