Ecclesiastes 1:17 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021

¹⁷ And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a chasing after wind.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

¹⁷ And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

¹⁷ And I gave my mind to know [practical] wisdom and to discern [the character of] madness and folly [in which men seem to find satisfaction]; I perceived that this also is a searching after wind and a feeding on it. [I Thess. 5:21.]

American Standard Version (1901)

¹⁷ And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also was a striving after wind.

Common English Bible

¹⁷ But when I set my mind to understand wisdom, and also to understand madness and folly, I realized that this too was just wind chasing.

Catholic Public Domain Version

¹⁷ And I have dedicated my heart, so that I may know prudence and doctrine, and also error and foolishness. Yet I recognize that, in these things also, there is hardship, and affliction of the spirit.

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

¹⁷ And I have given my heart to know prudence, and learning, and errors, and folly: and I have perceived that in these also there was labour, and vexation of spirit,

Ecclesiastes 1:17 Cross References

Psalm 73:16

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,

Ecclesiastes 12:8

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.

Ecclesiastes 2:17

So I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:3

I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

Ecclesiastes 3:19

For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals, for all is vanity.

Ecclesiastes 4:4

Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person’s envy of another. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:6

Better is a handful with quiet than two handfuls with toil and a chasing after wind.

Ecclesiastes 6:9

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire; this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Ecclesiastes 8:16

When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, how one’s eyes see sleep neither day nor night,

Ecclesiastes 9:3

This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. Moreover, the hearts of humans are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

1 Thessalonians 5:21

but test everything; hold fast to what is good;