Tree of Life Version
Ecclesiastes 1:15
15What is crooked cannot be made straight. What is missing 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
13I applied my heart to seek and examine by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a burdensome task God has given the sons of men to keep them occupied. 14I have seen all the deeds done under the sun; and behold, all is meaningless and chasing after the wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight. What is missing cannot be counted. 16I spoke with my heart saying: “I have grown rich and increased in wisdom more than any who were before me over Jerusalem. Indeed, my heart has experienced much wisdom and knowledge.” 17So I applied my heart to know wisdom as well as to know madness and folly. I learned that this too was 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
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Ecclesiastes 1:15
- Ecclesiastes 3:14I know that everything that God does will endure forever. There is no adding to it or taking from it. God has made it so, that they will revere Him.
- Ecclesiastes 7:12For wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: wisdom preserves the life of the one who possesses it.
- Job 11:6and show you the secrets of wisdom— for sound wisdom has two sides. Know that God has forgotten some of your iniquity.
- Job 34:29“But if He is quiet, who can condemn Him? If He hides His face, who can see Him? Yet He is over a nation and an individual alike,
- Isaiah 40:4Every valley will be lifted up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground will be a plain and the rugged terrain smooth.
- Lamentations 3:37Who speaks and it comes to pass unless the Lord has decreed it?
- Matthew 6:27And which 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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