Ecclesiastes 7:13

THE MESSAGE

Take a good look at God's work. Who could simplify and reduce Creation's curves and angles To a plain straight line?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Consider the work of God,for who can straighten outwhat he has made crooked?

Hebrew Names Version
Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked?

King James Version
Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

English Standard Version
Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?

New American Standard Bible
Consider the work of God, For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

New Century Version
Look at what God has done: No one can straighten what he has bent.

Amplified Bible
Consider the work of God: Who can make straight what He has bent?

World English Bible
Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Beholde the worke of God: for who can make straight that which he hath made crooked?

Legacy Standard Bible
See the work of God,For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

Berean Standard Bible
Consider the work of God: Who can straighten what He has bent?

Contemporary English Version
Think of what God has done! If God makes something crooked, can you make it straight?

Complete Jewish Bible
Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?

Darby Translation
Consider the work of God; for who can make straight what he hath made crooked?

Easy-to-Read Version
Look at what God has made. You cannot change a thing, even if you think it is wrong.

George Lamsa Translation
Consider the work of God; for who can straighten him who is crooked?

Good News Translation
Think about what God has done. How can anyone straighten out what God has made crooked?

Lexham English Bible
Consider the work of God. For who is able to make straight what he made crooked?

Literal Translation
Look at the work of God; for who can make that straight which He has bent?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Considre the worke of God, how that no man can make the thinge straight, which he maketh croked.

American Standard Version
Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

Bible in Basic English
Give thought to the work of God. Who will make straight what he has made bent?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Consider the work of God; for who can make that straight, which He hath made crooked?

King James Version (1611)
Consider the worke of God: for who can make that straight, which hee hath made crooked?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Consider the worke of God, how that no man can make the thing straight, whiche he maketh crooked.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For wisdom in its shadow is as the shadow of silver: and the excellence of the knowledge of wisdom will give life to him that has it.

English Revised Version
Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Biholde thou the werkis of God, that no man may amende hym, whom God hath dispisid.

Update Bible Version
Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked?

Webster's Bible Translation
Consider the work of God: for who can make [that] straight, which he hath made crooked?

New English Translation
Consider the work of God: For who can make straight what he has bent?

New King James Version
Consider the work of God; For who can make straight what He has made crooked?

New Living Translation
Accept the way God does things, for who can straighten what he has made crooked?

New Life Bible
Think of the work of God, for who is able to make straight what He has not made straight?

New Revised Standard
Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Consider the work of God, - for who can straighten what he hath bent?

Douay-Rheims Bible
(7-14) Consider the works of God, that no man can correct whom he hath despised.

Revised Standard Version
Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked?

Young's Literal Translation
See the work of God, For who is able to make straight that which He made crooked?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Consider the work of God, For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

Contextual Overview

¹¹Wisdom is better when it's paired with money, Especially if you get both while you're still living. Double protection: wisdom and wealth! Plus this bonus: Wisdom energizes its owner. ¹³ Take a good look at God's work. Who could simplify and reduce Creation's curves and angles To a plain straight line? ¹⁴ On a good day, enjoy yourself; On a bad day, examine your conscience. God arranges for both kinds of days So that we won't take anything for granted. ¹⁵I've seen it all in my brief and pointless life—here a good person cut down in the middle of doing good, there a bad person living a long life of sheer evil. So don't knock yourself out being good, and don't go overboard being wise. Believe me, you won't get anything out of it. But don't press your luck by being bad, either. And don't be reckless. Why die needlessly? ¹⁸ It's best to stay in touch with both sides of an issue. A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality, not just a piece of it. ¹⁹ Wisdom puts more strength in one wise person Than ten strong men give to a city. ²⁰ There's not one totally good person on earth, Not one who is truly pure and sinless. ²¹Don't eavesdrop on the conversation of others. What if the gossip's about you and you'd rather not hear it? You've done that a few times, haven't you—said things Behind someone's back you wouldn't say to his face?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Consider: Job 37:14, Psalms 8:3, Psalms 107:43, Isaiah 5:12

who: Ecclesiastes 1:15, Job 9:12, Job 11:10, Job 12:14, Job 34:29, Isaiah 14:27, Isaiah 43:13, Isaiah 46:10, Isaiah 46:11, Daniel 4:35, Romans 9:15, Romans 9:19, Ephesians 1:11

