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Monday, July 7th, 2025
the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
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Bahasa Indonesia Sehari-hari

Pengkhotbah 2:15

Maka aku berkata dalam hati: "Nasib yang menimpa orang bodoh juga akan menimpa aku. Untuk apa aku ini dulu begitu berhikmat?" Lalu aku berkata dalam hati, bahwa inipun sia-sia.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Death;   Man;   Vanity;   Wisdom;   The Topic Concordance - Vanity;  

Dictionaries:

- Fausset Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes, Book of;   Israel, History of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Winter ;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Chance;   Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher;   Happen;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for September 30;  

Parallel Translations

Alkitab Terjemahan Baru
Maka aku berkata dalam hati: "Nasib yang menimpa orang bodoh juga akan menimpa aku. Untuk apa aku ini dulu begitu berhikmat?" Lalu aku berkata dalam hati, bahwa inipun sia-sia.

Contextual Overview

12 Then turned I me to consider wisdome, errour, and foolishnesse (for what is he among men that myght be compared to me the kyng in such workes?) 13 And I sawe that wisdome excelleth foolishnesse, as farre as light doth darknesse. 14 For a wise man hath his eyes in his head, but the foole goeth in darknesse: I perceaued also that they both had one ende. 15 Then thought I in my mynde, yf it happen vnto the foole as it doth vnto me, what needeth me then to labour any more for wisdome? So I confessed within my heart that this also was but vanitie. 16 For the wise are euer as litle in remembraunce as the foolishe: for the dayes shall come when all shalbe forgotten: yea the wise man dyeth as well as the foole.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

even to me: Heb. to me

even to me: and why, Ecclesiastes 1:16, Ecclesiastes 1:18, 1 Kings 3:12

Then I: Ecclesiastes 2:1, Ecclesiastes 1:2, Ecclesiastes 1:14

Reciprocal: 2 Samuel 3:33 - as a fool dieth Ecclesiastes 7:25 - the reason Ecclesiastes 9:11 - but Ecclesiastes 11:8 - All that 1 Corinthians 15:55 - is thy victory

Cross-References

Genesis 2:2
And in the seuenth day God ended his worke whiche he had made. And the seueth day he rested from all his worke which he had made.
Genesis 2:8
And the Lord God planted a garden eastwarde in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had shapen.
Job 31:33
Haue I kept secrete my sinne, and hyd myne iniquitie, as Adam dyd?
Psalms 128:2
For thou shalt eate the labours of thine handes: thou shalt be happy, and [all] shall go well with thee.
Ephesians 4:28
Let hym that stole, steale no more: but let hym rather labour, workyng with his handes the thyng whiche is good, that he may geue vnto hym that needeth.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then said I in my heart, as it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me,.... The wisest of kings, and the wisest of men; that is, he looked over things in his mind, and considered what had befallen him, or what were his present circumstances, or what would be his case, especially at death; and said within himself, the same things happen to me, who have attained to the highest pitch of wisdom, as to the most errant fool; and therefore no true happiness can be in this sort of wisdom. The Targum paraphrases it thus,

"as it happened to Saul the son of Kish, the king who turned aside perversely, and kept not the commandment he received concerning Amalek, and his kingdom was taken from him; so shall it happen to me;''

and why was I then more wise? the Targum adds, than he, or than any other man, or even than a fool; why have I took so much pains to get wisdom? what am I the better for it? what happiness is there in it, seeing it gives me no advantage, preference, and excellency to a fool; or secures me from the events that befall me?

Then I said in my heart, that this also [is] vanity; this worldly wisdom has nothing solid and substantial in it, as well as pleasure; and it is a vain thing to seek happiness in it, since this is the case, that the events are the same to men that have it, as to one that has it not.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Solomon having found that wisdom and folly agree in being subject to vanity, now contrasts one with the other Ecclesiastes 2:13. Both are brought under vanity by events Ecclesiastes 2:14 which come on the wise man and the feel alike from without - death and oblivion Ecclesiastes 2:16, uncertainty Ecclesiastes 2:19, disappointment Ecclesiastes 2:21 - all happening by an external law beyond human control. Amidst this vanity, the good (see Ecclesiastes 2:10 note) that accrues to man, is the pleasure felt Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 in receiving God’s gifts, and in working with and for them.

Ecclesiastes 2:12

What can the man do ... - i. e., “What is any man - in this study of wisdom and folly - after one like me, who, from my position, have had such special advantages (see Ecclesiastes 1:16, and compare Ecclesiastes 2:25) for carrying it on? That which man did of old he can but do again: he is not likely to add to the result of my researches, nor even to equal them.” Some hold that the “man” is a reference to Solomon’s successor - not in his inquiries, but in his kingdom, i. e., Jeroboam.

Ecclesiastes 2:14

Event - Or, “hap” Ruth 2:3. The verb from which it is derived seems in this book to refer especially to death. The word does not mean chance (compare Ecclesiastes 9:1-2), independent of the ordering of Divine Providence: the Gentile notion of “mere chance,” or “blind fate,” is never once contemplated by the writer of this book, and it would be inconsistent with his tenets of the unlimited power and activity of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:16

Seeing that ... - Compare Ecclesiastes 1:11. Some render, “as in time past, so in days to come, all will be forgotten;” others, “because in the days to come all will have been long before forgotten.”

Ecclesiastes 2:17

I hated life - Compare this expression, extorted from Solomon by the perception of the vanity of his wisdom and greatness, with Romans 8:22-23. The words of Moses Numbers 11:15, and of Job Job 3:21; Job 6:9, are scarcely less forcible. With some people, this feeling is a powerful motive to conversion Luke 14:26.

Ecclesiastes 2:19

Labour - Compare Ecclesiastes 2:4-8.

Ecclesiastes 2:20

I went about - i. e., I turned from one course of action to another.

Ecclesiastes 2:23

Are sorrows ... grief - Rather, sorrows and grief are his toil. See Ecclesiastes 1:13.

Ecclesiastes 2:24

Nothing better for a man, than that ... - literally, no good in man that etc. The one joy of working or receiving, which, though it be transitory, a man recognizes as a real good, even that is not in the power of man to secure for himself: that good is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:26

The doctrine of retribution, or, the revealed fact that God is the moral Governor of the world, is here stated for the first time (compare Ecclesiastes 3:15, Ecclesiastes 3:17 ff) in this book.

This also is vanity - Not only the travail of the sinner. Even the best gifts of God, wisdom, knowledge, and joy, so far as they are given in this life, are not permanent, and are not always (see Ecclesiastes 9:11) efficacious for the purpose for which they appear to be given.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 15. As it happeneth to the fool — Literally, "According as the event is to the fool, it happens to me, even me." There is a peculiar beauty and emphasis in the repetition of me. Having pointed out the advantages that wisdom has over folly, he takes this opportunity of reminding us of the danger of trusting too much to it, by showing that it is equally subject to the common accidents of life; and, therefore, incapable of making us completely happy. Having given his sentiments on this point in general terms, he proceeds to those particular instances wherein human prudence chiefly exerts itself; and shows how egregiously it is mistaken in every one of them.-C.


 
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