Ecclesiastes 7:25

King James Version with Strong's Numbers

I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

סַבּוֹתִי אֲנִי וְלִבִּי לָדַעַת וְלָתוּר וּבַקֵּשׁ חָכְמָה וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן וְלָדַעַת רֶשַׁע כֶּסֶל וְהַסִּכְלוּת הוֹלֵלוֹת

Transliteration

Sabbôṯî I and-libbî lāḏaʿaṯ and-lāṯûr and-ḇaqqēš ḥoḵmāh and-ḥešbôn and-lāḏaʿaṯ rešaʿ kesel and-the-sikḵəlûṯ hôlēlôṯ

Grammar Details

• *Sabbôṯî*: Qal perfect 1st common singular - I turned
• *libbî*: noun, masculine singular with 1st common singular suffix - my heart
• *lāḏaʿaṯ*: Qal infinitive construct with preposition - to know
• *lāṯûr*: Qal infinitive construct with preposition - to explore
• *ḇaqqēš*: Piel infinitive construct - to seek
• *ḥoḵmāh*: noun, feminine singular - wisdom
• *ḥešbôn*: noun, masculine singular - account/reason
• *rešaʿ*: noun, masculine singular - wickedness
• *kesel*: noun, masculine singular - folly
• *sikḵəlûṯ*: noun, feminine singular with definite article - the foolishness
• *hôlēlôṯ*: noun, feminine plural - madness

Word Meanings

• *Sabbôṯî*: I turned/I applied myself/I explored
• *lāḏaʿaṯ*: to know/to understand/to comprehend
• *lāṯûr*: to explore/to search out/to investigate
• *ḇaqqēš*: to seek/to search for/to pursue
• *ḥoḵmāh*: wisdom/understanding/insight
• *ḥešbôn*: account/reason/calculation/conclusion
• *rešaʿ*: wickedness/evil/iniquity
• *kesel*: folly/stupidity
• *sikḵəlûṯ*: foolishness/folly
• *hôlēlôṯ*: madness/senselessness

Referenced Verses

• Eccl 10:13 : 13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.
• Jer 12:1-2 : 1 Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? 2 Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
• 2 Pet 2:3-9 : 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
• 2 Pet 3:3-9 : 3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
• Gen 34:7 : 7 And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done.
• Josh 7:13 : 13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.
• 2 Sam 13:12 : 12 And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly.
• Prov 17:12 : 12 Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.
• Prov 26:11 : 11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.
• Eccl 1:13-17 : 13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. 15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. 16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. 17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
• Eccl 2:1-3 : 1 I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. 2 I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? 3 I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.
• Eccl 2:12 : 12 And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.
• Eccl 2:15 : 15 Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.
• Eccl 2:20 : 20 Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.
• Eccl 3:16-17 : 16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. 17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
• Eccl 7:27 : 27 Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:
• Eccl 9:1-3 : 1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. 2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. 3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.