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 7:12-13 For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.
Matthew 6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Ecclesiastes 3:14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men s…
Isaiah 40:4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places p…
Job 11:6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than…
Job 34:29 When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nati…
Lamentations 3:37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabit…
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…
Investigation (Ecc 1:13) into human ways is vain labor, for they are hopelessly "crooked" and "cannot be made straight" by it (Ecc 7:13). God, the chief good, alone can do this (Isa 40:4; Isa 45:2).
wanting-- (Dan 5:27).
numbered--so as to make a complete number; so equivalent to "supplied" [MAURER]. Or, rather, man's state is utterly wanting; and that which is wholly defective cannot be numbered or calculated. The investigator thinks he can draw up, in accurate numbers, statistics of man's wants; but these, including the defects in the investigator's labor, are not partial, but total.
John Gill on Ecclesiastes 1:15
That which is crooked cannot be made straight,.... By all the art and cunning, wisdom and knowledge of man, that he can attain unto; whatever he, in the vanity of his mind, may find fault with in the works of God, either of nature of providence, and which he may call crooked, it is not in his power to make them straight, or to mend them; see Ecclesiastes 7:13. There is something which, through sin, is crooked, in the hearts, in the nature, in the principles, ways and works, of men; which can never be made straight, corrected or amended, by all the natural wisdom and knowledge of men, which shows the insufficiency of it: the wisest philosophers among men, with all their parade of wit and lear…
He is upright in heart who does not have his mind inclined to excess or to deficiency but directs his endeavors toward the mean of virtue. He who has turned aside from valor to something less becomes crooked through cowardice, but he who has strained on to greater things inclines toward temerity. Therefore the Scripture calls those "crooked" who go astray from the middle way by excess or by deficiency. For, as a line becomes crooked when its straightforward direction is deflected, now convexly, now concavely, so also a heart becomes crooked when it is at one time exalted through boastfulness, at another dejected through afflictions and humiliations. Wherefore Ecclesiastes says, "The crooked will not be kept straight."
The number by which God numbers the saints displays a certain and determined spiritual order, as it is said, "He numbers the multitudes of stars; and calls them all by name." … Now, if David says, the understanding of God is without number, it is not as though it were unworthy of God's essence that it cannot be numbered, or because the nature of such a number cannot be comprehended. For, just as the word invisible has two meanings: first, when applied to something that by its very nature is invisible (e.g., God), and second, when applied to something that may be visible yet is not normally seen, like the ocean floor because it is hidden under waters; similarly, "innumerable" has two meanings: what cannot be numbered by nature and what cannot be numbered for some other reason.
"A twisted thing cannot be made straight, and what is not there cannot be numbered. "Whoever is wicked cannot be corrected, unless he was corrected beforehand. Anything that is already correct will receive embellishment; and that which is deviated will receive correction. A man is not called wrong unless he has been diverted from the correct path. This is contrary to the heretics, who entertained certain characteristics, which do not seem to be sane. And since what is missing is lacking, it cannot be numbered. Besides, only the firstborn of Israel were counted. The women, slaves, children and the people from Egypt, although of a great number, were largely overlooked, being referred to as a reduction from the army, without a number. The meaning of this can also be: such wickedness is done in the sphere of the world that the world is scarcely able to return to its completely good condition; nor is it able to regain easily its order and complete state, in which it was first created. Another meaning of this is: when all men have been restored to goodness through repentance, only the devil will remain in his wickedness. For all things which are done under the sun are done by his will and in the spirit of malevolence, while sins are piled on sins at his instigation. Then it can also mean: so great is the number of deviants and of those who have been taken away from God's flock by the devil that it is impossible to count them.
Dictionary and topics
Instruction · From nature — From nature
Investigation · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Ecclesiastes 1:15
"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…
like chasing the wind: Just as the wind quickly comes and goes, so does life.
Rashi on Ecclesiastes 1:15
That which is crooked. During his lifetime, will not be able to be straightened after he dies. Whoever toiled on the eve of Shabbos will eat on Shabbos.46See Maseches Avodah Zarah 3a. And our Sages explained this as referring to one who had illicit relations with a woman and begot a mamzer, or to a Torah scholar who abandoned the Torah, [i.e.,] he was originally straight, and became crooked.47See Mishnayos Chagigah 1:7. Another application of this verse is in reference to a person who failed to recite Shema or Tefillah in their respective required time periods; in Maseches Berachos 26a.
And that which is wanting cannot be counted. The one who excluded himself from the group,48I.e., that was…