Ecclesiastes 1:17 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

I gave my heart to know wisdom ... madness and folly - i:e., their effects, the works of human wisdom and folly respectively. As things are best understood by comparison with their contraries, so Solomon tested the worth of wisdom by comparing its results with those of folly. "Madness" - literally, vaunting extravagance, (Ecclesiastes 2:12; Ecclesiastes 7:25, etc.) (Holden.) "Folly" is read by the English version, with some manuscripts, instead of the present Hebrew text, 'prudence' [cikluwt, for sikluwt (H5531): but the Hebrew letter sin (s) and the Hebrew letter camek (c) are often interchanged]. The same Hebrew is used for the world's 'CRAFT,' falsely called prudence in Daniel 8:25: it may mean so here. But I prefer the English version.

Ecclesiastes 1:17

17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.