Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly; For what can the man do who succeeds the king?— Only what he has already done.
Parallel translations
- WEB I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly: for what can the king’s successor do? Just that which has been done long ago.
- KJV And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.
- BSB Then I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what more can the king’s successor do than what has already been accomplished?
- NASB So I turned to consider wisdom, insanity, and foolishness; for what will the man do who will come after the king, except what has already been done?
- NLT So I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and madness (for who can do this better than I, the king?).
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 turned to compare wisdom with folly, noting his successor can only repeat what's already done. He weighs wisdom against folly while reckoning with the limits of legacy.
Overview
Qoheleth resumes his comparison of wisdom and folly, now in light of what follows a person's life. The reference to his successor introduces the troubling reality that one cannot control what comes after. This sets up his sobering reflection that even wisdom's advantage is overshadowed by the shared fate of death.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- 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 1:9–10That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
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 2:12 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.