传道书 1:16

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

我自己心裡說：“我得了極大的智慧，勝過所有在我以前統治耶路撒冷的人；我見識了許多智慧與知識。”

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
我 心 里 议 论 说 ： 我 得 了 大 智 慧 ， 胜 过 我 以 前 在 耶 路 撒 冷 的 众 人 ， 而 且 我 心 中 多 经 历 智 慧 和 知 识 的 事 。

Contextual Overview

¹² I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I decided to use my wisdom to learn about everything that happens on earth. I learned that God has given us terrible things to face. ¹⁴ I looked at everything done on earth and saw that it is all useless, like chasing the wind. ¹⁵ If something is crooked, you can't make it straight. If something is missing, you can't say it is there. ¹⁶ I said to myself, "I have become very wise and am now wiser than anyone who ruled Jerusalem before me. I know what wisdom and knowledge really are." ¹⁷ So I decided to find out about wisdom and knowledge and also about foolish thinking, but this turned out to be like chasing the wind. ¹⁸ With much wisdom comes much disappointment; the person who gains more knowledge also gains more sorrow.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

communed: 2 Kings 5:20, Psalms 4:4, Psalms 77:6, Isaiah 10:7-14, Jeremiah 22:14, Ezekiel 38:10, Ezekiel 38:11, Daniel 4:30

Lo: Ecclesiastes 2:9, 1 Kings 3:12, 1 Kings 3:13, 1 Kings 4:30, 1 Kings 10:7, 1 Kings 10:23, 1 Kings 10:24, 2 Chronicles 1:10-12, 2 Chronicles 2:12, 2 Chronicles 9:22, 2 Chronicles 9:23

great experience of: Heb. seen much, Hebrews 5:14

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 4:29 - God Ecclesiastes 2:1 - said Ecclesiastes 2:15 - even to me Ecclesiastes 3:17 - said

Cross-References

Genesis 1:7
So God made the air and placed some of the water above the air and some below it.

Genesis 1:8
God named the air "sky." Evening passed, and morning came. This was the second day.

Genesis 1:9
Then God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered together so the dry land will appear." And it happened.

Genesis 1:12
The earth produced plants with grain for seeds and trees that made fruits with seeds in them. Each seed grew its own kind of plant. God saw that all this was good.

Genesis 1:14
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the sky to separate day from night. These lights will be used for signs, seasons, days, and years.

Deuteronomy 4:19
When you look up at the sky, you see the sun, moon, and stars, and everything in the sky. But don't bow down and worship them, because the Lord your God has made these things for all people everywhere.

Job 31:26
I have not thought about worshiping the sun in its brightness nor admired the moon moving in glory

Job 38:7
while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted with joy?

Psalms 8:3
I look at your heavens, which you made with your fingers. I see the moon and stars, which you created.

Psalms 19:6
The sun rises at one end of the sky and follows its path to the other end. Nothing hides from its heat.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I communed with my own heart,.... That is, looked into it, examined it, and considered what a stock and fund of knowledge he had in it, after all his researches into it; what happiness accrued to him by it, and what judgment upon the whole was to be formed upon it; and he spoke within himself after this manner:

saying, lo, I am come to great estate; or become a great man; famous for wisdom, arrived to a very great pitch of it; greatly increased in it, through a diligent application to it;

and have gotten more wisdom than all [they] that have been before me in Jerusalem; or, "that before me were over Jerusalem" p; governors of it, or in it; not only than the Jebusites, but than Saul, the first king of Israel, or than even his father David; or, as Gussetius q, than any princes, rulers, and civil magistrates in Jerusalem, in his own days or in the days of his father; and also than all the priests and prophets, as well as princes, that ever had been there: and indeed he was wiser than all men, 1 Kings 4:30; and even than any that had been in Jerusalem, or any where else, or that should be hereafter, excepting the Messiah; see 1 Kings 3:12. And seeing this is said of him by others, and even by the Lord himself, it might not only be said with truth by himself, but without ostentation; seeing it was necessary it should be said to answer his purpose, which was to show the vanity of human wisdom in its highest pitch; and it was nowhere to be found higher than in himself;

yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge; or, "saw much wisdom and knowledge" r; he thoroughly understood it, he was a complete master of it; it was not a superficial knowledge he had attained unto, or a few lessons of it he had committed to memory; some slight notions in his head, or scraps of things he had collected together, in an undigested manner; but he had made himself thoroughly acquainted with everything worthy to be known, and had digested it in his mind.

p על ירושלם "super Jerusalaim", Montanus, Cocceius, Schmidt; "qui praefueriut ante me Jeruscthalamis", Junius Tremellius. q Comment. Heb. p. 604. r ראה הרבה חכמה ודעת "vidit multum sapientiae et scientiae", Montanus, Amama "vidit plurimam sapientiam et scientiam", Tigurine version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I am come ... - Rather, I have accumulated (literally “enlarged and added”) wisdom more than etc.

They that have been ... - The reference is probably to the line of Canaanite kings who lived in Jerusalem before David took it, such as Melchizedek Genesis 14:18, Adonizedek Joshua 10:1, and Araunah 2 Samuel 24:23; or, it may be, to Solomon’s contemporaries of his own country 1 Kings 4:31 and of other countries who visited him 1 Kings 4:34; 1 Kings 10:24. for “in” Jerusalem render over.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 16. I communed with mine own heart — Literally, "I spoke, I, with my heart, saying." When successful in my researches, but not happy in my soul, though easy in my circumstances, I entered into my own heart, and there inquired the cause of my discontent. He found that, though -

1. He had gotten wisdom beyond all men;

2. Wealth and honours more than any other;

3. Practical wisdom more than all his predecessors;

4. Had tried pleasure and animal gratification, even to their extremes; yet after all this he had nothing but vexation of spirit.

None of these four things, nor the whole of them conjoined, could afford him such a happiness as satisfies the soul. Why was all this? Because the soul was made for God, and in the possession of him alone can it find happiness.