Ecclesiastes 2:14

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walks in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happens to them all.

American King James Version (AKJV)

The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walks in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happens to them all.

American Standard Version (ASV)

The wise man's eyes are in his head, and the fool walketh in darkness: and yet I perceived that one event happeneth to them all.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the foolish man goes walking in the dark; but still I saw that the same event comes to them all.

Webster's Revision

The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.

World English Bible

The wise man's eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness--and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.

English Revised Version (ERV)

The wise man's eyes are in his head, and the fool walketh in darkness: and yet I perceived that one event happeneth to them all.

Clarke's Ecclesiastes 2:14 Bible Commentary

The wise man's eyes, etc. - Well expressed by Choheleth: -

"The wise are circumspect, maturely weigh

The consequence of what they undertake,

Good ends propose, and fittest means apply

To accomplish their designs."

But the fool walketh in darkness -

"But fools, deprived

Of reason's guidance, or in darkness grope,

Or, unreflecting like a frantic man,

Who on the brink of some steep precipice

Attempts to run a race with heedless steps,

Rush to their own perdition."

One event happeneth to them all -

"Though wide the difference, what has human pride

continued...

Barnes's Ecclesiastes 2:14 Bible Commentary

Event - Or, "hap" Ruth 2:3. The verb from which it is derived seems in this book to refer especially to death. The word does not mean chance (compare Ecclesiastes 9:1-2), independent of the ordering of Divine Providence: the Gentile notion of "mere chance," or "blind fate," is never once contemplated by the writer of this book, and it would be inconsistent with his tenets of the unlimited power and activity of God.

Wesley's Ecclesiastes 2:14 Bible Commentary

2:14 Head - In their proper place. He hath the use of his eyes and reason, and foresees, and so avoids many dangers and mischiefs.Yet - Notwithstanding this excellency of wisdom above folly, at last they both come to one end. Both are subject to the same calamities, and to death itself, which takes away all difference between them.