Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 verse 29 Holy Bible
Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
read chapter 7 in ASV
This only have I seen, that God made men upright, but they have been searching out all sorts of inventions.
read chapter 7 in BBE
Only see this which I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.
read chapter 7 in DARBY
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
read chapter 7 in KJV
read chapter 7 in WBT
Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes.
read chapter 7 in WEB
See, this alone I have found, that God made man upright, and they -- they have sought out many devices.
read chapter 7 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 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 τρέφειδεινὰ δειμάτων ἄχη...ἀλλ ὑπέρτολμονἀνδρὸς φόνημα τίς λέγοι; "Many fearful plaguesEarth nourishes...But man's audacious spiritWho can tell?" Horace, 'Carm.,' 1:3. 25 - . . .
