Ecclesiastes 1:17

Ecc 1:17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

Ver. 17. And to know madness and folly.] That by comparing of contraries, I might the sooner find and fish out what I sought for. Sed frustra fui, but I disquieted myself in vain. Philosophandum igitur, sed paucis; there is a deceit in philosophy, {Col 2:8} and he who chooseth to hold fast this "lying vanity," doth by his own election "forsake his own mercy." {Jon 2:8}

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.

That is, vain things, which served unto pleasure, wherein was no commodity, but grief and trouble of conscience.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

wisdom . . . madness--that is, their effects, the works of human wisdom and folly respectively. "Madness," literally, "vaunting extravagance"; Ecc 2:12; Ecc 7:25, &c., support English Version rather than DATHE, "splendid matters." "Folly" is read by English Version with some manuscripts, instead of the present Hebrew text, "prudence." If Hebrew be retained, understand "prudence," falsely so called (Ti1 6:20), "craft" (Dan 8:25).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 17. To know madness and folly] הוללות ושכלות holloth vesichluth. Παραβολας και επιστημην, "Parables and science." - Septuagint. So the Syriac; nearly so the Arabic.

"What were error and foolishness." - Coverdale. Perhaps gayety and sobriety may be the better meaning for these two difficult words. I can scarcely think they are taken in that bad sense in which our translation exhibits them. "I tried pleasure in all its forms; and sobriety and self-abnegation to their utmost extent." Choheleth paraphrases, "Even fools and madmen taught me rules."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(17) Madness and folly are words we should not expect to find in this context, and accordingly some interpreters have attempted by variations of reading to substitute for them words of the same nature as “wisdom and knowledge,” but see Ecc_2:12; Ecc_7:25. Taking the text as it stands, it means to know wisdom and knowledge fully by a study of their contraries. The word for “madness” is peculiar to this book, but the corresponding verb occurs frequently in other books.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. And I gave my heart] The apparent iteration of the phrase of Ecc_1:13 expresses the concentration of purpose. The writer adds that his search took a yet wider range. He sought to know wisdom through its opposite, to enlarge his experience of the diseases of human thought. He had fathomed the depths of the “madness and folly;” the former word expressing in Hebrew as in English the wilder forms of unwisdom. There is, perhaps, a touch of self-mockery in the fact that the latter word in the Hebrew is all but identical in sound with a word which means “prudence.” One, the writer seems to say, has the same issue as the other. Some critics, indeed (e.g. Ginsburg), think that the present text originated in an error of transcription and that we ought to read “to know wisdom and knowledge.” It has been thought and, as stated in the Introduction (chap. ii.), with some reason, that in the use of the stronger word we have an echo of the current language of the Stoics who looked on all the weaknesses of mankind as so many forms of insanity. So Horace (Sat. ii. 3. 43),

“Quem mala stultitia et quemcunque inscitia veri

Cæcum agit, insanum Chrysippi porticus et grex

Autumat. Hæc populos, hæc magnos formula reges,

Excepto sapiente, tenet.”

“Him, whom weak folly leads in blindness on,

Unknowing of the Truth, the Porch and tribe

Who call Chrysippus Master, treat as mad.

Peoples and mighty kings, all but the wise

This formula embraces.”

So also Diog. Laert. vii. 124,

λέγουσι πάντας τοὺς ἄφρονας μαίνεσθαι.

“All that are foolish they pronounce insane.”

vexation of spirit] Better, feeding on wind, as before. See note on Ecc_1:14. The word is, however, not identical in form, but expresses a more concrete idea. By some it is rendered “meditation.” The fact that the writer uses a word not found elsewhere in the Old Testament, suggests the thought that he wanted a new word for the expression of a new thought.

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.

