Ecclesiastes 7:25

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Ecclesiastes 7:23–27 · Berean Standard Bible

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.

26 And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

27 “Behold,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find an explanation.

Hebrew words

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Cross-references

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

Ecclesiastes 1:13

And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!

Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:15

What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

Ecclesiastes 1:16

I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.”

Ecclesiastes 1:17

So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:1

I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good!” But it proved to be futile.

Ecclesiastes 2:2

I said of laughter, “It is folly,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”

Ecclesiastes 2:3

I sought to cheer my body with wine and to embrace folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

Ecclesiastes 2:12

Then I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what more can the king’s successor do than what has already been accomplished?

Ecclesiastes 2:20

So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 7:27

“Behold,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find an explanation.

Ecclesiastes 2:15

So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?” And I said to myself that this too is futile.

Ecclesiastes 3:16

Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.

Ecclesiastes 3:17

I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed.”

Ecclesiastes 9:1

So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.

Ecclesiastes 9:2

It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.

Jeremiah 12:1

Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

Jeremiah 12:2

You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.

2 Peter 2:3

In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.

2 Peter 2:4

For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;

2 Peter 2:5

if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

2 Peter 2:6

if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;

2 Peter 2:7

and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless

2 Peter 2:8

(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—

2 Peter 2:9

if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

2 Peter 3:3

Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

2 Peter 3:4

“Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.”

2 Peter 3:5

But they deliberately overlook the fact that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water,

2 Peter 3:6

through which the world of that time perished in the flood.

2 Peter 3:7

And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

2 Peter 3:8

Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.

Ecclesiastes 9:3

This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

Ecclesiastes 10:13

The beginning of his talk is folly, and the end of his speech is evil madness.

Genesis 34:7

When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.

Joshua 7:13

Get up and consecrate the people, saying, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Among you, O Israel, there are things devoted to destruction. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

2 Samuel 13:12

“No, my brother!” she cried. “Do not humiliate me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing!

Proverbs 17:12

It is better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly.

Proverbs 26:11

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.