And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also was a striving after wind.
And I gave my heart to getting knowledge of wisdom, and of the ways of the foolish. And I saw that this again was desire for wind.
And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind.
And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also was a striving after wind.
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.
1:17 To know - That I might throughly understand the nature and difference of truth and error, of virtue and vice.