Add parallel Print Page Options

14 Wise people have eyes in their heads,
    but fools walk in darkness.

Yet I knew that the same lot befalls both.[a](A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 2:14 Yet I knew…befalls both: the author quotes a traditional saying upholding the advantages of wisdom, but then qualifies it. Nothing, not even wisdom itself, can give someone absolute control over their destiny and therefore guarantee any advantage.

14 The wise have eyes in their heads,
    while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
    that the same fate overtakes them both.(A)

Read full chapter

15 [a](A)What now is has already been; what is to be, already is: God retrieves what has gone by.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 3:15 The verse is difficult. Literally it reads “and God seeks out what was pursued.” It appears to be a variation of the theme in 1:9, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

15 Whatever is has already been,(A)
    and what will be has been before;(B)
    and God will call the past to account.[a]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 3:15 Or God calls back the past