This final verse shows the second focus, the actions of God in human history and in the created world. In conclusion it states again the principle that the human mind is limited when it comes to knowledge of God’s ways.

Then I saw all the work of God: ideas in this verse are linked with those of 7.13-14 (for example, “work of God”). There are also links with 7.23-29, where we find the statement that people, even wise ones, cannot find out what God does regardless of how hard they seek. I saw repeats the verb for observing and reflecting; see the previous verse for comments. The work of God is a phrase last met with in 7.13, where it described the full range of divine activity. This can be rendered as “then I observed everything God has done.” It provides the object of the verb “saw.”

That man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: the introductory particle ki has been interpreted here as a conjunction that introduces the object of the sentence. Thus Revised Standard Version understands the long phrase, “that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun,” as the object of the verb “see.” However, we have shown elsewhere that ki can have several functions and meanings. It is more likely that in this context we have an assertive particle, “indeed,” emphasizing the conclusion that Qoheleth reached. This means that we are dealing with an independent sentence. So a better translation is “Then I observed all that God has done. Indeed, no one can discover…” or “Truly, [mere] human beings cannot understand….” Alternatively a longer expression can be introduced to show that Qoheleth is making an important point; “I discovered that…” or “I concluded that…” are possibilities.

The general term man in this negative phrase means “nobody.” It of course follows that not even the wise man can discover the answers. Because the whole verse is concerned with the wide gap between human beings and the Creator, the word can also be rendered “a mere human being [can never…].” On the key term find out, see comments in 7.14. It means “to find out the significance” of what God has done. The phrase “to fathom the meaning of” is quite appropriate, as it too emphasizes how far people are from understanding the activities of God.

The work that is done under the sun refers specifically to “all that God does on earth.” We can say this and avoid the use of a passive construction. For under the sun see comments on 1.3.

The first part of the verse can be rendered as follows:

• Then I observed all that God has done. Truly people are unable to fully understand what he has done in the world.

• Then I pondered everything God does. I concluded that people will never be able to fully comprehend the meaning of his actions.

However much man may toil in seeking opens with a phrase that means “on account of” or “seeing that.” We catch its sense if we translate as “No matter how much….” Man may toil has as its subject the general term man, so it refers to all people, but perhaps principally “wise people.” The verb toil has the sense of strenuous labor working toward a goal, as in 2.10. Good News Translation “However hard you try” is a good model. The Hebrew verb refers to frequent action, so toil describes continued pursuit of a goal. In seeking can probably be better rendered as the infinitive “to seek.” In some languages repetition will be an effective way of expressing this continual search: “people will look and look,” or “… search and search.”

The translator will also have to consider how best to join this clause to the next one. In Hebrew a conjunction is used, and in many languages this can be effectively translated as “but”: “People can search and search to find out what God does, but they will never find out.”

He will not find it out: this is a result clause noting that, in Qoheleth’s view, human beings will never be able to know the full significance of God’s deeds. Find … out is the verb used often in the closing verses of chapter 7. Refer to comments on 7.25-29. We can also give the verb’s meaning as “know” or “discover.” It has the sense of “to know all about” or “to discover the full meaning of.” The object it is added by Revised Standard Version, and many languages will require a similar addition. The pronoun it can be expressed as “what God does.” For this part of the verse, we may say “No matter how hard people try, they will never know the full meaning of [or, find out] what God does.”

Even though a wise man claims to know: in order to press the point, Qoheleth adds this emphatic conditional clause beginning with two particles. Throughout this book Qoheleth has been at pains to prove just how limited our human understanding of things is, whether we speak of God or of human experiences. Fools, or people who claim to be wise, generally claim to fully understand these things. Perhaps there are also genuine “wise” people who are tempted to think along these lines. In this conditional clause Qoheleth states that if ever we meet anyone who claims to know God’s mind, then that so-called wise person is really foolish. It does not mean that every wise person makes such outrageous claims, so Good News Translation‘s “The wise may claim…” may be better rendered “Some wise men may claim….”

Claims is simply the verb “says” in Hebrew. In many languages a literal rendering “say” will be acceptable. Note how Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation‘s claims carries the sense that the person is saying something untrue, or at least unreasonable. If a similar word exists in the translator’s language, it too can replace the verb “say.” “Think” is another possibility in English.

The second half of the conditional sentence gives a powerful statement, he cannot find it out. Detailed knowledge of God’s doings is beyond the human mind. This presupposes that the human mind is basically limited in its powers, so Qoheleth can confidently argue that, if a person claims full knowledge, that claim is false. Though no conjunction is present in the Hebrew text, in some languages a word like “but” may be required for a natural expression: “A wise person may claim to know what God does, but he can never understand it all.”

This statement also has some bearing on the question in verse 1 about what the wise person is like. Qoheleth would say that only a person aware of the limited power of the human mind can be called truly wise.

While making it clear that human beings cannot know everything, our rendering here should not suggest that there is nothing we can know.

Two translation possibilities are:

• Even if a person claims to know [the significance of God’s deeds], he cannot possibly find out [their full meaning].

• If you find a wise person claiming to know all about God’s actions in the world, he is claiming something beyond human power to know.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .