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Ecclesiastes 1:15-17
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Ecclesiastes 1:15-17
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
15 What is crooked cannot be made straight,
and you cannot count what is not there.[a]
16 (A)Though I said to myself, “See, I have greatly increased my wisdom beyond all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my mind has broad experience of wisdom and knowledge,” 17 yet when I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly, I learned that this also is a chase after wind.(B)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1:15 You cannot count what is not there: perhaps originally a commercial metaphor alluding to loss or deficit in the accounts ledger.
Ecclesiastes 1:15-17
New International Version
Ecclesiastes 1:15-17
New International Version
15 What is crooked cannot be straightened;(A)
what is lacking cannot be counted.
16 I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me;(B) I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom,(C) and also of madness and folly,(D) but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)
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New International Version (NIV) 
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