Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
Parallel translations
- WEB Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.
- BSB And I saw that wisdom exceeds folly, just as light exceeds darkness:
- NKJV Then I saw that wisdom excels folly As light excels darkness.
- NASB Then I saw that wisdom surpasses foolishness as light surpasses darkness.
- NLT I thought, “Wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness.
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
Wisdom surpasses folly as light surpasses darkness. Wisdom has real and obvious value over foolishness.
Overview
The Preacher affirms a genuine, relative advantage of wisdom over folly, comparing it to light over darkness. This balances his sober conclusions, acknowledging that wise living is better than foolish living. Yet, as the next verses show, this advantage is qualified by death, which comes to wise and fool alike, pointing to the need for hope beyond the grave.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Eph 5:8For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
- Eccl 7:11–12Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
- Eccl 11:7Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
- Matt 6:23But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
- Ps 119:105Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
- Luke 11:34–35The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.
- Mal 3:18Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
- Ps 119:130The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
- Prov 4:5–7Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
- Eccl 7:19Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city.
- Eccl 9:16Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
- Eccl 9:18Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.
- Prov 4:18–19But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
- Prov 16:16How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!
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 2:13 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
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.