Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

Ecclesiastes 7:6

in Ecclesiastes 7

For like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.

KJV

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.

⋯

This verse in Ecclesiastes 7

Commentary

8 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

For as the crackling of thorns - They make a great noise, a great blaze; and are extinguished in a few moments. Such indeed, comparatively, are the joys of life; they are noisy, flashy, and transitory.

This site's exposition

It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke

on Ecclesiastes 7:5-7

It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools, hard words that do good against easy ones. Verse 7 warns the wise as well: extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

This site's exposition

the crackling of thorns

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear a wordplay in the Hebrew, sirim for thorns and sir for pot. Thorns make a crackling blaze and die quickly. Clarke and Barnes find the laughter of the fool the same, loud while it lasts and then gone.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Didymus the Blind

COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 203:3 · Written before 398.

proposed

Thorns that burn under a pot make loud crackling noises. This is like the laughing of the foolish. It makes noise and is crackling, but not because it educates the soul.… As the thorns produce noise when they as plants are burned under a pot, …

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Bonaventure

Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7 · Written in the 13th century.

proposed

And he gives the reason by a similitude: because the flattery of a fool lasts but a short time and makes much noise, like thorns kindled under a pot. Therefore he says: "For as the crackling of thorns under a pot," it sounds loudly, "so …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

There is a paronomasia in the Hebrew, Sirim ("thorns"), Sir ("pot"). The wicked are often compared to "thorns" (2Sa 23:6; Dried cow-dung was the common fuel in Palestine; its slowness in burning makes the quickness of a fire of thorns the more graphic, as an image of the sudden end of fools (Ps 118:12).

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

As the crackling of thorns - Noisy while it lasts, and quickly extinguished. See Psa 58:9 note.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

10 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Psalms 58:9Before your pots can feel the burning thorns— whether green or dry— He will sweep them away.7 worksPsalms 118:12They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.7 worksEcclesiastes 2:2I said of laughter, “It is folly,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”5 worksLuke 6:25Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.3 worksAmos 8:10I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.2 worksLuke 16:25But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.2 works
The other 4 cross-references, with their words ▾
Proverbs 29:9If a wise man goes to court with a fool, there will be raving and laughing with no resolution.2 works2 Peter 2:13–17The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.2 worksIsaiah 65:13–15Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.2 worksJude 1:12–13These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Ecclesiastes 2:2

    I said of laughter, “It is folly,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 14:13

      Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in sorrow.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Psalms 118:12

    They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 1:44

      Then the Amorites who lived in the hills came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees. They routed you from Seir all the way to Hormah.

    • 1 Samuel 17:45

      But David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies…

  • Through

    Luke 6:25

    Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 65:13

      Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be…

  • Through

    Psalms 58:9

    Before your pots can feel the burning thorns— whether green or dry— He will sweep them away.

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 10:25

      When the whirlwind passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are secure forever.

    • Psalms 118:12

      They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.

  • Through

    Amos 8:10

    I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 6:26

      O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

    • Zechariah 12:10

      Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They…

Where this verse is studied

About Ecclesiastes

King Solomon in Old Age, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
King Solomon in Old Age, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ecclesiastes: the study guide →Read Ecclesiastes 7 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bonaventure, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7; Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 203:3; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Ecclesiastes 7 →