전도서 1:12 해설: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi & Kohelet Rabbah

“I Kohelet” [1:12]. Solomon says: I, Kohelet, was king over the whole world and afterwards over Israel alone, and afterwards over Jerusalem alone. Then Ashmodai threw me four hundred miles from my throne. I had nothing but a staff.⁹Rashi, Ecclesiastes, 1:12.

The Targum writes about this verse that when Solomon sat on his throne, he was overcome with great arrogance. His wealth was great. He transgressed the commandments that God had forbidden. The first was that he should not collect many horses and should also not collect much silver and should not have many wives.¹⁰Deuteronomy, 17:16–17. However, Solomon relied on his wisdom and took gentile wives who incited him to very much evil, until the Holy One sent Ashmodai, the king of the demons, who threw Solomon very far and took his ring from his hand. God punished him for his great arrogance that he was exiled. He cried and shouted in all the cities and in all the synagogues that he was Solomon, but nobody listened to him.¹¹Targum, Ecclesiastes, 1:12.

I, Koheles, have been king. Over the whole world, and later, over Yisroel, and then, over Yerusholayim alone, and finally, over my staff,³⁹See Maseches Sanhedrin 20b. for it says, “[I] have been king ... in Yerusholayim,” but now, I am no longer king.⁴⁰Koheles exemplifies the absurdity of being proud, regardless of one’s position in society. For time gives rise to many changes; Koheles went from reigning over the whole world to being dethroned.