Ecclesiastes 1:15

15 What is crooked can't be straightened; what is not there can't be counted.

Ecclesiastes 1:15 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 1:15

[That which is] crooked cannot be made straight
By all the art and cunning, wisdom and knowledge of man, that he can attain unto; whatever he, in the vanity of his mind, may find fault with in the works of God, either of nature of providence, and which he may call crooked, it is not in his power to make them straight, or to mend them; see ( Ecclesiastes 7:13 ) . There is something which, through sin, is crooked, in the hearts, in the nature, in the principles, ways and works, of men; which can never be made straight, corrected or amended, by all the natural wisdom and knowledge of men, which shows the insufficiency of it: the wisest philosophers among men, with all their parade of wit and learning, could never effect anything of this kind; this only is done by the Spirit and grace of God; see ( Isaiah 42:16 ) ; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered;
the deficiencies in human science are so many, that they cannot be reckoned up; and the defects in human nature can never be supplied or made up by natural knowledge and wisdom; and which are so numerous, as that they cannot be understood and counted. The Targum is,

``a man whose ways are perverse in this world, and dies in them, and does not return by repentance, he has no power of correcting himself after his death; and a man that fails from the law and the precepts in his life, after his death hath no power to be numbered with the righteous in paradise:''
to the same sense Jarchi's note and the Midrash.

Ecclesiastes 1:15 In-Context

13 I wisely applied myself to seek out and investigate everything done under heaven. What a bothersome task God has given humanity to keep us occupied!
14 I have seen all the activities that are done under the sun, and it's all pointless, feeding on wind.
15 What is crooked can't be straightened; what is not there can't be counted.
16 I said to myself, "Look, I have acquired much wisdom, more than anyone ruling Yerushalayim before me."Yes, I experienced a great deal of wisdom and knowledge;
17 yet when I applied myself to understanding wisdom and knowledge, as well as stupidity and folly, I came to see that this too was merely feeding on wind.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.