New English Translation
Ecclesiastes 1:15
15What is bent cannot be straightened, and what is missing cannot be supplied.
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
13I decided to carefully and thoroughly examine all that has been accomplished on earth. I concluded: God has given people a burdensome task that keeps them occupied. 14I reflected on everything that is accomplished by man on earth, and I concluded: Everything he has accomplished is futile – like chasing the wind! What is bent cannot be straightened, and what is missing cannot be supplied. 16I thought to myself, “I have become much wiser than any of my predecessors who ruled over Jerusalem; I have acquired much wisdom and knowledge.” 17So I decided to discern the benefit of wisdom and knowledge over foolish behavior and ideas; however, I concluded that even this endeavor is like trying to chase the wind!
Read all of Ecclesiastes 1Ecclesiastes 1:15 word by word
מְעֻוָּ֖ת לֹא־יוּכַ֣ל לִתְקֹ֑ן וְחֶסְר֖וֹן לֹא־יוּכַ֥ל לְהִמָּנֽוֹת׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Ecclesiastes 1:15
- Ecclesiastes 3:14I also know that whatever God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken away from it. God has made it this way, so that men will fear him.
- Ecclesiastes 7:12For wisdom provides protection, just as money provides protection. But the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves the life of its owner.
- Job 11:6and reveal to you the secrets of wisdom – for true wisdom has two sides – so that you would know that God has forgiven some of your sins.
- Job 34:29But if God is quiet, who can condemn him? If he hides his face, then who can see him? Yet he is over the individual and the nation alike,
- Isaiah 40:4Every valley must be elevated, and every mountain and hill leveled. The rough terrain will become a level plain, the rugged landscape a wide valley.
- Lamentations 3:37Whose command was ever fulfilled unless the Lord decreed it?
- Daniel 4:35All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he wishes with the army of heaven and with those who inhabit the earth. No one slaps his hand and says to him, ‘What have you done?’
- Matthew 6:27And which of you by worrying can add even one 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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