Ecclesiastes 7:29
in Ecclesiastes 7Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
KJV
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
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This verse in Ecclesiastes 7
Commentary
20 notes on this verseFor [the soul] is made to see God and to be enlightened by him; but of its own accord in God's stead it has sought corruptible things and darkness, as the Spirit says somewhere in writing, "God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." Thus it has been then that people from the first discovered and contrived and imagined evil for themselves. But it is now time to say how they came down to the madness of idolatry, that you may know that the invention of idols is wholly due not to good but to evil.
This site's exposition
I have discovered this by adding one thing to another
on Ecclesiastes 7:27-29
The Teacher states his method, adding one thing to another, and reports one upright man among a thousand and no such woman. The chapter closes: God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes. It is the book's Genesis 3, the corruption traced to man's own seeking.
This site's exposition
God made men upright
Barnes reads the verb as God made, pointing to man's original state, exempt from futility. Wesley finds here the fountain of all wickedness, original sin and the corruption of nature in men and women. Augustine adds that only God can make the bad good.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
The reason that we, being bad, have a good Father is in order that we may not always remain bad. No bad person can make a good one. If no bad person can make a good one, how can a bad man make himself good? The only one who can make a good person out of a bad one is the one who is always good. "Heal me, Lord," he says, "and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved." Why do they say to me, silly people saying silly things, "You can save yourself if you want to"? "Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed." We were created good by the good God, seeing that "God made man upright." But by our own decision we became bad. We were able to change from good to bad, and we shall be able to change from bad to good. But it is the one who is always good that can change bad to good, because man, by his own will, cannot heal himself. You don't look for a doctor to wound you; but when you have wounded yourself, you look for one to heal you.
Let us be displeased with ourselves when we sin, because sins displease God. And because we are not in fact without sin, let us at least be like God in this respect, that what displeases him displeases us. Now you are displeased with that in yourself which he also hates who made you. He designed and constructed you; but take a look at yourself and eliminate from yourself everything that does not come from his workshop. For God, as it says, "created man upright."
There is also a good world consisting of people, but made so out of a bad one. The whole world, you see, if you take the world as meaning people, leaving aside world in the sense of heaven and earth and all things that are in them; if you mean people by world, then the whole world was made bad by the one who first sinned. The whole mass is vitiated in its root. God made man good; that is what Scripture says: "God made man upright, and they themselves have sought out many devices."
A commentator
Augustine of HippoAGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS 2:2 · Written before 430.
proposed
The Manicheans deny that to a good man the beginning of evil came from free will; the Pelagians say that even a bad man has free will sufficiently to perform the good commandment. The catholic Church condemns both, saying to the former, "God made man upright," and saying to the latter, "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
But because [God] knows that some humans act according to his will and some do not, for that very reason he proclaims the virtue of the one part in order to incite the others to a zeal for the good from the womb. In the …
12 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers2 voices
God has created human beings straightforward, that is, morally perfect without anything crooked or oblique. But they themselves found many thoughts.… They did not devise one thought but many. Evil, thus, is manifold.… There is only one single human form that makes a person like …
"Behold, I have found this, says the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account. Which still my soul seeks, but I have not found it. I have found one man among a thousand, but one woman among all those I have not found. Only this have I found: that God has made man righteous, but he has sought out many inventions.
The Medieval Church4 voices
A commentator
Bernard of ClairvauxSermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 80 · Written before 1153.
proposed
The soul was made not only to the image, but also to the likeness. You ask in what it is like? Hear first concerning the image. The Word is truth, is wisdom, is justice: and this is the image. Of what? Of justice, of wisdom, …
A commentator
Bernard of ClairvauxSermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 80 · Written before 1153.
proposed
Why does he not know, unless because, bending himself down to these lowest and earthly things, he heaps up earth for himself? Assuredly he does not know, concerning those things which he commits to the earth, for whom he gathers them: whether for the moth …
Our struggle against the vices has not been naturally implanted in us by God our Father and Creator but is proved to have befallen us from our love of this world, which we preferred to our Creator. For God made human beings upright, and they …
A commentator
BonaventureCommentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Here the third thing is noted, namely the causality of concupiscence, which indeed was not from God, but from the first sin. Therefore he says: "Only this I have found, that God made man upright": Ecclesiasticus 17: "God created man from the earth, and made …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Lo, this - Though I could not find out all the streams of wickedness, and their infinite windings and turnings, yet I have discovered the fountain of it, Original sin, and the corruption of nature, which is both in men and women.
