Bible verse

Ecclesiastes 1:13

And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!

Ecclesiastes 1:13 · BSB

Ecclesiastes 1:13 in context

The verses around it, from Ecclesiastes 1.

9 What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there a case where one can say, “Look, this is new”? It has already existed in the ages before us.

11 There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow after.

12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

13 And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!

14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

15 What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

16 I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.”

17 So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 1

Ecclesiastes 1:13 in other translations

KJV

And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all [things] that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.

ASV

And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven: it is a sore travail that God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith.

ERV

And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven: it is a sore travail that God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith.

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Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible, which is free of copyright restrictions for use on websites. Read the full Bible on Great Faith.