What is crooked cannot be made straight, And what is lacking cannot be numbered.
Parallel translations
- WEB That which is crooked can’t be made straight; and that which is lacking can’t be counted.
- KJV That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
- BSB What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
- NASB What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
- NLT What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered.
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
What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted. Human effort cannot fix the deep disorder and deficiencies of a fallen world.
Overview
This proverb acknowledges the limits of wisdom to correct life's distortions. The brokenness of the world resists human repair, exposing our inability to set things right. Only God can ultimately straighten what is crooked, a hope realized in Christ, who reconciles all things and will make the crooked places straight.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Eccl 7:12–13For wisdom is a defense, even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
- Matt 6:27“Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?
- Eccl 3:14I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God has done it, that men should fear before him.
- Isa 40:4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.
- Job 34:29When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? When he hides his face, who then can see him? Alike whether to a nation, or to a man,
- Job 11:6that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
- Lam 3:37Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
- Dan 4:35All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can stop his hand, or ask him, What are you doing?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 1:15 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.