Ecclesiastes 7:30

6 translations of 93 that include the Old Testament

Clementine Vulgate 1598

Solummodo hoc inveni, quod fecerit Deus hominem rectum, et ipse se infinitis miscuerit quæstionibus. Quis talis ut sapiens est? et quis cognovit solutionem verbi?]

Czech Kralická Bible 1613

Kdo se může vrovnati moudrému, a kdo může vykládati všelikou věc?

Douay-Rheims 1899

Only this I have found, that God made man right, and he hath entangled himself with an infinity of questions. Who is as the wise man? and who hath known the resolution of the word?

Geneva Bible 1599

And yet my soule seeketh, but I finde it not: I haue found one man of a thousand: but a woman among them all haue I not founde.

LXX2012 U. S. English

But, behold, this have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many devices.

British English Septuagint 2012

But, behold, this have I found, that God made man upright; but they have sought out many devices.

When was this written?

Traditions differ. Both positions are shown rather than one asserted as settled.

Traditional: 970 BC–931 BC Solomon
Ascribed to Solomon by the text's own superscription.
Critical: 450 BC–200 BC Anonymous
Language and vocabulary, including Persian and possibly Greek influence, point to a much later composition.

Elsewhere in the world

Events overlapping when this passage is dated (970 BC–200 BC).

1200 BC–400 BC Olmec civilisation Mesoamerica
The earliest major Mesoamerican civilisation, known for colossal stone heads and an early calendar.
776 BC First recorded Olympiad Greece
The traditional starting point of Greek historical chronology.
753 BC Traditional founding of Rome Rome
The legendary date of Rome's founding, later used as the anchor of the Roman calendar.
750 BC–650 BC Homeric epics take written form Greece
The Iliad and Odyssey were fixed in writing after generations of oral transmission.
745 BC–609 BC Neo-Assyrian empire at its height Mesopotamia
Assyria dominated the Near East, deporting conquered populations as policy, including the northern kingdom of Israel.
722 BC Fall of Samaria Levant
The Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel and the deportation of much of its population.
587 BC–586 BC Fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile Levant
Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the temple and deported the Judean elite to Babylon.
563 BC–483 BC Life of Siddhartha Gautama India
The founder of Buddhism taught in the Ganges plain, roughly contemporary with the Judean exile.