Ecclesiastes 1 · a question people ask
"For in much wisdom is much grief" (1:18). Is the Preacher saying it's better not to seek wisdom?
The verse is a saying, not a command: "For in much wisdom is much grief; and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow" (1:18). It closes his account of his own search: "I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind" (1:17). Chapter 1 tells no one to stop seeking wisdom. The next chapter says, "Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness" (2:13), and a few verses later, "the wise man must die just like the fool!" (2:16). Later he says, "wisdom preserves the life of him who has it" (7:12). The book sets these sayings side by side, and these notes won't smooth them out. In chapter 2 the Preacher uses 1:18's two words again, of a man's labor: "For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief" (2:23) (tap grief).
The verses
“I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind. For in much wisdom is much grief; and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”
“Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.”
“For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory forever, since in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool!”
“For what does a man have of all his labor and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.”