The Divine Violence in the Book of Qoheleth 551 in the world” (24). Thus “man never achieves a dialogue with his surroundings, still less with God. Is he even still a “Thou”? (…) Koheleth no longer poses Job’s questions as to whether this God is still his God” (25). As von Rad had just observed a short time before, “the consequences of this conviction — measured against the confidence of the old wisdom — are catastrophic” (26). The God of Qoheleth, therefore, would be no longer the guarantor of the ethical order; in fact, the world appears as only a hopeless chaos (27). More recently, A. Schoors has returned to this question, stressing that “dark side” of God in the book of Qoheleth. Schoors (28) also holds that the God of Qoheleth is very different from the biblical YHWH: “the source of this fatalistic aspect may not be God in se, but human incapacity to fathom God’s working; however, it has changed the image of God into that of an almost impersonal deity who acts in a fatalist way. This God is distant and cool (...) he is the maker of a problematic world, a Deus absconditus” (29). Thus the very possibility of any kind of theodicy is radically excluded; the presence of God in the world is no longer a salvific presence. To put it simply, the God of Qoheleth is beyond all imaginable human discussion. We must ask if such a God is still “God” in the biblical sense of the term. Schoors seems to doubt it. But, if for Qoheleth God (or “the God”) is not the just creator, the providential guide of the world and history, but rather a hidden, impersonal, distant and capricious deity whose power cannot be (24) G. VON RAD, Weisheit in Israel (Neukirchen – Vluyn 1970) = Wisdom in Israel (London 1972) 227. (25) Wisdom in Israel, 233. (26) Wisdom in Israel, 232. (27) “Es gibt nur ein hoffnungsloses Chaos”; so A. LAUHA, Kohelet (Neukirchen-Vluyn 1978) 16-17. (28) Cf. A. SCHOORS, “Theodicy in Qoheleth”, Theodicy in the World of the Bible, (eds. A. LAATO – J.C. de MOOR) (Leiden 2003) 375-409 and, again, by the same author “God in Qoheleth”, Schöpfungsplan und Heilsgeschichte (FS E. Haag) (eds. R. BROSHDSCHEIDT – T. MENDE) (Trier 2002) 251-270; cf., also, his The Preacher Sought, II, 93-111. (29) The Preacher Sought, II, 110. And again: “God is endowed with unlimited power but his activity discloses no traces of justice, mercy or even wisdom Qoheleth does not accuse God, neither does he defend him. And the reason is that this is beyond his capacities, for man cannot fathom God”, “Theodicy in Qoheleth”, 406.