Ecclesiastes 7:13

Revised Standard Version

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

Parallel Translations

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

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?

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?

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

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?

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

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.

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?

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

King James Version
Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he 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.

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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?

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

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

Contextual Overview

¹¹ Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun. ¹² For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money; and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. ¹³ Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked? ¹⁴ In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. ¹⁵ In my vain life I have seen everything; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil-doing. ¹⁶ Be not righteous overmuch, and do not make yourself overwise; why should you destroy yourself? ¹⁷ Be not wicked overmuch, neither be a fool; why should you die before your time? ¹⁸ It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand; for he who fears God shall come forth from them all. ¹⁹ Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers that are in a city. ²⁰ Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

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
After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 6:10
And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 6:18
But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

Genesis 7:1
Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

Genesis 7:2
Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate;

Genesis 7:4
For in seven days I will send rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground."

Genesis 7:7
And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark, to escape the waters of the flood.

Genesis 7:9
two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.

Genesis 7:18
The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters.

Genesis 7:19
And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered;

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.