Ecclesiastes 2:13

The NET Bible®

I realized that wisdom is preferable to folly, just as light is preferable to darkness:

Parallel Translations

New Living Translation
I thought, "Wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness.

Update Bible Version
Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.

New Century Version
I saw that being wise is certainly better than being foolish, just as light is better than darkness.

Webster's Bible Translation
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.

World English Bible
Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.

Amplified Bible
Then I saw that [even secular] wisdom [that brings sorrow] is better than [the pleasures of] folly and self-indulgence as light excels darkness.

English Standard Version
Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y siy, that wisdom yede so mych bifor foli, as miche as liyt is dyuerse fro derknessis.

English Revised Version
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.

Berean Standard Bible
And I saw that wisdom exceeds folly, just as light exceeds darkness:

Contemporary English Version
And I discovered that wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness.

American Standard Version
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.

Bible in Basic English
Then I saw that wisdom is better than foolish ways--as the light is better than the dark.

Complete Jewish Bible
I saw that wisdom is more useful than foolishness, just as light is more useful than darkness.

Darby Translation
And I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as light excelleth darkness.

Easy-to-Read Version
I saw that wisdom is better than foolishness in the same way that light is better than darkness.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.

King James Version (1611)
Then I saw that wisedome excelleth folly, as farre as light excelleth darkenesse.

New Life Bible
And I saw that wisdom is better than what is foolish, as light is better than darkness.

New Revised Standard
Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then I saw that there is profite in wisdome, more then in follie: as the light is more excellent then darkenes.

George Lamsa Translation
Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, just as light excels darkness.

Good News Translation
Oh, I know, "Wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then saw, I, that wisdom doth excel folly, - as far as light excelleth darkness.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I saw that wisdom excelled folly, as much as light differeth from darkness.

Revised Standard Version
Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And I sawe that wisdome excelleth foolishnesse, as farre as light doth darknesse.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I saw that wisdom excels folly, as much as light excels darkness.

Christian Standard Bible®
And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.

Hebrew Names Version
Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.

King James Version
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.

Lexham English Bible
I realized that wisdom has an advantage over folly, just as light has an advantage over darkness.

Literal Translation
Then I saw that there is advantage to wisdom above folly, even as light has advantage over darkness.

Young's Literal Translation
And I saw that there is an advantage to wisdom above folly, like the advantage of the light above the darkness.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and I sawe, that wy?dome excelleth foolishnesse, as farre as light doth darknesse.

New American Standard Bible
Then I saw that wisdom surpasses foolishness as light surpasses darkness.

New King James Version
Then I saw that wisdom excels folly As light excels darkness.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.

Legacy Standard Bible
And I saw that there is an advantage in wisdom over simpleminded folly as light has an advantage over darkness.

Contextual Overview

¹² Next, I decided to consider wisdom, as well as foolish behavior and ideas. For what more can the king's successor do than what the king has already done? ¹³ I realized that wisdom is preferable to folly, just as light is preferable to darkness: ¹⁴ The wise man can see where he is going, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also realized that the same fate happens to them both. ¹⁵ So I thought to myself, "The fate of the fool will happen even to me! Then what did I gain by becoming so excessively wise?" So I lamented to myself, "The benefits of wisdom are ultimately meaningless!" ¹⁶ For the wise man, like the fool, will not be remembered for very long, because in the days to come, both will already have been forgotten. Alas, the wise man dies—just like the fool!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I saw: Ecclesiastes 7:11, Ecclesiastes 7:12, Ecclesiastes 9:16, Proverbs 4:5-7, Proverbs 16:16, Malachi 3:18, Malachi 4:1, Malachi 4:2

that wisdom excelleth folly: Heb. that there is an excellency in wisdom more than in folly, etc

light: Ecclesiastes 11:7, Psalms 119:105, Psalms 119:130, Proverbs 4:18, Proverbs 4:19, Matthew 6:23, Luke 11:34, Luke 11:35, Ephesians 5:8

Reciprocal: Genesis 1:4 - that Ecclesiastes 8:1 - as the Jeremiah 9:23 - wise Daniel 6:3 - an

Cross-References

Genesis 10:6
The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

Isaiah 11:11
At that time the sovereign master will again lift his hand to reclaim the remnant of his people from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the seacoasts.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Solomon having found that wisdom and folly agree in being subject to vanity, now contrasts one with the other Ecclesiastes 2:13. Both are brought under vanity by events Ecclesiastes 2:14 which come on the wise man and the feel alike from without - death and oblivion Ecclesiastes 2:16, uncertainty Ecclesiastes 2:19, disappointment Ecclesiastes 2:21 - all happening by an external law beyond human control. Amidst this vanity, the good (see Ecclesiastes 2:10 note) that accrues to man, is the pleasure felt Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 in receiving God’s gifts, and in working with and for them.

Ecclesiastes 2:12

What can the man do ... - i. e., “What is any man - in this study of wisdom and folly - after one like me, who, from my position, have had such special advantages (see Ecclesiastes 1:16, and compare Ecclesiastes 2:25) for carrying it on? That which man did of old he can but do again: he is not likely to add to the result of my researches, nor even to equal them.” Some hold that the “man” is a reference to Solomon’s successor - not in his inquiries, but in his kingdom, i. e., Jeroboam.

Ecclesiastes 2:14

Event - Or, “hap” Ruth 2:3. The verb from which it is derived seems in this book to refer especially to death. The word does not mean chance (compare Ecclesiastes 9:1-2), independent of the ordering of Divine Providence: the Gentile notion of “mere chance,” or “blind fate,” is never once contemplated by the writer of this book, and it would be inconsistent with his tenets of the unlimited power and activity of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:16

Seeing that ... - Compare Ecclesiastes 1:11. Some render, “as in time past, so in days to come, all will be forgotten;” others, “because in the days to come all will have been long before forgotten.”

Ecclesiastes 2:17

I hated life - Compare this expression, extorted from Solomon by the perception of the vanity of his wisdom and greatness, with Romans 8:22-23. The words of Moses Numbers 11:15, and of Job Job 3:21; Job 6:9, are scarcely less forcible. With some people, this feeling is a powerful motive to conversion Luke 14:26.

Ecclesiastes 2:19

Labour - Compare Ecclesiastes 2:4-8.

Ecclesiastes 2:20

I went about - i. e., I turned from one course of action to another.

Ecclesiastes 2:23

Are sorrows ... grief - Rather, sorrows and grief are his toil. See Ecclesiastes 1:13.

Ecclesiastes 2:24

Nothing better for a man, than that ... - literally, no good in man that etc. The one joy of working or receiving, which, though it be transitory, a man recognizes as a real good, even that is not in the power of man to secure for himself: that good is the gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 2:26

The doctrine of retribution, or, the revealed fact that God is the moral Governor of the world, is here stated for the first time (compare Ecclesiastes 3:15, Ecclesiastes 3:17 ff) in this book.

This also is vanity - Not only the travail of the sinner. Even the best gifts of God, wisdom, knowledge, and joy, so far as they are given in this life, are not permanent, and are not always (see Ecclesiastes 9:11) efficacious for the purpose for which they appear to be given.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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.