Ecclesiastes 2:13

13 I realized that wisdom has an advantage over folly, just as light has an advantage over darkness.

Ecclesiastes 2:13 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 2:13

Then I sat that wisdom excelleth folly
However, this upon a review of things he could not but own, that natural wisdom and knowledge, though there was no true happiness and satisfaction in them, yet they greatly exceeded folly and madness; as far as light excelleth darkness;
as the light of the day the darkness of the night; the one is pleasant and delightful, the other very uncomfortable; the one useful to direct in walking, the other very unsafe to walk in: light sometimes signifies joy and prosperity, and darkness adversity; the one is used to express the light of grace, and the other the darkness of sin and ignorance; now as the natural light exceeds darkness, and prosperity exceeds adversity and calamities, and a state of grace exceeds a state of sin and wickedness, so wisdom exceeds folly.

Ecclesiastes 2:13 In-Context

11 Yet when I considered all the effort which I expended and the toil with which I toiled to do, then behold, "Everything [is] vanity and chasing wind! There is nothing profitable under the sun!"

12 Next, I considered wisdom, as well as delusion and folly. What can anyone [do] who will come after the king that has not already been done?

13 I realized that wisdom has an advantage over folly, just as light has an advantage over darkness.

14 {The wise man can see where he is walking}, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also realized that both of them suffer the same fate.

15 So I said {to myself}, "{If I also suffer the same fate as the fool}, {what advantage is my great wisdom}?" So I said {to myself}, "This also [is] vanity!"