Ecclesiastes 7:24

Ecc 7:24 That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?

Ver. 24. That which is far of and exceeding deep.] Not the minions of the muses, Mentemque habere queis bonam, et esse corculis datum est. {a} For though they should eviscerate themselves, like spiders, crack their sconces, or study themselves to death, yet can they not "understand all mysteries and all knowledge" {1Co 13:2} in natural things, how much less in supernatural! whereas weak sighted and sand blind persons, the more they strain their eyes to discern a thing perfectly, the less they see of it, as Vives hath observed. {b} It is utterly impossible for a mere naturalist, that cannot tell the form, the quintessence, that cannot enter into the depth of the flower, or the grass he treads on, to have the wit to enter into the deep things of God, "the mystery of Christ which was hid" {Eph 3:9-10} from angels till the discovery, and since that they are still students in it. David, though he saw further than his ancients, {Psa 119:99} yet he was still to seek of that which might be known. {Psa 119:96} Even as those great discoverers of the newly found lands in America, at their return were wont to confess, that there was still a plus ultra, something more beyond yet. Not only in innumerable other things am I very ignorant, saith Augustine, but also in the very Scriptures, multo plura nescio quam scio, {c} I am ignorant of many more things by odds than I yet understand. This present life is like the vale of Sciaessa, near unto the town called Patrae, of which Solinus saith, that it is famous for nothing but for its darksomeness, as being continually overcast with the shadows of nine hills that do surround it, so that the sun can hardly cast a beam of light into it. {d} Properemus ad coelestem Academiam, Let us hasten to the university of heaven, where the least child knows a thousand times more than the deepest doctor upon earth.

{a} Dousa.

{b} L. Vives in Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. ii. c. 8.

{c} Aug., Epist.

{d} Poly. Hist., c. 12.

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.

Or, spoken evil of others.

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

That . . . far off . . . deep--True wisdom is so when sought independently of "fear of God" (Ecc 7:18; Deu 30:12-13; Job 11:7-8; Job 28:12-20, Job 28:28; Psa 64:6; Rom 10:6-7).

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 24. That which is far off] Though the wisdom that is essential to our salvation may be soon learned, through the teaching of the Spirit of wisdom, yet in wisdom itself there are extents and depths which none can reach or fathom.

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

(24) Rather translate, “That which is, is far off.” The phrase, “that which is,” or “hath been,” to denote the existing constitution of the universe, occurs in Ecc_1:9, Ecc_3:15. (See Ecc_8:17.)

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

24. That which is far off and exceeding deep] The English of the latter clause scarcely expresses the Hebrew more emphatic iteration and deep deep. By some interpreters a like iteration is supplied in the first clause, far off is that which is far, but there does not seem adequate ground for thus altering the text. Rather are the first words to be taken of substantial being, far off from us is that which is (the τὰ ὄντα of Greek thought, the sum total of things past and present). So in another and later Jewish book impregnated, like this, with Greek thought, wisdom is described as a τῶν ὄντων γνῶσις ἀψευδής (“a true knowledge of the things that are” Wis_7:17). Comp. Job_11:7-8; Rom_11:33, for like language as to the Divine Counsels.

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.

That which is far off,.... Or, "far off is that which has been" (g). That which has been done by God already, in creation and providence, is out of the reach of men, is far from their understandings wholly to comprehend or account for; and likewise that which is past with men, what has been done in former ages, the history of past times, is very difficult to come at: or rather, according to Schmidt, and Rambachius after him, what was of old is now afar off or absent; the image of God in man which consisted of perfect wisdom, and was created at the same time with him, is now lost, and that is the reason why wisdom is far from him;

and exceeding deep, who can find it out? the primitive perfect wisdom is sunk so deep and gone, that no man can find it to the perfection it was once enjoyed; see Job 28:12. This may respect the knowledge of God, and the perfections of his nature; which are as high as heaven, and deeper than hell, Job 11:7; and of his thoughts, counsels, purposes, and decrees, which are the deep things of God; as well as the doctrines of the Gospel, and the mysteries of grace, Co1 2:10; and even his providential dispensations towards the sons of men, Rom 11:33. The Targum of the whole is,

"Lo, now it is far off from the children of men to know all that has been from the days of old; and the secret of the day of death, and the secret of the day in which the King Messiah shall come, who is he that shall find it out by his wisdom?''

