Ecclesiastes 1:16

"I said to myself, 'Behold,. have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed. wealth of wisdom and knowledge."

It appears that here we find. sober reflection, almost. frustration. Here is. man who had outstripped all his forerunners and contemporaries in wisdom, and he knew it. And yet with all his wisdom and vast experience---he was failing to find meaning and happiness in this life. Kidner notes concerning the wisdom in this verse, " But he says nothing of its first principle, the fear of the Lord (Prov. Ecclesiastes 1:7). And we can assume that the wisdom he speaks of is the best thinking that man can do on his own….So Qoheleth is taking wisdom with proper seriousness, as. discipline concerned with ultimate questions, not simply. tool for getting things done" (p. 31).