Graphic Bible · Scene 5 of 5

A bowed observer sits beside a crooked wooden beam and an incomplete arrangement of counting stones.
Artwork is an interpretation. Scripture is quoted from the People's Open Bible.

Ecclesiastes 1:15-18

Wisdom Increases Pain

Vapor and the Returning World · Ecclesiastes 1

Story guide: Interpretive visual essay. Anonymous figures and settings illustrate this passage; they are not identified historical people.

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15What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

16I said to myself, “Look, I have become great and increased in wisdom beyond all who were before me over Jerusalem, and my heart has seen much wisdom and knowledge.”

17And I set my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly; I came to know that this too is a chasing after wind.

18For with much wisdom comes much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases pain.

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