And I gave my heart to know wisdom,.... Which is repeated, for the confirmation of it, from Ecc 1:13, and that it might be taken notice of how assiduous and diligent he had been in acquiring it; a circumstance not to be overlooked;

and to know madness and folly: that he might the better know wisdom, and learn the difference between the one and the other, since opposites illustrate each other; and that he might shun madness and folly, and the ways thereof, and expose the actions of mad and foolish men: so Plato (s) says, ignorance is a disease, of which there are two kinds, madness and folly. The Targum, Septuagint, and all the Oriental versions, interpret the last word, translated "folly", by understanding, knowledge, and prudence; which seems to be right, since Solomon speaks of nothing afterwards, as vexation and grief to him, but wisdom and knowledge: and I would therefore read the clause in connection with the preceding, thus, "and the knowledge of things boasted of", vain glorious knowledge; "and prudence", or what may be called craftiness and cunning; or what the apostle calls "science falsely so called", Ti1 6:20; see Pro 12:8;

I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit; See Gill on Ecc 1:14; the reason follows.

(s) In Timaeo, p. 1084.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

To know madness and folly - A knowledge of folly would help him to discern wisdom, and to exercise that chief function of practical wisdom - to avoid folly.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Errors. Septuagint, "parables and science." But to discern the mistakes of men is a part of wisdom, (Calmet) and Grabe substitutes "wanderings," instead of "parables," after Theodotion, as Hebrew ealluth (Haydock) means "errors," (Calmet) or "follies." (Montanus)

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).

I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly, that I might thoroughly understand the nature and difference of truth and error, of virtue and vice, all things being best understood by contraries, and might discern if there were any opinion or practice amongst men which would give him full satisfaction.

Vexation of spirit; or, feeding upon wind, as Ecc 1:14.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And I gave my heart. He reiterates the expression in order to emphasize his earnestness and energy in the pursuit of wisdom. And knowing, as St. Jerome says, that "contrariis contraria inteiliguntur," he studies the opposite of wisdom, and learns the truth by contrasting it with error. And to know madness and folly. (Ecc_2:12) The former word, holeloth (intensive plural), by its etymology points to a confusion of thought, i.e. an unwisdom which deranges all ideas of order and propriety; and folly (hero sikluth), throughout the sapiential books, is identified with vice and wickedness, the contradictory of practical godliness. The LXX has parabolav kaimhn, "parables and knowledge," and some editors have altered the Hebrew text in accordance with this version, which they consider more suitable to the context. But Koheleth"s standpoint is quite consistent. To use the words of St. Jerome in his "Commentary," "AEqualis studii fuit Salomoni, scire sapientiam et scientiam, et e regione errores et stultitiam, ut in aliis appetendis et aliis declinandis vera ejus sapientia probaretur." On the other hand, Den-Sirs gives a much-needed warning against touching pitch (Ecc 13:1), and argues expressly that "the knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom" (Ecc 19:22). Plumptre unnecessarily sees in the use of the term" madness "an echo of the teaching of the Stoics, who regarded men"s weaknesses as forms of insanity. The moralist had no need to travel beyond his own experience in order to learn that sin was the acme of unwisdom, a declension from reason which might well be called madness. The subject is handled by Cicero, "Tusc. Disput.," 3:4, 5. We are reminded of Horace"s expression ("Carm.," 2:7. 27)

Recepto Dulce mihi furere est amico.

And Anacreon"s (31.), Qelw qelw manhnai. Thus far we have had Koheleth"s secret thoughts what he communed with his own heart (ver. 16). The result of his studies was most unsatisfying I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit; or, a striving after wind, as ver. 14 Though the word is somewhat different. As such labor is wasted, for man cannot control issues.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To know - That I might throughly understand the nature and difference of truth and error, of virtue and vice.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And I applied my heart now to know the nature of wisdom, what its end is, and the nature of madness and folly.

madness Heb. הֹלֵלוֹת, dullness and confusion of thoughts, an expression of mixing, like (Isa. 1:22): “diluted (מָהוּל) with water.”

and folly foolishness.

I know now that also wisdom has frustration in it, for in great wisdom, a person relies on his great wisdom and does not distance himself from prohibition, and much vexation comes to the Holy One, blessed be He. I said, “I will acquire many horses, but I will not return the people to Egypt,” but ultimately, I returned [them]. I said, “I will take many wives, but they will not turn my heart away,” but it is written about me, (I Kings 11:4): “his wives turned away his heart.” And so he says, (Prov. 30:1): “The words of the man concerning, ‘God is with me’; yea, God is with me, and I will be able.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.