Ecclesiastes 1:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ecclesiastes 1:13
And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
to give · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
heart
לִבִּ֗יli.Bi
H3820
the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
seek
לִדְר֤וֹשׁlid.Ro.osh
H1875
properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
out
וְלָתוּר֙ve.la.Tur
H8446
to meander (causatively · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
wisdom
בַּֽחָכְמָ֔הba.cha.khe.Mah
H2451
wisdom (in a good sense) · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
done
נַעֲשָׂ֖הna.'a.Sah
H6213
to do or make · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
heaven
הַשָּׁמָ֑יִםha.sha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
sore
רָ֗עRa'
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
travail
עִנְיַ֣ן'in.Yan
H6045
ado · noun, common masculine singular construct
God
אֱלֹהִ֛ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
given
נָתַ֧ןna.Tan
H5414
to give · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
sons
לִבְנֵ֥יliv.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
man
הָאָדָ֖םha.'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
exercised
לַעֲנ֥וֹתla.'a.Not
H6031
to depress literally or figuratively · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ecclesiastes 3:10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto…
Ecclesiastes 8:16-17 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night…
1 Timothy 4:15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
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.
Ecclesiastes 7:25 I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of…
Ecclesiastes 12:12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Psalms 111:2 The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 1:12–end
Solomon, having asserted in general that all is vanity, and having given some general proofs of it, now takes the most effectual method to evince the truth of it, 1. By his own experience; he tried them all, and found them vanity. 2. By an induction of particulars; and here he begins with that which bids fairest of all to be the happiness of a reasonable creature, and that is knowledge and learning; if this be vanity, every thing else must needs be so. Now as to this,
I. Solomon tells us here what trial he had made of it, and that with such advantages that, if true satisfaction could have been found in it, he would have found it. 1. His high station gave him an opportunity of improving himse…
this sore travail--namely, that of "searching out all things done under heaven." Not human wisdom in general, which comes afterwards (Ecc 2:12, &c.), but laborious enquiries into, and speculations about, the works of men; for example, political science. As man is doomed to get his bread, so his knowledge, by the sweat of his brow (Gen 3:19) [GILL].
exercised--that is, disciplined; literally, "that they may thereby chastise, or humble themselves."
John Gill on Ecclesiastes 1:13
And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom,.... As he had all advantages and opportunities, so he did not want for industry and application to obtain knowledge; he gave his mind to it; he took up a resolution not to be discouraged by any difficulties, but to break through them, if possible; he set about the work with great readiness and cheerfulness; he had a price in his hand to get wisdom, and he had a heart unto it; see Proverbs 17:16; and he pursued it with all diligence, with all his might and main: nor did he content himself with a superficial knowledge of things; but "searched" after the most recondite and abstruse learning, and penetrated into the utmost recesses of it, to…
I thoughtfully examined and wisely learned the nature of everything on earth. I discovered that it was all very complex, because human beings are allowed to toil away on earth, wallowing about uselessly in various kinds of pretentious effort at various times.
I think that the true Ecclesiastes next teaches about the great mystery of salvation when God manifested himself in the flesh. "I applied my heart to seek out and examine by wisdom all things done under heaven." The reason for our Lord's dwelling with men is to give his heart over in wisdom to consider his actions done under the sun. For man is not allowed to consider what lies above heaven just as healthy persons do not require doctors. Evil belongs to the earth. A snake is a reptile which crawls on its belly, eats earth instead of food from heaven, crawls on anything trampled down and is always on the prowl. It watches for man's heel and injects poison in those who have lost the power to tread on serpents. For this reason Ecclesiastes gives his heart over to careful consideration of every activity done under heaven.
These are the things which the true Ecclesiast recounts as he teaches, so I believe, the great mystery of salvation, the reason why God was revealed in flesh. "I gave my heart," he says, "to enquiring into and investigating by wisdom all that had come about under the heaven." This is the reason for the Lord's fleshly coming to dwell with humankind, to give his heart to investigating in his own wisdom what has come about under the heaven. What is above the heaven had no need of investigation, just as there is no need of a medical attendant for what is not in the grip of illness. So because the evils were on earth—for the creeping animal, the serpent which "crawls on its breast and on its belly," makes the earth its food, eating nothing from heaven; as it crawls on trodden ground it always looks at what treads on it, "watching for the traveler's heel" and injecting its venom into those who have lost "the power to tread upon serpents"—for this reason he gave his "heart to enquiring into and investigating all that has come about under the heaven."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Instruction · From nature — From nature
Investigation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Prophets · Inspired by angels — Inspired by angels
Science · Observations of, and — Observations of, and
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Ecclesiastes 1:13
"Is there anything whereof it may be said: See, this is new? - it was long ago through the ages (aeons) which have been before us." The Semit. substantive verb ישׁ (Assyr. isu) has here the force of a hypothetical antecedent: supposing that there is a thing of which one might say, etc. The זה, with Makkeph, belongs as subject, as at Ecc 7:27, Ecc 7:29 as object, to that which follows. כּבר (vid., List, p. 193) properly denotes length or greatness of time (as כּברה, length of way). The ל of לע is that of measure: this "long ago" measured (Hitz.) after infinitely long periods of time. מלּ, ante nos, follows the usage of מלּף, Isa 41:26, and lpaa', Jdg 1:10, etc.; the past time is spoken of as…
God has dealt a tragic existence: The grim realities of human experience remind us of the Fall in Eden (Gen 3). Ecclesiastes does not dodge depressing descriptions of death, oppression, and loneliness; it meets them head-on and incorporates them into realistic conclusions.
Rashi on Ecclesiastes 1:13
And I applied my heart to search. In the Torah, which is wisdom, and to ponder over it concerning all the evil deeds mentioned above, which are committed under the sun, and I pondered over it that it is a sore task that the Holy One, Blessed Is He, set before mankind. “The life and the good, and the death and the evil.”41Devarim 30:15.
An evil thing. They have evil behavior.
To be afflicted with. To behave with it. “עִנְיָן” may be interpreted as an expression of an abode [=מָעוֹן and a dwelling, and it may also be interpreted as an expression of study [=עִיּוּן and thought, and the same applies [for the interpretation of] ‘לַעֲנוֹת בּוֹ.’42Alternatively ‘לענות בו’ means “to be afflicted w…
