And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can a man do that comes after the king? even that which has been already done.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
What. Hebrew, "For what man shall come after the king? "Septuagint, "after counsel? "Many other versions may be given of this obscure text. Solomon stopt at human wisdom, without consulting the divine; or he asks who shall have greater facility to acquire knowledge than himself, or equal his works? (Calmet)
Man's wisdom compared with God's is contemptible; though it be preferable to folly. (Menochius)
He therefore teaches what human wisdom is, that to follow the real wisdom—which he also calls counsel, which brings about what truly is and has substance, and is not thought of as among futile things—to follow that is the sum of human wisdom. But real wisdom and counsel, on my reckoning, is none other than the Wisdom that is conceived of as before the universe. It is that wisdom by which God made all things, as the prophet says, “by wisdom you made all things” and “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God,” by which all things came to be and were set in order.… When I saw these things, he says, and weighed, as in a balance, what is against what is not, I found that the difference between wisdom and folly was the same as one would find if light wer.e measured ag.ainst the dark. I think it is appropriate that he uses the analogy of light in the discernment of the good. Since darkness is in its own nature unreal (for if there were nothing to obstruct the sun’s rays, there would be...
