Berean Standard Bible
Ecclesiastes 1:15
15What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
Ecclesiastes 1:15 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
- New International Version (NIV)What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.
- English Standard Version (ESV)What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
- New King James Version (NKJV)What is crooked cannot be made straight, And what is lacking cannot be numbered.
Context of Ecclesiastes 1:15
13And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a miserable task God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them! 14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted. 16I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.” 17So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.
Read all of Ecclesiastes 1Ecclesiastes 1:15 word by word
מְעֻוָּ֖ת לֹא־יוּכַ֣ל לִתְקֹ֑ן וְחֶסְר֖וֹן לֹא־יוּכַ֥ל לְהִמָּנֽוֹת׃Read the interlinear
Cross-references for Ecclesiastes 1:15
- Ecclesiastes 3:14I know that everything God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God does it so that they should fear Him.
- Ecclesiastes 7:12For wisdom, like money, is a shelter, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.
- Job 11:6and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know then that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves.
- Job 34:29But when He remains silent, who can condemn Him? When He hides His face, who can see Him? Yet He watches over both man and nation,
- Isaiah 40:4Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain.
- Lamentations 3:37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
- Daniel 4:35All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
- Matthew 6:27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 1:15
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 15That which is crooked cannot be made straight - There are many apparent irregularities and anomalies in nature for which we cannot account; and there are many defects that cannot be supplied. This is the impression from a general view of nature; but the more we study and investigate its operations, the more we shall be convinced that all is a consecutive and well-ordered whole; and that in the chain of nature not one link is broken, deficient, or lost.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 15He saw clearly both the disorder and incompleteness of human actions (compare the marginal reference), and also man‘s impotence to rectify them.Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 12-18Verses 12-18 Solomon tried all things, and found them vanity. He found his searches after knowledge weariness, not only to the flesh, but to the mind. The more he saw of the works done under the sun, the more he saw their vanity; and the sight often vexed his spirit. He could neither gain that satisfaction to himself, nor do that good to others, which he expected. Even the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom discovered man's wickedness and misery; so that the…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 12-18The Teacher examines how wisdom, work, and pleasure relate to each other.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1515. Investigation (Ec 1:13) into human ways is vain labor, for they are hopelessly "crooked" and "cannot be made straight" by it (Ec 7:13). God, the chief good, alone can do this (Is 40:4; 45:2). wanting--(Da 5:27). numbered--so as to make a complete number; so equivalent to "supplied" [Maurer]. Or, rather, man's state is utterly wanting; and that which is wholly defective cannot be numbered or calculated. The investigator thinks he can draw up, in…Read the comment
Topics related to Ecclesiastes 1:15
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 1
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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