Ecclesiastes 1:15
New International Version
What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

New Living Translation
What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered.

English Standard Version
What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

Berean Standard Bible
What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

King James Bible
That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.

New King James Version
What is crooked cannot be made straight, And what is lacking cannot be numbered.

New American Standard Bible
What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

NASB 1995
What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted.

NASB 1977
What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

Legacy Standard Bible
What is bent cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

Amplified Bible
What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is defective and lacking cannot be counted.

Christian Standard Bible
What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

American Standard Version
That which is crooked cannot be made straight; and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
The disturbed cannot be set in order and the lacking cannot be numbered.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and deficiency cannot be numbered.

Contemporary English Version
If something is crooked, it can't be made straight; if something isn't there, it can't be counted.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The perverse are hard to be corrected, and the number of fools is infinite.

English Revised Version
That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
No one can straighten what is bent. No one can count what is not there.

Good News Translation
You can't straighten out what is crooked; you can't count things that aren't there.

International Standard Version
What is crooked cannot be made straight; what is not there cannot be counted.

JPS Tanakh 1917
That which is crooked cannot be made straight; And that which is wanting cannot be numbered.

Literal Standard Version
A crooked thing [one] is not able to make straight, and a lacking thing is not able to be numbered.

Majority Standard Bible
What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

New American Bible
What is crooked cannot be made straight, and you cannot count what is not there.

NET Bible
What is bent cannot be straightened, and what is missing cannot be supplied.

New Revised Standard Version
What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

New Heart English Bible
That which is crooked can't be made straight; and that which is lacking can't be counted.

Webster's Bible Translation
That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.

World English Bible
That which is crooked can’t be made straight; and that which is lacking can’t be counted.

Young's Literal Translation
A crooked thing one is not able to make straight, and a lacking thing is not able to be numbered.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
With Wisdom Comes Sorrow
14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. 15What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted. 16I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.”…

Cross References
Ecclesiastes 7:13
Consider the work of God: Who can straighten what He has bent?

Ecclesiastes 7:25
I directed my mind to understand, to explore, to search out wisdom and explanations, and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the folly of madness.


Treasury of Scripture

That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.

crooked

Ecclesiastes 3:14
I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

Ecclesiastes 7:12,13
For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it…

Job 11:6
And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.

wanting or a defect

Jump to Previous
Able Bent Counted Crooked Lacking Numbered Straight Straightened Twisted Wanting
Jump to Next
Able Bent Counted Crooked Lacking Numbered Straight Straightened Twisted Wanting
Ecclesiastes 1
1. the preacher shows that all human courses are vain
4. because the creatures are restless in their courses
9. they bring forth nothing new, and all old things are forgotten
12. and because he has found it so in the studies of wisdom














(15) Made straight.--The verb occurs only in this book (Ecclesiastes 7:13; Ecclesiastes 12:9, "set in order") and in Rabbinical Hebrew. So likewise "that which is wanting" is peculiar to this passage, and to later Hebrew.

Verse 15. - That which is crooked cannot be made straight. This is intended as a confirmation of ver. 14. By the utmost exercise of his powers and faculties man cannot change the course of events; he is constantly met by anomalies which he can neither explain nor rectify (comp. Ecclesiastes 7:13). The above is probably a proverbial saying. Knobel quotes Suidas: Χύλον ἀγκύλον οὐδέποτ ὀρθόν. The Vulgate takes the whole maxim as applying only to morals: "Perverse men are hardly corrected, and the number of tools is infinite." So too the Syriac and Targum. The Septuagint rightly as the Authorized Version. The writer is not referring merely to man's sins and delinquencies, but to the perplexities in which he finds himself involved, and extrication from which is impracticable. That which is wanting cannot be numbered. The word חֶסְדון, "loss, defect," is ἅπαξ λεγόμενον in the Old Testament. We cannot reckon where there is nothing to count; no skill in arithmetic will avail to make up for a substantial deficit. So nothing man can do is able to remedy the anomalies by which he is surrounded, or to supply the defects which are pressed upon his notice.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
What is crooked
מְעֻוָּ֖ת (mə·‘uw·wāṯ)
Verb - Pual - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 5791: To be bent or crooked

cannot
לֹא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

be straightened,
לִתְקֹ֑ן (liṯ·qōn)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 8626: To equalize, straighten, to compose

and what is lacking
וְחֶסְר֖וֹן (wə·ḥes·rō·wn)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 2642: A thing lacking, deficiency

cannot
לֹא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

be counted.
לְהִמָּנֽוֹת׃ (lə·him·mā·nō·wṯ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Nifal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 4487: To weigh out, to allot, constitute officially, to enumerate, enroll


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OT Poetry: Ecclesiastes 1:15 That which is crooked can't be made (Ecclesiast. Ec Ecc Eccles.)
Ecclesiastes 1:14
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