What Does Ecclesiastes 7:23 Mean in the King James?
All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
“I will be wise” and “wisdom” share one Hebrew root, yet wisdom remains far away: wanting the quality is not the same as possessing it.
THE MEANING
You can examine what life gives you and resolve to become wise, yet still find wisdom beyond your reach. The verse names the limit without calling your effort worthless: testing and intention do not make wisdom yours to command.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that deciding to be wise is the same as possessing wisdom.
THE ROOT
חָכְמָה
ḥokmah
GROWS FROM
חכם
ḥ-k-m
To be wise or skillful.
The phrase “I will be wise” uses אֶחְכָּמָה (eḥkāmāh), from the same root as חָכְמָה (ḥokmah), “wisdom.” The shared root links the speaker’s intention to wisdom itself, while the verse keeps a distance between saying “I will be wise” and possessing what wisdom is.
ALSO GROWS
ḥakham: A wise person.
חָכָם
The same root names the person characterized by wisdom, linking the quality to the one who embodies it.
eḥkāmāh: I will be wise.
אֶחְכָּמָה
This is the speaker’s own resolve; its shared root with “wisdom” makes the gap between intention and attainment visible.
רְחוֹקָה
reḥoqah
GROWS FROM
רחק
r-ḥ-q
To be far or distant.
The word for “far” comes from a root that also forms words for distance and for putting something far away. Wisdom is presented as real but remote from the speaker, and the next verse repeats this root to dwell on that distance.
ALSO GROWS
raḥoq: Far or distant.
רָחוֹק
This form returns in the next verse, where what is far off becomes the subject of the search.
hirḥiq: To put far away or remove.
הִרְחִיק
This branch makes the root’s spatial force clear: distance is something that can be described as a separation.
merḥaq: Distance or a distant place.
מֶרְחָק
It shows that the root can name the space between what is sought and the one who seeks it.
נִסִּיתִי
nissiti
GROWS FROM
נסה
n-s-h
To test or try through experience.
The speaker’s “proved” carries the sense of testing or trying. The claim comes from lived examination, yet even that experience leaves wisdom beyond reach.
ALSO GROWS
nasah: To test or try.
נָסָה
It names the action expressed by the speaker’s “proved,” grounding the line in examination.
Massah: Testing; also the name of a place associated with testing.
מַסָּה
This related form preserves the root’s sense of trial, showing how testing can name both an experience and its setting.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom can be sought and examined, yet it exceeds what a person can claim to possess.
But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!THE THREAD
That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?The Hebrew root רחק (r-ḥ-q), “to be far,” returns in the next verse. What is “far from me” becomes “far off, and exceeding deep”: the distance itself is what the passage asks the reader to face.
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