Ecclesiastes 1:17

And I gave my heart to know wisdom,.... Which is repeated, for the confirmation of it, from Ecc 1:13, and that it might be taken notice of how assiduous and diligent he had been in acquiring it; a…

To know madness and folly - A knowledge of folly would help him to discern wisdom, and to exercise that chief function of practical wisdom - to avoid folly.

Solomon, having asserted in general that all is vanity, and having given some general proofs of it, now takes the most effectual method to evince the truth of it, 1. By his own experience; he tried…

And I gave my heart The apparent iteration of the phrase of Ecc 1:13 expresses the concentration of purpose. The writer adds that his search took a yet wider range. He sought to know wisdom through…