Eclesiastes 1:17

A Biblia Sagrada

E apliquei o meu corao a conhecer a sabedoria e a conhecer os desvarios e as loucuras, e vim a saber que tambm isto era aflio de esprito.

Parallel Translations

Almeida Revista e Atualizada
Apliquei o corao a conhecer a sabedoria e a saber o que loucura e o que estultcia; e vim a saber que tambm isto correr atrs do vento.

Almeida Revista e Corrigida
E apliquei o meu corao a conhecer a sabedoria e a conhecer os desvarios e as loucuras e vim a saber que tambm isso era aflio de esprito.

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

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."