◄ Ecclesiastes 1:13 ►
Verse  (Click for Chapter)
Good News Translation
I determined that I would examine and study all the things that are done in this world. God has laid a miserable fate upon us.

New Revised Standard Version
applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with.

Contemporary English Version
With all my wisdom I tried to understand everything that happens here on earth. And God has made this so hard for us humans to do.

New American Bible
and I applied my mind to search and investigate in wisdom all things that are done under the sun. A bad business God has given to human beings to be busied with.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I proposed in my mind to seek and search out wisely concerning all things that are done under the sun. This painful occupation hath God given to the children of men, to be exercised therein.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

And I proposed in my mind to seek and search out wisely concerning all things that are done under the sun. This painful occupation hath God given to the children of men, to be exercised therein.

i gave

Ecclesiastes 1:17 And I have given my heart to know prudence, and learning, and errors, and folly: and I have perceived that in these also there was labour, and vexation of spirit,

Ecclesiastes 7:25 I have surveyed all things with my mind, to know, and consider, and seek out wisdom and reason: and to know the wickedness of the fool, and the error of the imprudent:

Ecclesiastes 8:9,16,17 All these things I have considered, and applied my heart to all the works that are done under the sun. Sometimes one man ruleth over another to his own hurt. . . .

Psalm 111:2 Great are the works of the Lord: sought out according to all his wills.

Proverbs 2:2-4 For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence: . . .

Proverbs 4:7 Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her.

Proverbs 18:1,15 He that hath a mind to depart from a friend, seeketh occasions: he shall ever be subject to reproach. . . .

Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways.

1 Timothy 4:15 Meditate upon these things, be wholly in these things: that thy profiting may be manifest to all.

this sore

Ecclesiastes 3:10 I have seen the trouble, which God hath given the sons of men to be exercised in it.

Ecclesiastes 4:4 Again I considered all the labours of men, and I remarked that their industries are exposed to the envy of their neighbour: so in this also there is vanity, and fruitless care.

Ecclesiastes 12:12 More than these, my son, require not. Of making many books there is no end: and much study is an affliction of the flesh.

Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.

to be exercised or to afflict them

Context
With Wisdom Comes Sorrow
12I Ecclesiastes was king over Israel in Jerusalem, 13And I proposed in my mind to seek and search out wisely concerning all things that are done under the sun. This painful occupation hath God given to the children of men, to be exercised therein.14I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold all is vanity, and vexation of spirit.…
Cross References
Job 28:3
He hath set a time for darkness, and the end of all things he considereth, the stone also that is in the dark and the shadow of death.

Ecclesiastes 1:17
And I have given my heart to know prudence, and learning, and errors, and folly: and I have perceived that in these also there was labour, and vexation of spirit,

Ecclesiastes 2:23
All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?

Ecclesiastes 2:26
God hath given to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he hath given vexation, and superfluous care, to heap up and to gather together, and to give it to him that hath pleased God: but this also is vanity, and a fruitless solicitude of the mind.

Ecclesiastes 3:10
I have seen the trouble, which God hath given the sons of men to be exercised in it.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He hath made all things good in their time, and hath delivered the world to their consideration, so that man cannot find out the work which God hath made from the beginning to the end.

Ecclesiastes 4:8
There is but one, and he hath not a second, no child, no brother, and yet he ceaseth not to labour, neither are his eyes satisfied with riches, neither doth he reflect, saying: For whom do I labour, and defraud my soul of good things? in this also is vanity, and a grievous vexation.

Ecclesiastes 7:25
I have surveyed all things with my mind, to know, and consider, and seek out wisdom and reason: and to know the wickedness of the fool, and the error of the imprudent:

Ecclesiastes 8:16
And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to understand the distraction that is upon earth: for there are some that day and night take no sleep with their eyes.

Ecclesiastes 8:17
And I understood that man can find no reason of all those works of God that are done under the sun: and the more he shall labour to seek, so much the less shall he find: yea, though the wise man shall say, that he knoweth it, he shall not be able to find it.

Ecclesiastes 11:5
As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones are joined together in the womb of her that is with child: so thou knowest not the works of God, who is the maker of all.

Ecclesiastes 1:12
Top of Page
Top of Page