Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
17. And I gave my heart ] The apparent iteration of the phrase of Ecc 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 reason, that in the use of the stronger word we have an echo of the current language of the Stoics who looked on all the weaknesses of mankind as so many forms of insanity. So Horace ( Sat. ii. 3. 43),
“Quem mala stultitia et quemcunque inscitia veri
Ccum agit, insanum Chrysippi porticus et grex
Autumat. Hc populos, hc magnos formula reges,
Excepto sapiente, tenet.”
“Him, whom weak folly leads in blindness on,
Unknowing of the Truth, the Porch and tribe
Who call Chrysippus Master, treat as mad.
Peoples and mighty kings, all but the wise
This formula embraces.”
So also Diog. Laert. vii. 124,
.
“All that are foolish they pronounce insane.”
vexation of spirit ] Better, feeding on wind, as before. See note on Ecc 1:14. The word is, however, not identical in form, but expresses a more concrete idea. By some it is rendered “meditation.” The fact that the writer uses a word not found elsewhere in the Old Testament, suggests the thought that he wanted a new word for the expression of a new thought.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 17. To know madness and folly] holloth vesichluth. , “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.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly, that I might thoroughly understand the nature and difference of truth and error, of virtue and vice, all things being best understood by contraries, and might discern if there were any opinion or practice amongst men which would give him full satisfaction.
Vexation of spirit; or, feeding upon wind, as Ecc 1:14.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. wisdom . . . madnessthatis, their effects, the works of human wisdom and folly respectively.”Madness,” literally, “vaunting extravagance”;Ecc 2:12; Ecc 7:25,&c., support English Version rather than DATHE,”splendid matters.” “Folly” is read by EnglishVersion with some manuscripts, instead of the present Hebrewtext, “prudence.” If Hebrew be retained, understand”prudence,” falsely so called (1Ti6:20), “craft” (Da8:25).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I gave my heart to know wisdom,…. Which is repeated, for the confirmation of it, from Ec 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: and I would therefore read the clause in connection with the preceding, thus, “and the knowledge of things boasted of”, vain glorious knowledge; “and prudence”, or what may be called craftiness and cunning; or what the apostle calls “science falsely so called”, 1Ti 6:20; see Pr 12:8;
I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit;
[See comments on Ec 1:14]; the reason follows.
s In Timaeo, p. 1084.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(17) Madness and folly are words we should not expect to find in this context, and accordingly some interpreters have attempted by variations of reading to substitute for them words of the same nature as wisdom and knowledge, but see Ecc. 2:12; Ecc. 7:25. Taking the text as it stands, it means to know wisdom and knowledge fully by a study of their contraries. The word for madness is peculiar to this book, but the corresponding verb occurs frequently in other books.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Ecc 1:17. And I gave my heart to know wisdom For I applied myself to the knowledge of wisdom, and the knowledge of whatever is shining, and of science. We meet in all languages with words which are as much, or even more frequently, made use of in a metaphorical, than in a literal way; yet you can never fully and rightly understand them, unless you keep an eye to the primitive literal signification, and have a particular regard to the circumstances wherein such a word is employed. hallel, seems to be one of those words, which, by not paying a due regard to this observation, has been often misinterpreted. One of its metaphorical meanings has been even mistaken for the primitive signification; which is contrary to nature. Leigh rightly observes, that its primitive signification is, either to shine, or to make another thing shine; which is done in a metaphorical way by praising or valuing. See Desvoeux, 384, and Parkhurst on the word.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Ecc 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.
Ver. 17. And to know madness and folly. ] That by comparing of contraries, I might the sooner find and fish out what I sought for. Sed frustra fui, but I disquieted myself in vain. Philosophandum igitur, sed paucis; there is a deceit in philosophy, Col 2:8 and he who chooseth to hold fast this “lying vanity,” doth by his own election “forsake his own mercy.” Jon 2:8
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
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”, Pro 1:2.
vexation, &c. Not the same phrase in Hebrew as in Ecc 1:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I gave: Ecc 1:13, Ecc 2:3, Ecc 2:12, Ecc 7:23-25, 1Th 5:21
I perceived: Ecc 2:10, Ecc 2:11
Reciprocal: Ecc 1:14 – General Ecc 5:10 – this Ecc 6:11 – General Ecc 9:1 – considered in my heart Ecc 9:3 – and madness
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1:17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know {l} madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
(l) That is, vain things, which served to pleasure, in which was no convenience, but grief and trouble of conscience.