Ecclesiastes 7:23

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Ecclesiastes 7:21–25 · Berean Standard Bible

21 Do not pay attention to every word that is spoken, or you may hear your servant cursing you.

22 For you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.

23 All this I tested by wisdom, saying, “I resolve to be wise.” But it was beyond me.

24 What exists is out of reach and very deep. Who can fathom it?

25 I directed my mind to understand, to explore, to search out wisdom and explanations, and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the folly of madness.

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Genesis 3:5

“For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

1 Kings 3:11

So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this instead of requesting long life or wealth for yourself or death for your enemies—but you have asked for discernment to administer justice—

1 Kings 3:12

behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has never been nor will ever be another like you.

1 Kings 11:1

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

1 Kings 11:2

These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

1 Kings 11:3

He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines—and his wives turned his heart away.

1 Kings 11:4

For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been.

1 Kings 11:5

Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

1 Kings 11:6

So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely.

1 Kings 11:7

At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.

1 Kings 11:8

He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Romans 1:22

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,

1 Corinthians 1:20

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?