Ecclesiastes 7:29
New International Version
This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.”

New Living Translation
But I did find this: God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path.”

English Standard Version
See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

Berean Standard Bible
Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

King James Bible
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

New King James Version
Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes.”

New American Standard Bible
Behold, I have found only this, that God made people upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

NASB 1995
“Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”

NASB 1977
“Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”

Legacy Standard Bible
See, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices.”

Amplified Bible
Behold, I have found only this [as a reason]: God made man upright and uncorrupted, but they [both men and women] have sought out many devices [for evil].”

Christian Standard Bible
Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

American Standard Version
Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
However, see this that I have found: "God has made men upright, and they have searched out many schemes"

Brenton Septuagint Translation
But, behold, this have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many devices.

Contemporary English Version
I did learn one thing: We were completely honest when God created us, but now we have twisted minds.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Only this I have found, that God made man right, and he hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions. Who is as the wise man? and who hath known the resolution of the word?

English Revised Version
Behold, this only have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
I have found only this: God made people decent, but they looked for many ways [to avoid being decent]."

Good News Translation
This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.

International Standard Version
I have discovered only this: God made human beings for righteousness, but they seek many alternatives."

JPS Tanakh 1917
Behold, this only have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

Literal Standard Version
See, this alone I have found, that God made man upright, and they have sought out many inventions.

Majority Standard Bible
Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

New American Bible
But this alone I have found: God made humankind honest, but they have pursued many designs.

NET Bible
This alone have I discovered: God made humankind upright, but they have sought many evil schemes.

New Revised Standard Version
See, this alone I found, that God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes.

New Heart English Bible
Look, this only have I found, that God made humankind upright, but they search for many schemes.

Webster's Bible Translation
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

World English Bible
Behold, I have only found this: that God made mankind upright; but they search for many inventions.”

Young's Literal Translation
See, this alone I have found, that God made man upright, and they -- they have sought out many devices.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Limits of Human Wisdom
28While my soul was still searching but not finding, among a thousand I have found one upright man, but among all these I have not found one such woman. 29Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

Cross References
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Ecclesiastes 8:1
Who is like the wise man? Who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man's wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.


Treasury of Scripture

See, this only have I found, that God has made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

god

Genesis 1:26,27
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth…

Genesis 5:1
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

they

Genesis 3:6,7
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat…

Genesis 6:5,6,11,12
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…

Genesis 11:4-6
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth…

Jump to Previous
Alone Devices Found Inventions Mankind Schemes Search Searching Sorts Sought Upright
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Alone Devices Found Inventions Mankind Schemes Search Searching Sorts Sought Upright
Ecclesiastes 7
1. remedies against vanity are, a good name
2. mortification
7. patience
11. wisdom
23. The difficulty of wisdom














Verse 29. - Lo, this only (or, only see! this) have I found. Universal corruption was that which met his wide investigations, but of one thing he was sure, which he proceeds to specify - he has learned to trace the degradation to its source, not in God's agency, but in man's perverse will. That God hath made man upright. Koheleth believes that man's original constitution was yasbar, "straight," "right," "morally good," and possessed of ability to choose and follow what was just and right (Genesis 1:26, etc.). Thus in the Book of Wisdom (2:23) we read, "God created man to be immortal, and made him an imago of his own nature (ἰιότητος). Nevertheless, through envy of the devil, came death into the world, and they that are his portion tempt it." But they (men) have sought out many inventions (chishshebonoth); 2 Chronicles 26:15, where the term implies works of invention, and is translated "engines," i.e. devices, ways of going astray and deviating from original righteousness. Man has thus abased his free-will, and employed the inventive faculty with which he was endowed in excoriating evil (Genesis 6:5). How this state of things came about, how the originally good man became thus wicked, the writer does not tell. He knows from revelation that God made him upright; he knows from experience that he is now evil; and he leaves the matter there. Plumptre quotes, as illustrating our text, a passage from the 'Antigone' of Sophocles, vers. 332, 365, 366, which he renders-

"Many the things that strange and wondrous are,
None stranger and mere wonderful than man....
And lo, with all this skill,
Wise and inventive still,
Beyond hope's dream,
He now to good inclines,
And now to ill."
We may add AEschylus, 'Choeph.,' vers. 585, etc. -

Πολλὰ μέν γᾶ τρέφει
δεινὰ δειμάτων ἄχη...
ἀλλ ὑπέρτολμον
ἀνδρὸς φόνημα τίς λέγοι;

"Many fearful plagues
Earth nourishes...
But man's audacious spirit
Who can tell?"
Horace, 'Carm.,' 1:3. 25 - . . .

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Only
לְבַד֙ (lə·ḇaḏ)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 905: Separation, a part of the body, branch of a, tree, bar for, carrying, chief of

this
זֶ֣ה (zeh)
Pronoun - masculine singular
Strong's 2088: This, that

have I found:
רְאֵה־ (rə·’êh-)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 7200: To see

I have discovered
מָצָ֔אתִי (mā·ṣā·ṯî)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 4672: To come forth to, appear, exist, to attain, find, acquire, to occur, meet, be present

that
אֲשֶׁ֨ר (’ă·šer)
Pronoun - relative
Strong's 834: Who, which, what, that, when, where, how, because, in order that

God
הָאֱלֹהִ֛ים (hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

made
עָשָׂ֧ה (‘ā·śāh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6213: To do, make

men
הָאָדָ֖ם (hā·’ā·ḏām)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 120: Ruddy, a human being

upright,
יָשָׁ֑ר (yā·šār)
Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 3477: Straight, right

but they
וְהֵ֥מָּה (wə·hêm·māh)
Conjunctive waw | Pronoun - third person masculine plural
Strong's 1992: They

have sought out
בִקְשׁ֖וּ (ḇiq·šū)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 1245: To search out, to strive after

many
רַבִּֽים׃ (rab·bîm)
Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 7227: Much, many, great

schemes.”
חִשְּׁבֹנ֥וֹת (ḥiš·šə·ḇō·nō·wṯ)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 2810: A contrivance, actual, mental


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OT Poetry: Ecclesiastes 7:29 Behold this only have I found: that (Ecclesiast. Ec Ecc Eccles.)
Ecclesiastes 7:28
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