Ecclesiastes 7 (KJV) - Bible Truth Library

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Ecclesiastes 7

Eccl. 7:29 KJV (With Strong’s)

Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man uprightu; but they have sought out manyv inventions.

Gen. 1:27• ²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Gen. 1:27)

Gen. 3:6• ⁶And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Gen. 3:6)

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Cross References

Ministry on This Verse

God.

Gen. 1:26‑27• ²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Gen. 1:26‑27)

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Gen. 5:1• ¹This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; (Gen. 5:1)

they.The descendants of Adam have sought out an immense number of inventions, in order to find happiness in the world, without God, which have only proved so many variations of impiety and iniquity.

Gen. 3:6‑7• ⁶And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
⁷And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. (Gen. 3:6‑7)

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Gen. 6:5‑6,11‑12• ⁵And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
⁶And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
¹¹The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
¹²And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. (Gen. 6:5‑6,11‑12)

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Gen. 11:4‑6• ⁴And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
⁵And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
⁶And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. (Gen. 11:4‑6)

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Psa. 99:8• ⁸Thou answeredst them, O Lord our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. (Psa. 99:8)

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Psa. 106:29,39• ²⁹Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.
³⁹Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. (Psa. 106:29,39)

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Jer. 2:12‑13• ¹²Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord.
¹³For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jer. 2:12‑13)

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Jer. 4:22• ²²For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. (Jer. 4:22)

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Ezek. 22:6‑13• ⁶Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.
⁷In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
⁸Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.
⁹In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.
¹⁰In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.
¹¹And one hath committed abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.
¹²In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.
¹³Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee. (Ezek. 22:6‑13)

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Mark 7:8‑9• ⁸For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
⁹And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. (Mark 7:8‑9)

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Acts 7:40‑43• ⁴⁰Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
⁴¹And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
⁴²Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
⁴³Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. (Acts 7:40‑43)

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Rom. 1:21‑32• ²¹Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
²²Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
²³And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
²⁴Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:
²⁵Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
²⁶For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
²⁷And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
²⁸And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
²⁹Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
³⁰Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
³¹Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
³²Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Rom. 1:21‑32)

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Rom. 3:9‑19• ⁹What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
¹⁰As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
¹¹There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
¹²They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
¹³Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
¹⁴Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood:
¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways:
¹⁷And the way of peace have they not known:
¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes.
¹⁹Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Rom. 3:9‑19)

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Eph. 2:2‑3• ²Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
³Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (Eph. 2:2‑3)

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Titus 3:3• ³For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. (Titus 3:3)

• Folly may claim license for its lusts in the plea of a nature received from a Creator. Haughty pride, on the other hand, may deny that nature altogether. The clearer, nobler, truer, philosophy of our writer justifies God, even in view of all the evil that makes him groan. (“Ecclesiastes 7” by F.C. Jennings)

• Yet the very invention bespeaks need; for most truthful is the proverb, “Necessity is the mother of invention”; and surely in the way of Nature necessity is not a glory, but a shame. Let him glory in his inventions, then; and his glory is in his shame. Adam in his Eden of delights, upright, content, thought never of invention. He took from God’s hand what God gave, with no need to make calls upon his own ingenuity to supply his longings. The fall introduces the inventive faculty, and human ingenuity begins to work to overcome the need, of which now, for the first time, man becomes aware; but we hear no singing in connection with that first invention of the apron of fig-leaves. (“Ecclesiastes 7” by F.C. Jennings)

• Its activity {inventiveness} is the accompaniment usually of the light that God gives, and which man takes, and turns to his own boasting, with no recognition of the Giver, calling it “civilization.” The Lord’s saints are not, for the most part, to be found amongst the line of inventors. The seed of Cain, and not the seed of Seth, produces them. The former make the earth their home, and naturally seek to beautify it, and make it comfortable. (“Ecclesiastes 7” by F.C. Jennings)

• Discovery is already “ours,” my reader―not invention; and each day, each hour, each moment, may be fruitful in discovery. Every difficulty met in the day’s walk may prove but its handmaid; every trial in the day’s path serve but to bring out new and happy discoveries....they show us a spring of infinite Strength and a fountain of unfathomable Wisdom, that eternal Love puts at our service! Oh, to grow in Faith’s Discoveries! (“Ecclesiastes 7” by F.C. Jennings)

J. N. Darby Translation

Only see this which I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.