Ecclesiastes 8:16

When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth (for also there is he who sees sleep with his eyes neither day nor night),

A Conservative Version

In The King James Version

When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)

In Context

15Then I commended joy, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be cheerful. For that shall abide with him in his labor [all] the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

17then I beheld all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. Because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he shall not find it. Yea moreover, though a wise man thinks to know it, yet he

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Cross References

Psalms 127:2It is vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of toil, [for] so he gives sleep to his beloved.

Ecclesiastes 1:17And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:8There is one man who is alone, and he has not a second, yea, he has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end of all his labor, nor are his eyes satisfied with riches. For whom then, [he says], do I labor, and deprive my soul of

Ecclesiastes 7:25I turned about, and my heart [was set] to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the reason [of things], and to know that wickedness is folly, and that foolishness is madness.

Ecclesiastes 8:9All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun. [There is] a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 8:15-17

The Mysteries of Providence. 14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity. 15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun. 16 When I… Read the whole commentary →

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