◄ Ecclesiastes 2:12 ►
Verse  (Click for Chapter)
Good News Translation
After all, a king can only do what previous kings have done. So I started thinking about what it meant to be wise or reckless or foolish.

New Revised Standard Version
So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the one do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.

Contemporary English Version
I asked myself, "What can the next king do that I haven't done?" Then I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and stupidity.

New American Bible
What about one who succeeds a king? He can do only what has already been done. I went on to the consideration of wisdom, madness and folly.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I passed further to behold wisdom, and errors and folly, (What is man, said I that he can follow the King his maker?)

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

I passed further to behold wisdom, and errors and folly, (What is man, said I that he can follow the King his maker?)

i turned

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:

even that which hath already been done

Ecclesiastes 2:25 Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?

Context
The Wise and the Foolish
12I passed further to behold wisdom, and errors and folly, (What is man, said I that he can follow the King his maker?)13And I saw that wisdom excelled folly, as much as light differeth from darkness.…
Cross References
Ecclesiastes 1:9
What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done.

Ecclesiastes 1:10
Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us.

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 3:15
That which hath been made, the same continueth: the things that shall be, have already been: and God restoreth that which is past.

Ecclesiastes 2:11
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