23 ¶ All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.
24 That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?
All this have I explored by means of wisdom. I said, I shall be wise enough, but what may be is altogether beyond me! beyond me how far? a double depth! how could any find it?
(23, 24.) All this (the Masorets point זֹה feminine, equivalent to neuter) have I tried with wisdom; I said I will be wise (with ה paragogic, and Taylor in his note observes that this form is optative, and expresses a strong desire [Lange, Commmentary on Old Testament, American edition]; might it not with truth be said that it is the abstract idea of which the verb is the concrete, ‘I shall be wisdomed’?), but that was far from me (but notice again רחוקה, agreeing no doubt with חכמה understood, but not the less an abstract on that account: it was farness or distance itself from me——‘beyond my reach’ is the meaning), a distant thing, what is it which it will be (that is, that he could not reach by wisdom to discern what the future might be), and deep, deep (‘doubly deep,’ very emphatic), who will find it out? (as these questions expect the answer, No, they are equivalent to ‘a distant thing! is not it, the future, indeed? and a vast depth which none can discover.’)
This concludes this part of the discourse, as is evident from the formula, ‘I turned round, I and my heart,’ with which the following passage begins; that which is to succeed is a personal experience of another kind.
25 [¹]I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:
[¹] Hebrew I and my heart compassed.
To come to another point then, in my own experience of knowledge and investigation: I mean the discovery of wise and prudent experiments by which one may recognise wickedness as folly, and false-prudence as mad disappointment.