Wisdom is always distant and difficult to find.
Parallel translations
- WEB That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?
- KJV That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?
- BSB What exists is out of reach and very deep. Who can fathom it?
- NKJV As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep, Who can find it out?
- NASB What has been is remote and very mysterious. Who can discover it?
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
Whatever truth lies behind reality is far off and exceedingly deep; who can find it out? It matters because the deepest things of life and God exceed human discovery.
Overview
The Preacher confesses that ultimate understanding is unreachable by human effort, far off and profound. This is not despair but humility before mysteries only God comprehends (Job 11:7; Romans 11:33). Such limits drive us to revelation, for what we cannot find out on our own, God graciously makes known through His Word and supremely in His Son.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Rom 11:33Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
- 1 Tim 6:16who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.
- Isa 55:8–9“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh.
- Job 28:28To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”
- Ps 139:6This knowledge is beyond me. It’s lofty. I can’t attain it.
- Job 11:7–8“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
- Ps 36:6Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.
- Job 28:12–23“But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?
- Deut 30:11–14For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant.
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 7:24 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.