Ecclesiastes 7:23 {24}
Good News Translation
I used my wisdom to test all of this. I was determined to be wise, but it was beyond me.

New Revised Standard Version
All this I have tested by wisdom; I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.

Contemporary English Version
I told myself that I would be smart and try to understand all this, but it was too much for me.

New American Bible
All these things I probed in wisdom. I said, “I will acquire wisdom”; but it was far beyond me.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I have tried all things in wisdom. I have said: I will be wise: and it departed farther from me,

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

I have tried all things in wisdom. I have said: I will be wise: and it departed farther from me,

I said

Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.

1 Kings 3:11,12 And the Lord said to Solomon: Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life nor riches, nor the lives of thy enemies, but hast asked for thyself wisdom to discern judgment; . . .

1 Kings 11:1-8 And king Solomon loved many strange women, besides the daughter of Pharao, and women of Moab, and of Ammon, and of Edom, and of Sidon, and of the Hethites: . . .

Romans 1:22 For, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

1 Corinthians 1:20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

Context
The Limits of Human Wisdom
22For thy conscience knoweth that thou also hast often spoken evil of others. 23I have tried all things in wisdom. I have said: I will be wise: and it departed farther from me,24Much more than it was: it is a great depth, who shall find it out?…
Cross References
Ecclesiastes 3:11
He hath made all things good in their time, and hath delivered the world to their consideration, so that man cannot find out the work which God hath made from the beginning to the end.

Ecclesiastes 7:22
For thy conscience knoweth that thou also hast often spoken evil of others.

Ecclesiastes 8:17
And I understood that man can find no reason of all those works of God that are done under the sun: and the more he shall labour to seek, so much the less shall he find: yea, though the wise man shall say, that he knoweth it, he shall not be able to find it.

Ecclesiastes 7:22
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