Ecclesiastes 8:17

And I understood that man can find no reason of all those works of God that are done under the sun: and the more he shall labour to seek, so much the less shall he find: yea, though the wise man shall say, that he knoweth it, he shall not be able to find it.

Douay-Rheims 1899

In The King James Version

Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

In Context

16And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to understand the distraction that is upon earth: for there are some that day and night take no sleep with their eyes.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 8

Cross References

Job 11:7Peradventure thou wilt comprehend the steps of God, and wilt find out the Almighty perfectly?

Psalms 73:16I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight:

Proverbs 30:3I have not learned wisdom, and have not known the science of saints.

Ecclesiastes 7:23For thy conscience knoweth that thou also hast often spoken evil of others.

Isaiah 40:28Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard? the Lord is the everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the earth: he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any searching out of his wisdom.

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 →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Ecclesiastes 8:17