The Value of a Good Name. 1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. 2 It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:93%@v1-3
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright,....
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright - Whatever evil may be now found among men and women, it is not of God; for God made them all upright. This is a singular verse, and has been most variously translated: עשה האלהים את האדם ישר והמה בקשו חשבנות רבים asah haelohim eth haadam yashar vehemhah bikkeshu chishbonoth rabbim. “Elohim has made mankind upright, and they have sought many computations.” “He hath meddled with endless questions.” - Vulgate. “Many reasonings.” - Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic. “They seek dyverse sotylties.” Coverdale.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Among man's "inventions" was the one especially referred to in Ec 7:26, the bitter fruits of which Solomon experienced, the breaking of God's primeval marriage law, joining one man to "one" woman (Mt 19:4, 5, 6). "Man" is singular, namely, Adam; "they," plural, Adam, Eve, and their posterity.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
God hath made - Rather, God made. A definite allusion to the original state of man: in which he was exempt from vanity.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לְבַד֙ | levad | <to> only | H905 → | |
| רְאֵה־ | reeh- | consider | H7200 → | 1300 times |
| זֶ֣ה | zeh | this | H2088 → | 1180 times |
| מָצָ֔אתִי | matzati | I have found | H4672 → | 455 times |
| אֲשֶׁ֨ר | ʾasher | that | H834 → | 5497 times |
| עָשָׂ֧ה | ʾasah | he made | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| הָאֱלֹהִ֛ים | haelohim | <the> God | H430 → | 2601 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הָאָדָ֖ם | haadam | <the> humankind | H120 → | 551 times |
| יָשָׁ֑ר | yashar | upright | H3477 → | |
| וְהֵ֥מָּה | vehemah | and they | H1992 → | 553 times |
| בִקְשׁ֖וּ | vikshu | they have sought | H1245 → | 225 times |
| חִשְּׁבֹנ֥וֹת | chishevonot | schemes | H2810 → | |
| רַבִּֽים׃ | rabim | many | H7227 → | 454 times |
לְבַד֙<to> only
levadH905 →
רְאֵה־consider
reeh-H7200 →1300 times
זֶ֣הthis
zehH2088 →1180 times
מָצָ֔אתִיI have found
matzatiH4672 →455 times
אֲשֶׁ֨רthat
ʾasherH834 →5497 times
עָשָׂ֧הhe made
ʾasahH6213 →2628 times
הָאֱלֹהִ֛ים<the> God
haelohimH430 →2601 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הָאָדָ֖ם<the> humankind
haadamH120 →551 times
יָשָׁ֑רupright
yasharH3477 →
וְהֵ֥מָּהand they
vehemahH1992 →553 times
בִקְשׁ֖וּthey have sought
vikshuH1245 →225 times
חִשְּׁבֹנ֥וֹתschemes
chishevonotH2810 →
רַבִּֽים׃many
rabimH7227 →454 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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
Titus 3:3For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
it leads to
- Ephesians 2:1–3
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
- Colossians 1:21
Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds.
- Romans 6:17
But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed.
- Colossians 3:7
When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9–11
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual…
- Ephesians 2:1–3
Through
Jeremiah 4:22“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
- Romans 16:19
Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Through
Genesis 5:1This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness.
it leads to
- Ephesians 4:24
and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
- Ephesians 4:24
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Ecclesiastes
This page draws on 19 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Athanasius of Alexandria, Against the Heathen 7:5-6; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 61:2; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 19:4; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 96:6; Augustine of Hippo, AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS 2:2; Bede, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, 1 John 2:16; Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 80; Bonaventure, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes; Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 231:13; Eznik of Kolb, ON GOD 248; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.