Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 1:13
And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a miserable task God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Teacher, speaking as former king over Israel, marks his deliberate shift from governance to investigating human experience under heaven. He addresses his readers at the precise moment he commits his heart to systematic inquiry.
The words — לִדְרֹשׁ (li/d.Ro.osh) = to study or inquire, and לָתוּר (la./Tur) = to explore or discover. Together they frame the author's active, methodical pursuit of understanding.
The thread — This investigation echoes the burden motif in Ecclesiastes 3:10 and Ecclesiastes 8:16, and connects to the toil introduced in Genesis 3:19. All three passages link human labor and inquiry to a divinely imposed occupation.
Why it lands — The text reports the author's conscious decision to apply wisdom to every human activity before declaring the endeavor a heavy burden. It demands the reader confront the limits of human analysis when measuring life under heaven.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 3:10 I have seen the burden that God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them.
- Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
- Ecclesiastes 8:16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the task that one performs on the earth—though his eyes do not see sleep in the day or even in the night—
- 1 Timothy 4:15 Be diligent in these matters and absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.
- 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 7:25 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.
- Ecclesiastes 12:12 And by these, my son, be further warned: There is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body.
- Psalms 111:2 Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them.
- Proverbs 2:2 if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding,
- Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is supreme; so acquire wisdom. And whatever you may acquire, gain understanding.