What Does Ecclesiastes 2:14 Mean in the King James?

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.

Ecclesiastes 2:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Wisdom can give you eyes to see, but it cannot place you outside the one event that meets everyone.

THE MEANING

Wisdom gives you a clear view of your path, while folly moves through darkness. Neither clarity nor confusion removes you from the shared human end: the same event reaches everyone.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that understanding makes you exempt from mortality.

THE ROOT

מִקְרֶה

miqreh

GROWS FROM

קרה

To meet, encounter, or befall.

The Hebrew pairs the noun ⁨מִקְרֶה⁩ (miqreh, occurrence) with ⁨יִקְרֶה⁩ (yiqreh, happens), repeating one root: the event is what meets or befalls. The wise man’s sight and the fool’s darkness differ, but the same encounter reaches both.

ALSO GROWS

miqreh: Occurrence, event

מִקְרֶה

This noun names the shared event at the center of the verse.

yiqreh: Happens, befalls

יִקְרֶה

The verb repeats the noun’s root, making the event sound like what comes upon everyone.

רָאִיתִי

ra'iti

GROWS FROM

ראה

To see, look at, or perceive.

“perceived” in this verse is ra'iti. The Hebrew says, literally, “I saw.” That seeing echoes the wise man’s eyes and the fool’s darkness: the speaker sees that clearer sight does not change the common outcome.

ALSO GROWS

ro'eh: Seeing; one who sees

רֹאֶה

It shares the seeing root behind the speaker’s “I saw” and the image of the wise man’s eyes.

mar'eh: Appearance, sight

מַרְאֶה

It carries the same root into what can be seen, sharpening the verse’s contrast between sight and darkness.

THE PATTERN

Wisdom can sharpen what a person sees, but death remains the common boundary of human life.

All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Ecclesiastes 9:2 · KJVThe same event reaches people across distinctions that might seem to set them apart.

For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.

Psalm 49:10 · KJVThe wise and the fool share mortality, even when their understanding differs.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Hebrews 9:27 · KJVDeath stands as a common boundary for every human life.

THE THREAD

All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Ecclesiastes 9:2 · KJV

The same noun ⁨מִקְרֶה⁩ (miqreh, occurrence or event) appears here, and the verse names the righteous and wicked among those it reaches. Its repetition makes explicit that the “one event” in 2:14 crosses the distinctions wisdom can see.

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