Ecclesiastes 7:13 - Exposition

Consider the work of God . Here is another reason against murmuring and hasty judgment. True wisdom is shown by submission to the inevitable. In all that happens one ought to recognize God's work and God's ordering, and man's impotence. For who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked? The things which God hath made crooked are the anomalies, the crosses, the difficulties, which meet us in life. Some would include bodily deformities, which seems to be a piece of unnecessary literalism. Thus the Septuagint, τίς δυνήσεται κοσμῆσαι ὃν ἂν ὁ θεὸς διαστρέψῃ αὐτόν ; "Who will be able to straighten him whom God has distorted?" and the Vulgate, Nemo possit corrigere quem ille despexerit , "No one can amend him whom he hath despised." The thought goes back to what was said in Ecclesiastes 1:15 , "That which is crooked cannot be made straight;" and in Ecclesiastes 6:10 , man "cannot contend with him that is mightier than he." "As for the wondrous works of the Lord," says Ben-Sira," there may be nothing taken from them, neither may anything be put unto them, neither can the ground of them be found out" (Ecclesiasticus 18:6). We cannot arrange events according to our wishes or expectations; therefore not only is placid acquiescence a necessary duty, but the wise man will endeavor to accommodate himself to existing circumstances