Ecclesiastes 2:13

13 And I saw that there is an advantage to wisdom above folly, like the advantage of the light above the 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 and I have looked on all my works that my hands have done, and on the labour that I have laboured to do, and lo, the whole [is] vanity and vexation of spirit, and there is no advantage under the sun!

12 And I turned to see wisdom, and madness, and folly, but what [is] the man who cometh after the king? that which [is] already -- they have done it!

13 And I saw that there is an advantage to wisdom above folly, like the advantage of the light above the darkness.

14 The wise! -- his eyes [are] in his head, and the fool in darkness is walking, and I also knew that one event happeneth with them all;

15 and I said in my heart, `As it happeneth with the fool, it happeneth also with me, and why am I then more wise?' And I spake in my heart, that also this [is] vanity: