{"id":9368,"date":"2026-03-12T14:41:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9368"},"modified":"2026-03-12T14:42:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:42:51","slug":"ecclesiastes-116-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9368","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiastes 1:16-18"},"content":{"rendered":"

16\u00a0<\/sup>I communed with my heart, saying, \u201cLook, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

17\u00a0<\/sup>And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n
\n

18\u00a0<\/sup>For\u00a0in much wisdom\u00a0is much grief, a<\/span>nd he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

1 Kings 4:29-31 says that King Solomon was the wisest of all men. He also had all the power and material resources to pursue his quest for answers to the dilemma of life “under the sun.” No person, humanly speaking, has ever been more qualified for this pursuit. Therefore, we should take his conclusion to heart, “Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13<\/span><\/a>). Yet while we man not have Solomon’s wisdom, we do have an advantage that he lacked. Believers today, unlike Solomon, have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, which enables<\/em> us to live in the fear of God, keeping His commandments (Romans 8:3-11<\/span><\/a>; 2 Corinthians 1:22<\/span><\/a>). \u2014 Grace, page 1168.<\/span><\/h3>\n

I communed with my heart (v.16) \u2014 I said to myself …<\/h3>\n

wisdom (v.16) = applying knowledge to life<\/h3>\n

knowledge (v.16) = the acquisition of facts<\/h3>\n

The fledgling student is apt to think that the gaining of earthly wisdom and knowledge will lead to a true sense of inner satisfaction. The Preacher says not. The heart here represents the seat of the intellectual faculties. Knowledge in the mind of a man cannot make the crooked world straight. In fact, great knowledge, when placed against the background of this world’s crookedness, becomes a source of great sorrow and pain. the more we know the more we realize we need to know. \u2014 KJV Commentary, page 738.<\/span><\/h3>\n

I set my heart (v.17) \u2014 I applied myself, I determined<\/h3>\n

to know madness and folly (v.17) \u2014 I think what Solomon was saying here is that he determined to understand madness and folly so as to be able to distinguish them from wisdom\u2014to be able to identify whether something was wisdom or folly. But even that is grasping at the wind.<\/h3>\n

madness (v.17) = confusion of thought, the opposite of wisdom<\/h3>\n

folly (v.17) = vice and wickedness, the opposite of godliness<\/h3>\n

grief (v.18) = unhappiness about the present conditions\/circumstances, vexation, even anger<\/h3>\n

Wisdom leads to the knowledge of how much we still don’t know and also to the knowledge of how much foolishness there is in ourselves and in the world.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16\u00a0I communed with my heart, saying, \u201cLook, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.\u201d 17\u00a0And I set my heart to know wisdom … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecclesiastes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9368"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9529,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368\/revisions\/9529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}