Ecclesiastes 1:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The words of the Preacher Or, discourses. The Hebrew word קהלת, here used, may either signify the person who assembles the people, or the person that addresses them when assembled. “We must not suppose that Solomon was like the common or ordinary preachers among the Hebrews; yet it is certain he spake much in public for the instruction of the people; for there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon: All the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his heart, 1Ki 4:31; 1 Kings 4:34; 1 Kings 10:24. From whence it is plain that he made public discourses on several subjects, and that people were, in a manner, called together from all nations round about to hear them.” Dodd. “He was not only a king,” says Poole, “but also a teacher of God's people: who, having sinned grievously in the eyes of all the world, thought himself obliged to publish his repentance, and to give public warning to all, to avoid those rocks upon which he had split.”