The novelist Herman Melville described the Book of Ecclesiastes as the "fine hammered steel of woe." Yet while every person experiences this woe or life of sorrows, it remains a puzzle for many. Often Bible readers say of Ecclesiastes what the great Churchill said of the political world in his day, "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key." As with all faithful interpreters, Dale McIntire provides his readers with just such a key to Scriptures' most puzzling Book. It is the seeing and receiving from the Almighty Smith, those fine hammer blows as steel and not glass. That is reading with the eyes of faith, the enigmatic, yet striking words of Holy Scripture in Ecclesiastes. Using the modern rubric of a research report, McIntire guides the reader through each movement of the Book to the satisfying conclusion: lasting joy comes from God. Written accessibly, this guide will benefit any thoughtful gaze. Adopting a posture of faith, this guide in hand, each hearer of God's voice in Ecclesiastes will come away struck and tempered by the blows, having their joy made stout because of it.

-Brent Nelson, Senior Pastor, The Landing, Duluth, MN