something met with · relative particle + noun, common masculine singular absolute
happeneth
יִקְרֶ֥הyik.Reh
H7136
to light upon (chiefly by accident) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Psalms 49:10 For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
Proverbs 17:24 Wisdom is before him that hath understanding; but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.
Ecclesiastes 9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet r…
Ecclesiastes 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they ha…
Ecclesiastes 9:1-3 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: n…
1 John 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded…
Psalms 19:10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Proverbs 14:8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 2:12-16
Solomon having tried what satisfaction was to be had in learning first, and then in the pleasures of sense, and having also put both together, here compares them one with another and passes a judgment upon them.
I. He sets himself to consider both wisdom and folly. He had considered these before (Ecc 1:17); but lest it should be thought he was then too quick in passing a judgment upon them, he here turns himself again to behold them, to see if, upon a second view and second thoughts, he could gain more satisfaction in the search than he had done upon the first. He was sick of his pleasures, and, as nauseating them, he turned from them, that he might again apply himself to speculation; and if…
(Pro 17:24). The worldly "wise" man has good sense in managing his affairs, skill and taste in building and planting, and keeps within safe and respectable bounds in pleasure, while the "fool" is wanting in these respects ("darkness," equivalent to fatal error, blind infatuation), yet one event, death, happens to both (Job 21:26).
John Gill on Ecclesiastes 2:14
The wise man's eyes are in his head,.... And so are the eyes of every man; but the sense is, he makes use of them, he looks about him, and walks circumspectly; he takes heed to his goings, he foresees the evil, and avoids it; or the danger he is exposed unto, and guards against it. Some understand it, in a more spiritual and evangelical sense, of Christ, who is the head of the body the church, and of every true believer; of everyone that is wise unto salvation, whose eyes are on him alone for righteousness, salvation, and eternal life; or on whom Christ's eyes are; who is said to have seven eyes, with which he guides, guards, and protects his people;
but the fool walketh in darkness; his ey…
If we think about "eyes" in the visible sense, then (one can say) that both the foolish and the wise have eyes in their head. The wise [person], insofar as he is wise, turns upwards to Christ, his head. Thus it is written: "Christ is the head of every man." The head of the wise is the mind; therefore it is written: "But we have the mind of Christ."
In Ecclesiastes there is a curious saying. To the undiscerning it will seem meaningless, but it is precisely for the wise man that Ecclesiastes says: "The wise man's eyes are in his head." In what head? Every man, even a madman and a fool, has fleshly eyes on his fleshly head. But the eyes of the wise man, of which it is said that they are enlightened by the commandments of God, are in his head, in Christ, because "the head of the man is Christ," says the Apostle. The capacity to think proceeds from Christ.
And first of all, let us understand that the structure of the human body is like that of the world. Just as the sky towers over the air, the earth, and the sea, which are like certain members of the world, so too we see that the head stands out above the other parts of our body and is the most excellent of all, like the sky among the elements, like a citadel among the other fortifications of a city. In this citadel, a certain royal wisdom resides according to the prophetic saying: The eyes of the wise are in their head; this is the safest for the rest and from it strength and providence are derived for all the members.
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
Fools · Walk in darkness — Walk in darkness
Man · MORTAL — MORTAL
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).
"And I saw that wisdom has the advantage over folly, as light has the advantage over darkness. The wise man has eyes in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness." In the sacred Scriptures, "light" is generally the symbol of grace, Psa 43:3, but also the contrast of an intellectually and morally darkened state, Isa 51:4. To know a thing is equivalent to having light on it, and seeing it in its true light (Psa 36:10); wisdom is thus compared to light; folly is once, Job 38:19, directly called "darkness." Thus wisdom stands so much higher than folly, as light stands above darkness.יתרון, which hitherto denoted actual result, enduring gain, signifies here preference; along with כּיתרון
(Note:…
Wisdom is better than foolishness: Wisdom has value in navigating life successfully. It cannot, however, save one from the fate of death or provide meaning (2:15-16).
Rashi on Ecclesiastes 2:14
The wise man, his eyes are in his head. In the beginning [=בְּרֹאשׁוֹ of the matter, he contemplates the end results.19Note the similarity to “Who is wise? He who visualizes what the future holds,” in Maseches Tamid 32a.
But I also understood. Also, I [know], who praise the wise man over the fool, I know that they both will die.
