Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 7:11
Wisdom, like an inheritance, is good, and it benefits those who see the sun.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Teacher addresses a general audience in Ecclesiastes, offering practical counsel immediately after warning against nostalgic comparisons in Ecclesiastes 7:10.
The words — חָכְמָה (chokh.mah) means "wisdom" and טוֹבָ֥ה (tovah) means "good," establishing the verse's core claim that wisdom holds inherent value.
The thread — The phrase "see the sun" echoes Ecclesiastes 11:7, which notes that light is sweet and seeing the sun brings pleasure.
Why it lands — The text asserts that wisdom provides practical benefit to the living, paralleling how inheritance preserves a family's standing.
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
Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 11:7 Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.
- 1 Timothy 6:17 Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.
- Proverbs 8:10 Receive my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.
- Ecclesiastes 2:13 And I saw that wisdom exceeds folly, just as light exceeds darkness:
- 1 Kings 3:6 Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
- Ecclesiastes 9:15 Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.
- Luke 16:8 The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the sons of light.