Ecclesiastes 2:12-16 · Wisdom and Folly are Meaningless

12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king's successor do than what has already been done?

13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.

14 The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.

15 Then I thought in my heart, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" I said in my heart, "This too is meaningless."

16 For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die!

Wisdom and Folly
Ecclesiastes 2:12-16
One Volume
by Gary M. Burge
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Next, in 2:12–16, Qoheleth investigates wisdom and its converse, madness and folly (2:12a; cf. 1:17). Verse 12b is viewed by some commentators as unintelligible or displaced but may serve to anticipate 2:18–21, which also deals with the king’s successor. Verse 12b, translated literally, asks, “For what kind of person is it who will come after the king, in the matter of what has already been done?” (so Eaton, 68). Verses 12–15 contain a sequence of verbal actions that set forth Qoheleth’s epistemological process. These will be repeated, with some variations, th…

Baker Publishing Group, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, by Gary M. Burge