Ecclesiastes 7:13 (LSB)

Passage

See the work of God, For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

Nearby Context

Ecclesiastes 7:11 Wisdom along with an inheritance is good And an advantage to those who see the sun.

Ecclesiastes 7:12 For wisdom is a shadow of protection as money is a shadow of protection, And the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its masters.

Ecclesiastes 7:13 See the work of God, For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

Ecclesiastes 7:14 In the day when there is good be of good cheer, But in the day when there is evil see— God has made the one as well as the other So that man will not find out anything that will be after him.

Ecclesiastes 7:15 I have seen everything during my days of vanity; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "able", "straighten", and "bent". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "able" and "straighten", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 12's "For wisdom is a shadow of protection..." into verse 14's "In the day when there is good...", so "able" and "straighten" belong inside that flow. In Ecclesiastes context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "able" and "straighten" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.