Ecclesiastes 1:16
I have spoken in my heart, saying: “Behold, I have achieved greatness, and I have surpassed all the wise who were before me in Jerusalem.” And my mind has contemplated many things wisely, and I have learned.
Catholic Public Domain Version
In The King James Version
In Context
15The perverse are unwilling to be corrected, and the number of the foolish is boundless.
Cross References
1 Kings 3:12behold, I have done for you according to your words, and I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so much so that there has been no one like you before you, nor anyone who will rise up after you.
1 Kings 5:9My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. And I will arrange them together as rafts on the sea, as far as the place that you will indicate to me. And I will land them there, and you will take them. And you shall offer to me what is necessary to give food to my house.”
1 Kings 10:23And so, king Solomon was magnified above all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
2 Chronicles 1:10Give to me wisdom and understanding, so that I may enter and depart before your people. For who is able worthily to judge this, your people, who are so great?”
2 Chronicles 9:22And so, Solomon was magnified above all the kings of the earth in wealth and glory.
Psalms 77:6so that another generation might know them, and so that the sons, who will be born and who will grow up, shall describe them to their sons.
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 1:13-18
Vanity of Human Wisdom. 12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. 15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. 16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am… Read the whole commentary →