Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.
Parallel Translations
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Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.
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Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
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Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Ecclesiastes 2:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
- Ecclesiastes 7:11-12 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance. Yes, it is more excellent for those who see the sun. For wisdom is a defense, even as money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
- Ecclesiastes 11:7 Truly the light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to see the sun.
- Matthew 6:23 But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
- Psalms 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.
- Malachi 3:18–4:2 Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him. “For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.
- Luke 11:34-35 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness.
- Psalms 119:130 The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.
- Proverbs 4:5-7 Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don’t forget, and don’t deviate from the words of my mouth. Don’t forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.
- Proverbs 4:18-19 But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.
- Proverbs 16:16 How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! Yes, to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
- Ecclesiastes 7:19 Wisdom is a strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.
- Ecclesiastes 9:16 Then I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
- Ecclesiastes 9:18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroys much good.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Ecc 2:13 Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly,…
Ecc 2:13 Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
Ver. 13. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly,] i.e., Philosophy and human wisdom, though it cannot perfect the mind, nor make a man happy, yet it is as far beyond sensuality and brutishness as light is beyond darkness. Those that seek for the philosopher’s stone, though they miss their end, yet they find many excellent things by the way. So philosophers, politicians, moralists, though they missed the "pearl of price," yet they sought out other "goodly pearls" (with that wise merchant, Mat 13:45), for the which they have their just praise and profit:
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Then I saw; or, yet I saw; for this…
Then I saw; or, yet I saw; for this is added to prevent an Objection or mistake.
Wisdom excelleth folly; although wisdom is not sufficient to make men truly and perfectly happy, yet it is of a far greater use and excellency than vain pleasures, or any other follies.
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As far as light excelleth darkness, i.e. vastly and unspeakably. Light is very pleasant and comfortable, and withal of great necessity and singular use to discover the differences of persons and things, to prevent mistakes and dangers, and to direct all a man’s paths in the right way; whereas darkness is in itself doleful, and leads men into innumerable confusions, and errors, and miseries.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then I sat that wisdom excelleth folly,.... However, this…
Then I sat that wisdom excelleth folly,.... However, this upon a review of things he could not but own, that natural wisdom and knowledge, though there was no true happiness and satisfaction in them, yet they greatly exceeded folly and madness;
as far as light excelleth darkness; as the light of the day the darkness of the night; the one is pleasant and delightful, the other very uncomfortable; the one useful to direct in walking, the other very unsafe to walk in: light sometimes signifies joy and prosperity, and darkness adversity; the one is used to express the light of grace, and the other the darkness of sin and ignorance; now as the natural light exceeds darkness, and prosperity exceeds adversity and calamities, and a state of grace exceeds a state of sin and wickedness, so wisdom exceeds folly.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain I saw - I allowed thus much. Although wisdom…
I saw - I allowed thus much. Although wisdom is not sufficient to make men happy, yet it is of a far greater use than vain pleasures, or any other follies.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly]…
Verse 13. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly] Though in none of these pursuits I found the supreme good, the happiness my soul longed after; yet I could easily perceive that wisdom excelled the others, as far as light excels darkness. And he immediately subjoins the reasons.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Ecc 2:13-14. I saw that wisdom — I allowed…
Ecc 2:13-14. I saw that wisdom — I allowed thus much. Although wisdom is not sufficient to make men happy, yet it is of far greater use than vain pleasures, or any other follies. The wise man’s eyes are in his head — In their proper place. He hath the use of his eyes and reason, and foresees, and so avoids, many dangers and mischiefs. But the fool walketh in darkness — Manages his affairs ignorantly, rashly, and foolishly, whereby he shows that his eyes are not in his head, or are not used aright. And, or yet, I myself perceived also, &c. — That, notwithstanding this excellence of wisdom above folly, at last they both come to one end. Both are subject to the same calamities, and to death itself, which takes away all difference between them.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain (Pro 17:24). The worldly "wise" man has good sense…
(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).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 13. Wisdom excelleth folly — The verdict follows the…
13. Wisdom excelleth folly — The verdict follows the comparison. While culture and study cannot bring abiding good, or freedom from sorrow, yet they yield a noble and delightful joy as compared with the indulgences of passions which we share with the brutes.
Light excelleth darkness — Wisdom is here compared to the genial light of the morning, and folly to the heavy night that hangs dark and blinding upon one’s way and upon one’s eyes. Of course, the “light excelleth.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 13. I saw that wisdom excelleth folly] Better, as…
13. I saw that wisdom excelleth folly] Better, as keeping up, in the English as in the Hebrew, the characteristic word of the book, There is profit in wisdom more than in folly, and so in the second clause. Something then had been gained by the experience. In language like that of the Stoics he sings the praises of wisdom. Even the wisdom that brings sorrow (ch. Ecc_1:13) is better than the mirth of fools. A man is conscious of being more truly man when he looks before and after, and knows how to observe. Light is, after all, better than darkness, even if it only shews us that we are treading the path that leads to nothingness. The human heart obeys its instincts when it cries out with Aias,
ἐν δὲ φάει καὶ ὄλεσσον.
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“And if our fate be death, give light, and let us die.”
Hom. Il. xvii. 647.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) Wisdom surely has an advantage over folly, yet…
(13) Wisdom surely has an advantage over folly, yet how full of “vanity” is that advantage. Let the wise man have done his best, soon death comes; the wise man is forgotten, and all he has gained by his labour passes, without labour, into the hands of one who may be no inheritor of his wisdom.
Excelleth.—There is profit in wisdom more than in folly. The same word “profit” is used as in Ecc_5:11. (See Note on Ecc_1:3.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Then (and) I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as…
Then (and) I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness; or, there is profit, advantage (perisseia Septuagint, Ecc_1:3) to wisdom over folly, as the advantage of light over darkness. This result, at any rate, was obtained he learned that wisdom had a certain value, that it was as much superior to folly, in its effects on men, as light is more beneficial than darkness. It is a natural metaphor to represent spiritual and intellectual development as light, and mental and moral depravity as darkness (comp. Eph_5:8; 1Th_5:5)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 wisdom has advantages over folly, just as light is…
wisdom has advantages over folly, just as light is better than darkness
This speaks of how wisdom is better than folly by comparing it to how light is better than darkness. (See: Simile)
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The wise man uses his eyes in his head to see where he is going
This speaks of a wise man making wise decisions as walking and paying attention to where he is going. AT: "The wise man is like a person who uses his eyes to see where he is going" (See: Metaphor)
uses his eyes in his head to see
This is an idiom. AT: "pays attention and looks to see" (See: Idiom)
the fool walks in darkness
This compares a fool making bad decisions to someone walking in darkness. AT: "the fool is like a person who walks in the dark" (See: Metaphor)
the same event
death
translationWords
understand
wise
fool
light
darkness
destine
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:13-14 Wisdom is better than foolishness: Wisdom has value…
2:13-14 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).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.