Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 verse 24 Holy Bible
That which is, is far off and exceeding deep; who can find it out?
read chapter 7 in ASV
Far off is true existence, and very deep; who may have knowledge of it?
read chapter 7 in BBE
Whatever hath been, is far off, and exceeding deep: who will find it out?
read chapter 7 in DARBY
That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?
read chapter 7 in KJV
read chapter 7 in WBT
That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?
read chapter 7 in WEB
Far off `is' that which hath been, and deep, deep, who doth find it?
read chapter 7 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 24. - That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out? The broken, interjectional style of the original in this passage, as Professor Taylor Lewis terms it, is better brought out by translating, "Far off is that which is, and deep, deep: who can find it out?" Professor Lewis renders, "Far off! the past, what is it? Deep - a deep - oh, who can find?" and explains "the past" to mean, not merely the earthly past historically unknown, but the great past before the creation of the universe, the kingdom of all eternities with its ages of ages, its worlds of worlds, its mighty evolutions, its infinite variety. We prefer to retain the rendering, "that which is," and to refer the expression to the phenomenal world. It is not the essence of wisdom that is spoken of, but the facts of man's life and the circumstances in which he finds himself, the course of the world, the phenomena of nature, etc. These things - their causes, connection, interdependence - we cannot explain satisfactorily (comp. Ecclesiastes 3:11; Ecclesiastes 8:17). In the Book of Wisdom (7:17-21) Solomon is supposed to have arrived at this abstruse knowledge, "for," he says, "God hath given me certain knowledge of the things that are (τῶν ὄντων γνῶσιν ἀψευδῆ)," and he proceeds to enumerate the various departments which this "universitas literarum" has opened to him. The Septuagint (and virtually the Vulgate) connects this verse with the preceding, thus: . 'I said, I will be wise, and it (αὔτη) was far from me, far beyond what was (μακρὰν ὑπὲρ ο{ η΅ν), and deep depth: who shall find it out?" (For the epithet "deep" applied to what is recondite or what is beyond human comprehension, comp. Proverbs 20:5; Job 11:8.)
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(24) Rather translate, "That which is, is far off." The phrase, "that which is," or "hath been," to denote the existing constitution of the universe, occurs in Ecclesiastes 1:9, Ecclesiastes 3:15. (See Ecclesiastes 8:17.)
