Ecclesiastes 2:13

Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. WISDOM EXCELLETH FOLLY ... AS LIGHT EXCELLETH DARKNESS ... THE FOOL WALKETH IN DARKNESS - (.) The worldly "wise" man has good sense in managing his affairs, skill and taste in building and planting, and keeps within safe and respectable bounds in pleasure, while the "fool" is wanting in these respects ("darkness" - i:e., fatal error, blind infatuation); yet "one event" - death, happeneth to both ()....

12-17 Solomon found that knowledge and prudence were preferable to ignorance and folly, though human wisdom and knowledge will not make a man happy. The most learned of men, who dies a stranger to Christ Jesus, will perish equally with the most ignorant; and what good can commendations on earth do to the body in the grave, or the soul in hell? And the spirits of just men made perfect cannot want them. So that if this were all, we might be led to hate our life, as it is all vanity and vexation of spirit....

Verse 13. _THEN I SAW THAT WISDOM EXCELLETH FOLLY_] Though in none of these pursuits I found the _supreme_ good, the happiness my soul longed after; yet I could easily perceive that wisdom _excelled_ the _others_, as far as _light excels darkness_. And he immediately subjoins the reasons....

Solomon having found that wisdom and folly agree in being subject to vanity, now contrasts one with the other Ecclesiastes 2:13. Both are brought under vanity by events Ecclesiastes 2:14 which come on the wise man and the feel alike from without - death and oblivion Ecclesiastes 2:16, uncertainty Ecclesiastes 2:19, disappointment Ecclesiastes 2:21 - all happening by an external law beyond human control. Amidst this vanity, the good (see...

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 2:1 Section 2. _Vanity of striving after pleasure and wealth._ ECCLESIASTES 2:1 Dissatisfied with the result of the pursuit of wisdom, Koheleth embarks on a course of sensual pleasure, if so be this may yield some effect more substantial and permanent. I SAID IN MINE HEART, GO TO NOW, I WILL PROVE THEE WITH MIRTH. The heart is addressed as the seat of the emotions and affections. The Vulgate misses the direct address to the heart, which the words, rightly interpreted, imply, translating, _Vadam et offluam delieiis_._ _The Septuagint correctly gives, Δεῦρο δὴ πειράσω σε ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ._ _It is like the rich fool's language in Christ's parable, "I will sa

THEN I SAT THAT WISDOM EXCELLETH FOLLY,.... However, this upon a review of things he could not but own, that natural wisdom and knowledge, though there was no true happiness and satisfaction in them, yet they greatly exceeded folly and madness; AS FAR AS LIGHT EXCELLETH DARKNESS; as the light of the day the darkness of the night; the one is pleasant and delightful, the other very uncomfortable; the one useful to direct in walking, the other very unsafe to walk in: light sometimes signifies joy and prosperity, and darkness adversity; the one is used to express the light of grace, and the other the darkness of sin and ignorance; now as the natural light exceeds darkness, and prosperity exceeds adversity and calamities, and a state of grace exceeds a state of sin and wickedness, so wisdom exceeds folly....

CHAPTER 2THE RESULTS OF THE SEARCH AND DIFFERENT VANITIES _ 1. His personal experience (Ecclesiastes 2:1)_ 2. Various vanities and a conclusion (Ecclesiastes 2:12) Ecclesiastes 2:1. Here we find first of all the king's personal experience. He experimented, so to speak, with that which is the possession of the natural man, a fallen nature. In that nature are found three things: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. We can trace these three things in the opening verses. The lust of the flesh in verses 1-3; the lust of the eyes in Ecclesiastes 2:4, and

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

_I saw that wisdom excelleth folly_ Better, as keeping up, in the English as in the Hebrew, the characteristic word of the book, THERE IS PROFIT IN WISDOM MORE THAN IN FOLLY, and so in the second clause. Something then had been gained by the experience. In language like that of the Stoics he sings the praises of wisdom. Even the wisdom that brings sorrow (ch. Ecclesiastes 1:13) is better than the mirth of fools. A man is conscious of being more truly man when he looks before and after, and knows how to observe. Light is, after all, better than darkness, even if it only shews us that we are treading the path that leads to nothingness. The human heart obeys its instincts when it cries out with Aias, ἐν δὲ φάει καὶ ὄλεσσον. "And if our fate be death, give light, and let us die." Hom. _Il_. xvii. 647....

_THE VANITY OF LIVING WISELY -- ECCLESIASTES 2:12-17:_ Solomon reflected on what a common man could do to find true happiness when he, with all his resources, had not been able to do so._ _ He could only say that_ _ natural wisdom and knowledge_ _ exceeds folly. He said a wise man uses his eyes to make good judgment, but a fool just walks in darkness._ _ Sadly, he said the same end comes to both the fool and the wise. "This is all vanity." Solomon_ _ considered what he had accomplished by seeking wisdom._ _ Was he a better man for his entire search for true happiness? Had it made him a happier person? Would his wisdom protect him from the end that would come to a fool? "Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity." The conclusion that Solomon will ultimately reach is that the death of a