I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
Parallel translations
- KJV And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
- BSB And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!
- NKJV And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.
- NASB And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom about everything that has been done under heaven. It is a sorry task with which God has given the sons of mankind to be troubled.
- NLT I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Preacher devoted his wisdom to studying all that is done under heaven, calling it a heavy, God-given burden. Honest investigation of life's labors proves wearying and grievous.
Overview
Qoheleth applies disciplined wisdom to examine human activity comprehensively. He recognizes that the very task of seeking meaning is a burdensome affliction God has appointed to humanity. This 'unhappy business' reflects life under the curse, yet it also drives the seeker to acknowledge that satisfying answers must come from God rather than from human searching alone.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Eccl 3:10I have seen the burden which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
- Gen 3:19By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
- Eccl 8:16–17When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),
- 1 Tim 4:15Be diligent in these things. Give yourself wholly to them, that your progress may be revealed to all.
- Eccl 1:17I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind.
- Eccl 7:25I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.
- Eccl 12:12Furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
- Prov 4:7Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.
- Eccl 2:26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Prov 2:2–4So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
- Eccl 2:23For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
- Prov 18:15The heart of the discerning gets knowledge. The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.
- Eccl 4:4Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
- Ps 111:2Yahweh’s works are great, pondered by all those who delight in them.
- Prov 23:26My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.
- Eccl 8:9All this I have seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.
- Prov 18:1An unfriendly man pursues selfishness, and defies all sound judgment.
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 1:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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