Matthew Poole and continuators on Ecclesiastes 1:16

16 I communed with mine own heart , saying, Lo, I am come to great estate , and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem : yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledg .

I considered within my self in what condition I was, and what degrees of knowledg I had gained, and whether it was not my ignorance that made me unable to rectifie those errours, and supply those wants, and wiser Men could do it, though I could not.

Heb. I am grown great, to wit, in Wisdom: Or, I have magnified, or greatly enlarged.

Heb. have added. As I had a large stock of Wisdom insused into me by God, 1 King. 3. 12. & 4. 29. so I have greatly improved it by Conversation, and Study, and Experience.

Whether Governours, or Priests, or private Persons. Which was no vain boast, but a known and confessed truth, and profession hereof was necessary to demonstrate his assertion.

Which was then the most eminent place in the World for Wisdom and Knowledg.

Heb. had seen much; which intimates that his Knowledg was clear, and certain, and experimental, as that is which we have from our own eye-sight.

Two words signifying the same thing, as may be gathered from v. 18. and from the promiscuous use of them in this Book, and in the Proverbs, and elsewhere, and implying all manner of knowledge, divine or humane, speculative or practical, political or philosophical.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 4. 30. [illegible: 1 word] 7, 23.; [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 word]