Note 334 — Chapter VI · KOHELETH’S ‘PORTRAIT OF OLD AGE;’ THE EPILOGUE, ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN.

I.e. the assemblies of ‘wise men’ or perhaps of Soferim. Surely ba’alē must refer to persons. The meaning ‘assemblies’ is justified by Talmudic passages quoted by Grätz, Delitzsch, and Wright.