(g) "remotum (est) illud quod fuit", Montanus, Mercerus, Vatablus, Drusius, Gejerus.

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

literally, Far off is that which hath been i. e., events as they have occurred in the order of Divine Providence), and deep, deep, who can find it out?

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

Me. This is a proof of having made great progress in wisdom, since the half-learned are the most presumptuous. (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).

No human wit can attain to perfect wisdom, or to the exact knowledge of God’s counsels and-works, and the reasons of them, because they are unsearchably deep, and far above our sight; some of them being long since past, and therefore, utterly unknown to us, and others yet to come, which we cannot foreknow.

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

24. That which is far off — Better, That which was far, was still far. He is conscious of striking the dark border of the unknowable, in whose deep darkness lay that which, of all things, he most wished to know.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out? The broken, interjectional style of the original in this passage, as Professor Taylor Lewis terms it, is better brought out by translating, "Far off is that which is, and deep, deep: who can find it out?" Professor Lewis renders, "Far off! the past, what is it? Deep a deep oh, who can find?" and explains "the past" to mean, not merely the earthly past historically unknown, but the great past before the creation of the universe, the kingdom of all eternities with its ages of ages, its worlds of worlds, its mighty evolutions, its infinite variety. We prefer to retain the rendering, "that which is," and to refer the expression to the phenomenal world. It is not the essence of wisdom that is spoken of, but the facts of man"s life and the circumstances in which he finds himself, the course of the world, the phenomena of nature, etc. These things their causes, connection, interdependence we cannot explain satisfactorily. (comp. Ecc_3:11 Ecc_8:17) In the Book of Wisdom (7:17-21) Solomon is supposed to have arrived at this abstruse knowledge, "for," he says, "God hath given me certain knowledge of the things that are (twn ontwn gnwsin ajyeudh)," and he proceeds to enumerate the various departments which this "universitas literarum" has opened to him. The Septuagint (and virtually the Vulgate) connects this verse with the preceding, thus:. "I said, I will be wise, and it (auth) was far from me, far beyond what was (makran uJper o hn), and deep depth: who shall find it out?" (For the epithet "deep" applied to what is recondite or what is beyond human comprehension, comp. Pro_20:5; Job_11:8)

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

It - God's counsels and works, and the reasons of them.

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

"For that which is, is far off, and deep, - yes, deep; who can reach it?" Knobel, Hitz., Vaih., and Bullock translate: for what is remote and deep, deep, who can find it? i.e., investigate it; but mah-shehayah is everywhere an idea by itself, and means either id quod fuit, or id quod exstitit, Ecc 1:9; Ecc 3:15; Ecc 6:10; in the former sense it is the contrast of mah-shěihyěh, Ecc 8:7; Ecc 10:14, cf. Ecc 3:22; in the latter, it is the contrast of that which does not exist, because it has not come into existence. In this way it is also not to be translated: For it is far off what it (wisdom) is (Zckl.) [= what wisdom is lies far off from human knowledge], or: what it is (the essence of wisdom), is far off (Elst.) - which would be expressed by the words מה־שּׁהיא. And if מה־שׁהיה is an idea complete in itself, it is evidently not that which is past that is meant (thus e.g., Rosenm. quod ante aderat), for that is a limitation of the obj. of knowledge, which is unsuitable here, but that which has come into existence. Rightly, Hengst.: that which has being, for wisdom is τῶν ὄντων γνῶσις ἀψευδής, Wisd. 7:17. He compares Jdg 3:11, "the work which God does," and Ecc 8:17, "the work which is done under the sun." What Koheleth there says of the totality of the historical, he here says of the world of things: this (in its essence and its grounds) remains far off from man; it is for him, and also in itself and for all creatures, far too deep (עמק עמק, the ancient expression for the superlative): Who can intelligibly reach (ימץ, from מצא, assequi, in an intellectual sense, as at Ecc 3:11; Ecc 8:17; cf. Job 11:7) it (this all of being)? The author appears in the book as a teacher of wisdom, and emphatically here makes confession of the limitation of his wisdom; for the consciousness of this limitation comes over him in the midst of his teaching.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

What was is far off the distant things that were in the Creation.

and very deep it is; who can find it, for I have no permission to think about them, what is above and what is below, what is ahead and what is behind.

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.