Reciprocal: Ecclesiastes 8:6 - to every Ecclesiastes 9:11 - but Isaiah 42:16 - crooked Isaiah 45:7 - I make Peace Luke 12:26 - why

Cross-References

Genesis 5:32
When Noah was 500 years old, he had Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 6:18
"But I'm going to establish a covenant with you: You'll board the ship, and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives will come on board with you. You are also to take two of each living creature, a male and a female, on board the ship, to preserve their lives with you: two of every species of bird, mammal, and reptile—two of everything so as to preserve their lives along with yours. Also get all the food you'll need and store it up for you and them."

Genesis 7:1
Next God said to Noah, "Now board the ship, you and all your family—out of everyone in this generation, you're the righteous one.

Genesis 7:2
"Take on board with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and a female; one pair of every unclean animal, a male and a female; and seven pairs of every kind of bird, a male and a female, to insure their survival on Earth. In just seven days I will dump rain on Earth for forty days and forty nights. I'll make a clean sweep of everything that I've made."

Genesis 10:6
The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, Canaan.

Genesis 10:21
Shem, the older brother of Japheth, also had sons. Shem was ancestor to all the children of Eber.

Hebrews 11:7
By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn't see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Consider the work of God,.... This is dressed to those who thought the former days better than the present, and were ready to quarrel with the providence of God, Ecclesiastes 7:10; and are therefore advised to consider the work of God; not the work of creation, but of providence; which is the effect of divine sovereignty, and is conducted and directed according to the counsel of his will, and is always wisely done to answer the best ends and purposes: everything is beautiful in its season; contemplate, adore, and admire the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, displayed therein; it is such as cannot be made better, nor otherwise than it is;

for who can make [that] straight which he hath made crooked? or which seems to be so, irregular and disagreeable? No man can mend or make that better he finds fault with and complains of; nor can he alter the course of things, nor stay the hand, nor stop the providence of God: if it is his pleasure that public calamities should be in the world, or in such a part of it, as famine, pestilence, or the sword; or any affliction on families, and particular persons, or poverty and meanness in such and such individuals, there is no hindering it; whatever he has purposed and resolved, his providence effects, and there is no frustrating his designs; it signifies nothing for a creature to murmur and complain; it is best to submit to his will, for no alteration can be made but what he pleases. Some understand this of natural defects in human bodies, with which they are born, or which attend them, as blindness, lameness, c. so the Targum,

"consider the work of God, and his strength, who made the blind, the crooked, and the lame, to be wonders in the world for who can make straight one of them but the Lord of the world, who made him crooked?''

Others, of spiritual defects in such who walk in crooked ways, and are hardened in them; who can correct them, and make them other ways, if God does not give them his grace to convert them, and soften their hard hearts? he hardens whom he will, and who hath resisted his will? Jarchi's paraphrase is,

"who can make straight after death what he has made crooked in life?''

Ecclesiastes 7:10- :. Alshech interprets it of the first man Adam.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The work of God - The scheme of Divine Providence, the course of events which God orders and controls (compare Ecclesiastes 3:11). It comprises both events which are “straight,” i. e., in accordance with our expectation, and events which are “crooked,” i. e., which by their seeming inequality baffle our comprehension.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 13. Consider the work of God — Such is the nature of his providence, that it puts money into the hands of few: but wisdom is within the reach of all. The first is not necessary to happiness; therefore, it is not offered to men; the latter is; and therefore God, in his goodness, offers it to the whole human race. The former can rarely be acquired, for God puts it out of the reach of most men, and you cannot make that straight which he has made crooked; the latter may be easily attained by every person who carefully and seriously seeks it from God.