ä¼ é“ä¹¦ 1:17

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

我又專心究察智慧和知識，狂妄和愚昧，才知道這也是捕風。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
我 又 专 心 察 明 智 慧 、 狂 妄 ， 和 愚 昧 ， 乃 知 这 也 是 捕 风 。

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

I gave: Ecclesiastes 1:13, Ecclesiastes 2:3, Ecclesiastes 2:12, Ecclesiastes 7:23-25, 1 Thessalonians 5:21

I perceived: Ecclesiastes 2:10, Ecclesiastes 2:11

Reciprocal: Ecclesiastes 1:14 - General Ecclesiastes 5:10 - this Ecclesiastes 6:11 - General Ecclesiastes 9:1 - considered in my heart Ecclesiastes 9:3 - and madness

Cross-References

Genesis 9:13
I am putting my rainbow in the clouds as the sign of the agreement between me and the earth.

Job 38:12
"Have you ever ordered the morning to begin, or shown the dawn where its place was

Psalms 8:1

For the director of music. On the gittith. A psalm of David.

Lord our Lord, your name is the most wonderful name in all the earth! It brings you praise in heaven above.

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

Acts 13:47
This is what the Lord told us to do, saying: ‘I have made you a light for the nations; you will show people all over the world the way to be saved.'" Isaiah 49:6

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I gave my heart to know wisdom,.... Which is repeated, for the confirmation of it, from Ecclesiastes 1:13, and that it might be taken notice of how assiduous and diligent he had been in acquiring it; a circumstance not to be overlooked;

and to know madness and folly: that he might the better know wisdom, and learn the difference between the one and the other, since opposites illustrate each other; and that he might shun madness and folly, and the ways thereof, and expose the actions of mad and foolish men: so Plato s says, ignorance is a disease, of which there are two kinds, madness and folly. The Targum, Septuagint, and all the Oriental versions, interpret the last word, translated "folly", by understanding, knowledge, and prudence; which seems to be right, since Solomon speaks of nothing afterwards, as vexation and grief to him, but wisdom and knowledge: and I would therefore read the clause in connection with the preceding, thus, "and the knowledge of things boasted of", vain glorious knowledge; "and prudence", or what may be called craftiness and cunning; or what the apostle calls "science falsely so called", 1 Timothy 6:20; see Proverbs 12:8;

I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit;

Proverbs 12:8- :; the reason follows.

s In Timaeo, p. 1084.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

To know madness and folly - A knowledge of folly would help him to discern wisdom, and to exercise that chief function of practical wisdom - to avoid folly.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 17. To know madness and folly — הוללות ושכלות holloth vesichluth. Παραβολας και επιστημην, "Parables and science." - Septuagint. So the Syriac; nearly so the Arabic.

"What were error and foolishness." - Coverdale. Perhaps gayety and sobriety may be the better meaning for these two difficult words. I can scarcely think they are taken in that bad sense in which our translation exhibits them. "I tried pleasure in all its forms; and sobriety and self-abnegation to their utmost extent." Choheleth paraphrases, "Even fools and madmen taught me rules."