The Divine Violence in the Book of Qoheleth 553 In Qoh 9,1-3, the concept of the existence of a retributive principle is debated (34). So when Qoheleth seems to dispute the very action of God, his criticism is in fact addressed to the God of tradition, just as happens in the case of the polemic of Job in confronting the God of his three “friends”. There is, however, a second aspect of Crenshaw’s thesis which must be discussed: the problem for Qoheleth is not so much God in himself but rather human discourse about God. We must note at this point that God is never absent from Qoheleth’s horizon, but he is rather an incomprehensible God who eludes every human attempt at comprehension. “To seek and explore” what God accomplishes in the world is thus a task which God himself entrusts to humanity, a difficult task (Qoh 1,13), a task without end (Qoh 3,10-11), a task which not even the sage can bring to conclusion (Qoh 8,16-17). More precisely: we find ourselves faced with the problem of human speech about God which is always limited. In Qoheleth, what is said about God is always ambivalent: God is the giver of life and joy, he is the creator, but he is also a character who is distant and incomprehensible (35). Authors such as Schoors, Crenshaw and Perdue limit themselves to stressing this obscure side of God, forgetting that, for Qoheleth, what comes into question is neither the existence of God nor his justice but rather the breach which humanity discovers between the justice of God and his - with the suffering and absurdity of human life as revealed by experience. The problem is not God, therefore, but the limitation of human beings. We thus find ourselves before a problem of an epistemological rather than theological character (36). Qoheleth puts the greatest emphasis on divine transcendence. A symptomatic text is Qoh 5,2: “God is in heaven, and you upon earth”. Qoheleth’s God resembles, in many respects, the description of the Ptolemaic monarch of Qoheleth’s times. The attitude which Qoh 8,2-5 recommends with regard to the power of the king does not seem at first (34) On this text, cf. J.Y.S. PAHK, Il canto della gioia in Dio. L’itinerario sapienziale espresso dall’unità letteraria in Qohelet 8,16-9,10 e il parallelo di Ghilgamesh Me. III (Istituto Universitario Orientale; Napoli 1996) 142-153. (35) Cf. F. BACKHAUS, ‘Denn Zeit und Zufall trifft sie alle’. Studien zur Komposition und zum Gottesbild im Buch Qohelet (BBB 83; Frankfurt a. M. 1993) 352-384. (36) Cf., for example, A. SCHELLENBERG, Erkenntnis als Problem. Qohelet und die alttestamentliche Diskussion um das menschliche Erkennen (OBO 188; Göttingen 2002) 169-172.