“Behold, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “to one another, to find out the scheme
Parallel Translations
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“Behold, I have found this,” says the Preacher, “to one another, to find out the scheme
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Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:
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Behold, this have I found, saith Koheleth, adding one thing to another, to find out the account;
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to Ecclesiastes 7:27 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ecclesiastes 12:8-10 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!” Further, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered, sought out, and set in order many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written blamelessly, words of truth.
- Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem: “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Ecc 7:27 Behold, this have I found, saith the…
Ecc 7:27 Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, [counting] one by one, to find out the account:
Ver. 27. Behold, this I have found.] Eυρηκα, Eυρηκα, ‘I have found it, I have found it,’ said the philosopher. Vicimus, Vicimus, We have prevailed, we have prevailed, said Luther, when he had been praying in his closet for the good success of the consultation about religion in Germany. So the Preacher here, having by diligence set open the door of truth, {a} cries, Venite, videte, Come and see my discoveries, in the making whereof I have been very exact, "counting one by one," ne mole obruerer, lest I should be oppressed with many things at once.
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{a} Aperit sibi diligentia ianuam veritatis. - Amb.
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 Behold; it is a strange thing, and worthy of…
Behold; it is a strange thing, and worthy of your serious observation.
The preacher; or, the penitent, who speaks what he hath learned, both by deep, study and costly experience.
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Counting one by one; considering things or persons very exactly and distinctly, one after another; and not only in general and confusedly, in which case a man may very easily be mistaken; and comparing them together, whereby I was enabled to make the truer judgment of them.
To find out the account, that I might make a true and just estimate in this matter. Or, as it is in the margin:, and was rendered Ecc 7:25, the reason, to wit, of that which I am about to say. I considered the persons severally and critically, that from thence I might understand the reason of the thing.
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 Behold, this have I found,.... That a harlot is…
Behold, this have I found,.... That a harlot is more bitter than death; and which he found by his own experience, and therefore would have it observed by others for their caution: or one man among a thousand, Ecc 7:28;
(saith the preacher); of which title and character see Ecc 1:1; it is here mentioned to confirm the truth of what he said; he said it as a preacher, and, upon the word of a preacher, it was true; as also to signify his repentance for his sin, who was now the "gathered soul", as some render it; gathered into the church of God by repentance;
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counting one by one, to find out the account; not his own sins, which he endeavoured to reckon up, and find out the general account of them, which yet he could not do; nor the good works of the righteous, and the sins of the wicked, which are numbered before the Lord one by one, till they are added to the great account; as Jarchi, from the Rabbins, interprets it, and so the Midrash: but rather the sense is, examining women, one by one, all within the verge of his acquaintance; particularly the thousand women that were either his wives or concubines; in order to take and give a just estimate of their character and actions. What follows is the result.
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 To find - That I might make a true…
To find - That I might make a true and just estimate.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 27. Counting one by one] I have gone…
Verse 27. Counting one by one] I have gone over every particular. I have compared one thing with another; man with woman, his wisdom with her wiles; his strength with her blandishments; his influence with her ascendancy; his powers of reason with her arts and cunning; and in a thousand men, I have found one thoroughly upright man; but among one thousand women I have not found one such. This is a lamentable account of the state of morals in Judea, in the days of the wise King Solomon. Thank God! it would not be difficult to get a tithe of both in the same number in the present day.
The Targum gives this a curious turn: - "There is another thing which my soul has sought, but could not find: a man perfect and innocent, and without corruption, from the days of Adam until Abraham the just was born; who was found faithful and upright among the thousand kings who came together to construct the tower of Babel: but a woman like to Sarah among the wives of all those kings I have not found."
