So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind.
Parallel translations
- WEB I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind.
- KJV And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
- BSB So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.
- NKJV And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.
- NASB And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know insanity and foolishness; I realized that this also is striving after wind.
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
He pursued both wisdom and folly, only to find this too was chasing the wind. Even the study of wisdom itself cannot secure lasting fulfillment.
Overview
Qoheleth widens his investigation to include madness and folly alongside wisdom. His sobering finding is that the very pursuit of understanding remains elusive and unsatisfying 'under the sun.' This humbling discovery points beyond human wisdom to Christ, in whom 'all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' are hidden (Colossians 2:3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Eccl 2:3I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.
- 1 Th 5:21Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.
- Eccl 1:13–14I 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.
- Eccl 7:23–25All this I have proved in wisdom. I said, “I will be wise”; but it was far from me.
- Eccl 2:10–12Whatever my eyes desired, I didn’t keep from them. I didn’t withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 1:17 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.