Ecclesiastes 7:25 - Exposition

I applied mine heart to know ; more literally, I turned myself , and my heart was [set] to know . We have the expression, "tamed myself," referring to a new investigation in Ecclesiastes 2:20 and elsewhere; but the distinguishing the heart or soul from the man himself is not common in Scripture (see on Ecclesiastes 11:9 ), though the soul is sometimes apostrophized, as in Luke 12:19 (comp. Psalms 103:1 ; Psalms 146:1 ). The writer here implies that he gave up himself with all earnestness to the investigation. Unsatisfactory as his quest had been hitherto. He did not relinquish the pursuit, but rather turned it in another direction, where he could hope to meet with useful results. The Septuagint has, "I and my heart traveled round ( ἐκύκλωσα ) to know;" the Vulgate, Lustravi universa animo meo ut scirem . And to search, and to seek out wisdom. The accumulation of synonymous verbs is meant to emphasize the author's devotion to his self-imposed task and his return from profitless theoretical investigation to practical inquiry. And the reason of things. Cheshbon ( Luke 12:27 ; Ecclesiastes 9:10 ) is rather "account," "reckoning," than "reason "—the summing-up of all the facts and circumstances rather than the elucidation of their causes. Vulgate, rationem ; Septuagint, ψῆφον . The next clause ought to be rendered, And to know wickedness as (or, to be ) folly , and foolishness as ( to be ) madness . His investigation led him to this conclusion, that all infringement of God's laws is a misjudging aberration—a willful desertion of the requirements of right reason—and that mental and moral obtuseness is a physical malady which may be called madness (comp. Ecclesiastes 1:17 ; Ecclesiastes 2:12 ; Ecclesiastes 10:13 ).