Ecclesiastes 7:23-25
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
23 All these things I probed in wisdom. I said, “I will acquire wisdom”; but it was far beyond me. 24 What exists is far-reaching; it is deep, very deep:[a] Who can find it out? 25 [b](A)I turned my heart toward knowledge; I sought and pursued wisdom and its design, and I recognized that wickedness is foolishness and folly is madness.
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- 7:24 Far-reaching…deep: the spatial metaphor here emphasizes wisdom’s inaccessibility, a frequent theme in wisdom literature; cf. Jb 28; Prv 30:1–4; Sir 24:28–29; Bar 3:14–23.
- 7:25–29 The emphasis is on the devious designs of human beings in general, reflecting the viewpoint of Genesis.
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