The preacher, the name of a book of the Old Testament, usually ascribed to Solomon. Compare 1 Kings 3:12 and Ecclesiastes 1:16 1 Kings 10:21,27 and Ecclesiastes 2:4-9 1 Kings 11:3,4 and Exodus 7:25,25 . It appears to have been written by Solomon in his old age, when freed from the entanglements of idolatry, luxury, and lust, B. C. 977. It is a discourse upon the true wisdom; with many isolated precepts, illustrated from his own unexampled experience and from the most sagacious observation of the course of life; the whole demonstrating the vanity of all earthly good, and showing that there is a better life to come, and that the only true wisdom is to "fear God and keep his commandments." This, he says, is the conclusion of the whole matter, Ecclesiastes 12:13 . In reading this book, care should be taken not to deduce opinions from detached sentiments, but from the general scope and combined force of the whole.