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 7:27-28. Behold, saith the preacher — Or, the…
Ecc 7:27-28. Behold, saith the preacher — Or, the penitent, who speaks what he hath learned, both by deep study and costly experience; this have I found — And it is a strange thing, and worthy of your serious observation; counting one by one — Considering things or persons, very exactly and distinctly, one after another; to find out the account — That I might make a true and just estimate in this matter; or, as it is in the margin, to find out the reason. Which yet my soul seeketh — It seems so wonderful to me, that I suspected that I had not made a sufficient inquiry, and therefore I returned and searched again, with more earnestness; but I find not — That it was so he found, but the reason of the thing he could not find out. One man — A wise and virtuous man; among a thousand — With whom I have conversed; have I found — He is supposed to mention this number in allusion to his thousand wives and concubines, as they are numbered, 1Ki 11:3; but a woman — One worthy of that name, one who is not a dishonour to her sex; among all those, have I not found — In that thousand whom I have taken into intimate society with myself. It is justly observed by different commentators here, that “we are not hence to infer, that Solomon thought there were fewer good women than men: but that he knew he had not gone the right way to find the virtuous woman, when he deviated so widely from the original law of marriage; and instead of seeking one rational companion, the sole object of his endeared affections, he had collected a vast multitude for magnificence and indulgence. The more valuable part of the sex would not willingly form one in such a group; and, if any of them were previously well disposed, the jealousies, party interests, contests, and artifices which take place in such situations, would tend exceedingly to corrupt them, and render them all nearly of the same character. Solomon therefore here speaks the language of a penitent, warning others against the sins into which he had been betrayed; and not that of a waspish satirist, lashing indiscriminately one half of the human species.” — Scott.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Her. He speaks by experience, (St. Jerome) as none…
Her. He speaks by experience, (St. Jerome) as none perhaps ever fell more terribly victims of impure love. (Calmet) --- Though a plurality of wives was then permitted, Solomon did wrong in marrying strangers; and in suffering himself to be deluded by them, so as to erect temples to their respective idols. (Haydock) --- All the attractions of women are replete with danger, and can only be overcome by God’s grace, and by flight, 1 Corinthians iv. 8., and Proverbs vii. 22., and xxii. 14. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain this--namely, what follows in Ecc 7:28.
this--namely, what follows in Ecc 7:28.
counting one by one--by comparing one thing with another [HOLDEN and MAURER].
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account--a right estimate. But Ecc 7:28 more favors GESENIUS. "Considering women one by one."
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 27. This have I found — He shows that…
27. This have I found — He shows that his view is the result of sober examination of both sexes, looking for the result by weighing individual instances.
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 27. saith the Preacher] The passage is remarkable as…
27. saith the Preacher] The passage is remarkable as being the solitary instance in the book in which the name Koheleth, feminine in form, yet elsewhere treated as masculine, is joined with the feminine form of the verb. It is possible, however, that this may be only an error of transcription, the transfer of a single letter from the end of one word to the beginning of another, restoring the verse to the more common construction, as found, e. g. in chap. Ecc_12:8, where, as here, adopting this reading, the article is prefixed to the word Koheleth, elsewhere treated as a proper name.
counting one by one] The words remind us, on the one hand, of Diogenes the Cynic, with his lantern, looking for an honest man at Athens, and answering, when asked where such men might be found, that good men were to be found nowhere, and good boys only in Sparta (Diog. Laert. vi. 2. 27); and on the other, of Jeremiah’s search to see “if there were any in Jerusalem that sought after God” (Jer_5:1-5). The words, as it were, drag their slow length along, as if expressing the toil and weariness of the search. And after all he had failed to find.
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.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Behold, this have I found. The result of his…
Behold, this have I found. The result of his search, thus forcibly introduced, follows in ver. 28. He has carefully examined the character and conduct of both sexes, and he is constrained to make the unsatisfactory remark which he there puts forth. Saith the preacher. Koheleth is here treated as a feminine noun, being joined with the feminine form of the verb, though elsewhere it is grammatically regarded as masculine. (see on Ecc_1:1) Many have thought that, after speaking so disparagingly of woman, it would be singularly inappropriate to introduce the official preacher as a female; they have therefore adopted a slight alteration in the text, viz. tljQojrma instead of tlhqo hrma which is simply the transference of he from the end of one word to the beginning of the next, thus adding the article, as in Ecc_12:8, and making the term accord with the Syriac and Arabic, and the Septuagint, eipen oJ jEkklhsiasth. The writer here introduces his own designation in order to call special attention to what is coming. Counting one by one. The phrase is elliptical, and signifies, adding one thing to another, or weighing one thing after another, putting together various facts or marks. To find out the account; to arrive at the reckoning, the desired result.
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 adding one discovery to another
adding one discovery to another
The word "discovery" can be expressed as a verb. The word "adding" here is used as an idiom. AT: "discovering one thing after another" (See: Abstract Nouns and Idiom)
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in order to find an explanation of reality
This word "explanation" can be expressed as a verb. See how the phrase "explanations of reality" is translated in Ecclesiastes 7:25. AT: "in order to be able to explain things in life" (See: Abstract Nouns)
one righteous man among a thousand
"1 righteous man among 1,000." Only one righteous man was found in a group of 1,000 people. (See: Numbers)
a woman among all those
There were no righteous women found in a group of 1,000 people.
translationWords
teacher
righteous
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.