“... Beyond MLM’s criticism of Epicurean thought, the first rhetorical question shows that MLM engages critically with a fellow Jewish sage in this passage as well. “What is good?” (mah tov) is asked several times in the Hebrew Bible (Mic. 6:8; Job 34:4; cf. Prov. 15:23; 16:16). Both in prophetic and sapiential literature the meaning of this question is absolute and unqualified. There is good and there is evil. This attitude to the question “what is good?” changes only in the book of Ecclesiastes and in MLM. The book of Ecclesiastes does not ask “what is good?” but “what is good for a man?”: “Who can possibly know what is best for a man [mah tov la-adam] to do in life—the few days of his fleeting life? For who can tell him what the future holds for him under the sun?” (Eccles. 6:12). In the skeptic thought of Ecclesiastes, the implied answer is no one can know. When MLM asks the qualified question “what is good for?” (4Q418 69 ii 4), its implied answer is clearly more optimistic than the one in the book of Ecclesiastes. This means that in 4Q418 69 ii, MLM criticizes not only Epicurean thought but the book of Ecclesiastes and its fascination with Hellenistic skepticism as well. ...”

“... A single text of 4QInstruction may critique Ecclesiastes. The judgment scene in 4Q418 69 ii includes several rhetorical questions: “And now, foolish of heart, what is good for one who has not been created? [And what] is tranquility for one who does not exist? What is judgment for one who has not been established? Why do people groan about a[ll] their [days]? You [for She]ol were fashioned and to the eternal pit is your return” (ll. 4–6). The “foolish of heart” is the fragment’s phrase for those who will die in the final judgment. The implied answer to the first three questions is “nothing.” Tranquility or goodness is not possible for someone who is not alive or has never been born. The last question suggests that the foolish of heart complain about life and thus have a despondent view of human existence that accords with Ecclesiastes. 4QInstruction associates this bleak attitude not with the wise but rather those who are ordained to die during the final judgment. The elect, by contrast, have the prospect of a blessed afterlife. See Goff 2013, 229–30. ...”