Ecclesiastes 7 (WK) - Bible Truth Library

Verse 28

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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• ²⁷And God created Man in his image, in God's image created he him; male and female created he them. (Gen. 1:27)

Gen. 3:6• ⁶When the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that [it was] pleasant to the eyes, and the tree [was] desirable to make wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. (Gen. 3:6)

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Inventions

Cross References

Ministry on This Verse

God.

Gen. 1:26‑27• ²⁶And God said, Let Us make men in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over fish of the sea, and over bird of the heavens, and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
²⁷And God created Man in his image, in God's image 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 Adam's generations. In the day God created man, in God's likeness 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• ⁶When the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that [it was] pleasant to the eyes, and the tree [was] desirable to make wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
⁷And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked; and they joined together fig-leaves, and made themselves aprons . (Gen. 3:6‑7)

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Gen. 6:5‑6,11‑12• ⁵And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man [was] great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually .
⁶And Jehovah repented that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
¹¹And the earth 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 its way upon the earth. (Gen. 6:5‑6,11‑12)

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Gen. 11:4‑6• ⁴And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] to the heavens; and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
⁵And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of Man builded.
⁶And Jehovah said, Behold, the people [are] one, and have all one language ; and this have they begun to do; and now they will not be hindered in all that they meditate to do. (Gen. 11:4‑6)

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Psa. 99:8• ⁸Jehovah, our God, {i}thou{/i} answeredst them;{HR}A forgiving God wast thou to them,{HR}And taking vengeance on their doings. (Psa. 99:8)

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Psa. 106:29,39• ²⁹And they provoked him by their actions,{HR}And the plague broke out among them.
³⁹And they were defiled in their doings,{HR}And went a whoring in their actions. (Psa. 106:29,39)

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Jer. 2:12‑13• ¹²{i}Be astonished, ye heavens, at this, and shudder; be amazed very much, saith Jehovah.{/i}
¹³{i}For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew them out cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water.{/i} (Jer. 2:12‑13)

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Jer. 4:22• ²²{i}For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have no intelligence; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.{/i} (Jer. 4:22)

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Ezek. 22:6‑13• ⁶{i}Behold, the princes of Israel have been in thee to shed blood, each according to his power.{/i}
⁷{i}In thee have they made light of 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.{/i}
⁸{i}Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths.{/i}
⁹{i}In thee there have been slanderous men to shed blood; and in thee have they eaten upon the mountains; in the midst of thee they have committed lewdness;{/i}
¹⁰{i}in thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was unclean in her separation.{/i}
¹¹{i}And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.{/i}
¹²{i}In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast overreached thy neighbours by oppression, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord Jehovah.{/i}
¹³Therefore, behold, 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, leaving the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of vessels and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
⁹And he said to them, Well do ye set aside the commandment of God, that ye may observe your own tradition. (Mark 7:8‑9)

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Acts 7:40‑43• ⁴⁰saying to Aaron, Make us gods who shall go before us; for this Moses, who brought us out of [the] land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
⁴¹And they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
⁴²But God turned and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in [the] book of the prophets, Did ye offer me victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
⁴³Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan, the forms which ye made to worship them; and I will transport you beyond Babylon. (Acts 7:40‑43)

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Rom. 1:21‑32• ²¹Because, having known God, they glorified him not as God nor were thankful, but became vain in their thoughts, and their heart void of understanding was darkened.
²²Professing to be wise, they became fools,
²³and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for a likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of winged and four-footed and creeping [creatures].
²⁴Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness so that their bodies were dishonoured among them;
²⁵which exchanged the truth of God for falsehood, and served and reverenced the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever, Amen.
²⁶On this account God gave them up to vile passions; for both their females exchanged the natural use into the unnatural,
²⁷and likewise the males also, leaving the natural use of the female, were inflamed in their lust toward one another, males with males working out unseemliness, and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was meet.
²⁸And even as they disapproved to have God in acknowledgment, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind to do improper things;
²⁹being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, ill-will; whisperers,
³⁰slanderers, God-hated, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
³¹void of understanding, faithless, without natural affection, pitiless;
³²which, knowing right well the righteous award of God that they who do such things are worthy of death, not only practice them but also have a fellow-pleasure in those that do [them]. (Rom. 1:21‑32)

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Rom. 3:9‑19• ⁹What then? are we better? Not at all; for we have before charged both Jews and Greeks with being all under sin,
¹⁰even as it is written, “There is none righteous, not one;
¹¹there is not the [man] that understandeth; there is not the [man] that seeketh out God.
¹²All went out of the way, together they became unprofitable; there is none that practiceth kindness, there is not so much as one.”
¹³“An open grave [is] their throat; with their tongues they used deceit; venom of asps [is] under their lips;
¹⁴whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;
¹⁵swift [are] their feet to shed blood;
¹⁶ruin and misery [are] in their ways;
¹⁷and no way of peace they knew.
¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
¹⁹Now we know that whatever things the law saith, it speaketh to those that [are] in the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be under judgment with God. (Rom. 3:9‑19)

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Eph. 2:2‑3• ²in which ye once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience;
³among whom we all also had our conversation once in the lusts of our flesh, doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were children, by nature, of wrath even as the rest; (Eph. 2:2‑3)

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Titus 3:3• ³For at one time even we were foolish, disobedient, gone astray, in slavery to divers lusts and pleasures, passing time in malice and envy, abominable, 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.

W. Kelly Translation

Behold, this only have I found,{HR}That God made man upright;{HR}But they have sought out many inventions.