The Limitations of Wisdom

¹² I, the Teacher,^(A) have been^[a] king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I applied my mind to examine^(B) and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven.^(C) God has given people^[b] this miserable task to keep them occupied.^{(D) 14} I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.^[c](E)

¹⁶ I said to myself, “See, I have amassed wisdom far beyond all those who were over Jerusalem before me,^(G) and my mind has thoroughly grasped^[d] wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge,^(H) madness and folly;^(I) I learned that this too is a pursuit of the wind.^(J)

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden,^{(A) 17} but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”^{(B) 18} Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding^(C) to him.” ¹⁹ The Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it.^(D) And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man^[a] no helper was found corresponding to him.