Ecclesiastes 1:17

And I have dedicated my heart, so that I may know prudence and doctrine, and also error and foolishness. Yet I recognize that, in these things also, there is hardship, and affliction of the spirit.

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

In Context

16I 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.

18Because of this, with much wisdom there is also much anger. And whoever adds knowledge, also adds hardship.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 1

Cross References

Psalms 73:16Yours is the day, and yours is the night. You have made the morning light and the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:3I decided in my heart to withdraw my flesh from wine, so that I might bring my mind to wisdom, and turn away from foolishness, until I see what is useful for the sons of men, and what they ought to do under the sun, during the number of the days of their life.

Ecclesiastes 2:11But when I turned myself toward all the works that my hands had made, and to the labors in which I had perspired to no purpose, I saw emptiness and affliction of the soul in all things, and that nothing is permanent under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 3:19For this reason, the passing away of man and of beasts is one, and the condition of both is equal. For as a man dies, so also do they die. All things breathe similarly, and man has nothing more than beast; for all these are subject to vanity.

Ecclesiastes 6:9It is better to see what you desire, than to desire what you cannot know. But this, too, is emptiness and a presumption of spirit.

Ecclesiastes 7:25so much more than it was before. Wisdom is very profound, so who shall reveal her?

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 →

This Verse In Other Editions

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