Ecclesiastes 1:15

15 What is twisted cannot be straightened,[a] and what is lacking cannot be counted.[b]

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 applied my mind to seek and to search by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. It [is] a grievous task God has given to {humans}.
14 I saw all the works that are done under the sun. Look! Everything [is] vanity and chasing wind.
15 What is twisted cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
16 {I said to myself}, "Look! I have become great and have increased [in] wisdom more than anyone who {has preceded} me over Jerusalem. {I have acquired a great deal of wisdom and knowledge}."
17 So {I dedicated myself} to learn about wisdom and [to] learn about delusion and folly. However, I discovered that this also [is] chasing wind.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. The MT reads the active "to be straight"; however, the BHS editors suggest the passive "to be straightened," which is supported by LXX, which reflects a passive form
  • [b]. The MT reads "to be numbered"; however, the BHS editors suggest "to be supplied," comparing 1:15b with similar wording in the Babylonian Talmud: "May the Almighty replenish your loss" (b. Berachot 16b)
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.