Ecclesiastes 1:17

15 ^aWhat is crooked cannot be made straight,
And what is lacking cannot be numbered.

16 I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained ^amore wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has¹ understood great wisdom and knowledge.”

17 ^aAnd I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.

18 For ^ain much wisdom is much grief,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Ecclesiastes 1:17

To know madness and folly - holloth vesichluth . , "Parables and science." - Septuagint. So the Syriac; nearly so the Arabic.

"What were error and foolishness." - Coverdale. Perhaps gayety and sobriety may be the better meaning for these two difficult words. I can scarcely think they are taken in that bad sense in which our translation exhibits them. "I tried pleasure in all its forms; and sobriety and self-abnegation to their utmost extent." Choheleth paraphrases, "Even fools and madmen taught me rules."

**Other Adam Clarke entries containing Ecclesiastes 1:17:**

Isaiah 14:19

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