Ecclesiastes 1:17

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...

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 more he knew, the more he saw cause to lament and mourn. Let us learn to hate and fear sin, the cause of all this vanity and misery; to value Christ; to seek rest in the knowledge, love, and service of the Saviour....

Verse 17. _TO KNOW MADNESS AND FOLLY_] הוללות ושכלות _holloth_ _vesichluth_. Παραβολας και επιστημην, "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....

TO KNOW MADNESS AND FOLLY - A knowledge of folly would help him to discern wisdom, and to exercise that chief function of practical wisdom - to avoid folly....

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 1:1 THE TITLE. THE WORDS OF THE PREACHER, THE SON OF DAVID, KING IN JERUSALEM; Septuagint, "King of Israel in Jerusalem" (comp.Ecclesiastes 1:12). The word rendered "Preacher" is _Koheleth_,_ _a feminine noun formed from a verb _kalal_,_ _"to call" (see Introduction, § 1), and perhaps better rendered" Convener" or "Debater." It is found nowhere else but in this book, where it occurs three times in this chapter (Ecclesiastes 1:1, Ecclesiastes 1:2,...

AND I GAVE MY HEART TO KNOW WISDOM,.... Which is repeated, for the confirmation of it, from Ecclesiastes 1:13, and that it might be taken notice of how assiduous and diligent he had been in acquiring it; a circumstance not to be overlooked; AND TO KNOW MADNESS AND FOLLY: that he might the better know wisdom, and learn the difference between the one and the other, since opposites illustrate each other; and that he might shun madness and folly, and the ways thereof, and expose the actions of mad and foolish men: so Plato s says, ignorance is a disease, of which there are two kinds, madness and folly. The Targum, Septuagint, and all the Oriental versions, interpret the last word, translated "folly", by understanding, knowledge, and prudence; which seems to be right, since Solomon speaks of nothing afterwards, as vexation and grief to him, but wisdom and knowledge: a

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS PART I. Chapter S 1-6 1. The Prologue and the Search Begun CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The introduction and prologue (Ecclesiastes 1:1)_ 2. The seeker; his method and the results (Ecclesiastes 1:12) Ecclesiastes 1:1. In the general introduction we have already referred to the opening verses as giving the information who the author is and what is the object of his treatise. So sure is the critical school that Solomon is not the king mentioned that one says “the fact that Solomon is not the author, but is introduced in a literary figure, has become such an axiom of the present day interpretation of the book, that no extended argument to prove

ECCLESIASTES 1:12 TO ECCLESIASTES 2:26. QOHELETH'S INVESTIGATIONS. Assuming the character of Solomon the writer tells of his search for happiness under many forms. The pursuit of wisdom (Ecclesiastes 1:12), absorption in pleasure (Ecclesiastes 2:1), the study of human nature (Ecclesiastes 2:12), the acquisition of wealth (Ecclesiastes 2:18), alike fail to yield satisfaction. After all his experience the only

MADNESS. the opposite of wisdom, as displayed in the loss of self-control; raving with self-conceit. So elsewhere in this book. FOLLY. infatuation. Hebrew. _sakal._ See note on- "wisdom", Proverbs 1:2. VEXATION, &C. Not the same phrase in Hebrew as in Ecclesiastes 1:14....

_And I gave my heart_ The apparent iteration of the phrase of Ecclesiastes 1:13 expresses the concentration of purpose. The writer adds that his search took a yet wider range. He sought to know wisdom through its opposite, to enlarge his experience of the diseases of human thought. He had fathomed the depths of the "madness and folly;" the former word expressing in Hebrew as in English the wilder forms of unwisdom. There is, perhaps, a touch of self-mockery in the fact that the latter word in the Hebrew is all but identical in sound with a word which means "prudence." One, the writer seems to say, has the same issue as the other. Some critics, indeed (_e.g._Ginsburg), think that the present text originated in an error of transcription and that we ought to read "to know wisdom and knowledge." It has been thought and, as stated in the _Introduction_(chap. ii.), with some reaso