Ecclesiastes 1:12
New International Version
I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

New Living Translation
I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem.

English Standard Version
I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Berean Standard Bible
I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

King James Bible
I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

New King James Version
I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

New American Standard Bible
I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

NASB 1995
I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

NASB 1977
I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Legacy Standard Bible
I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Amplified Bible
I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Christian Standard Bible
I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

American Standard Version
I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
I, The Preacher, have been King over Israel in Jerusalem

Brenton Septuagint Translation
I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Contemporary English Version
I said these things when I lived in Jerusalem as king of Israel.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I Ecclesiastes was king over Israel in Jerusalem,

English Revised Version
I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
I, the spokesman, have been king of Israel in Jerusalem.

Good News Translation
I, the Philosopher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

International Standard Version
I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

JPS Tanakh 1917
I Koheleth have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Literal Standard Version
I, a preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Majority Standard Bible
I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

New American Bible
I, Qoheleth, was king over Israel in Jerusalem,

NET Bible
I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

New Revised Standard Version
I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem,

New Heart English Bible
I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Webster's Bible Translation
I the preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

World English Bible
I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Young's Literal Translation
I, a preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
With Wisdom Comes Sorrow
12I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!…

Cross References
Ecclesiastes 1:1
These are the words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:

Ecclesiastes 7:27
"Behold," says the Teacher, "I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find an explanation.

Ecclesiastes 12:8
"Futility of futilities," says the Teacher. "Everything is futile!"


Treasury of Scripture

I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

1 Kings 4:1
So king Solomon was king over all Israel.

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Israel Jerusalem Koheleth Preacher Teacher
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Israel Jerusalem Koheleth Preacher Teacher
Ecclesiastes 1
1. the preacher shows that all human courses are vain
4. because the creatures are restless in their courses
9. they bring forth nothing new, and all old things are forgotten
12. and because he has found it so in the studies of wisdom














KOHELETH RELATES HIS OWN EXPERIENCE.

(12) Having in the introductory verses stated the argument of the treatise, the writer proceeds to prove what he has asserted as to the vanity of earthly pursuits, by relating the failures of one who might be expected, if any one could, to bring such pursuits to a satisfactory result. Solomon, in this book called Koheleth, pre-eminent among Jewish sovereigns as well for wisdom as for temporal prosperity, speaking in the first person, tells how, with all his advantages, he could secure in this life no lasting or satisfying happiness. He relates first how he found no satisfaction from an enlightened survey of human life. He found (Ecclesiastes 1:14) that it presented a scene of laborious exertion empty of profitable results. His researches (Ecclesiastes 1:15) only brought to light errors and defects which it was impossible to remedy; so that (Ecclesiastes 1:18) the more thought a man bestowed on the subject, the greater his grief. On the name Koheleth, and the phrase "was king," see Introduction.

Over Israel.--King of Israel is the usual phrase in the earlier books, but there are examples of that here employed (1Samuel 15:26; 2Samuel 19:23; 1Kings 11:37). . . .

Verse 12 - Ecclesiastes 6:12. - Division. I. PROOF OF THE VANITY OF EARTHLY THINGS FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND GENERAL OBSERVATION. Verses 12-18. - Section 1. Vanity of striving for wisdom and knowledge. Verse 12. - I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. Koheleth relates his own experience as king, in accordance with his assumption of the person of Solomon. The use of the past tense in this verse is regarded by many as strong evidence against the Solomonic authorship of the book. "I have been king" (not "I have become king," as Gratz would translate) is a statement introducing the supposed speaker, not as a reigning monarch, but as one who, in time past, exercised sovereignty. Solomon is represented as speaking from the grave, and recalling the past for the instruction of his auditors. In a similar manner, the author of the Book of Wisdom (8:1-13) speaks in his impersonation of Solomon. That king himself, who reigned without interruption to his death, could not have spoken of himself in the terms used here. He lost neither his throne nor his power; and, therefore, the expression cannot be paralleled (as Mr. Bullock suggests) by the complaint of Louis XIV., unsuccessful in war and weary of rule, "When I was king." Solomon redivivus is introduced to give weight to the succeeding experiences. Here is one who had every and the most favorable opportunity of seeing the best side of things; and yet his testimony is that all is vanity. In the acquisition of wisdom, the contrast between the advantage of learned leisure and the interruptions of a laborious life is set forth in Ecclus. 38:24, etc. King over Israel. The expression indicates a time before the division of the kingdom. We have it in 1 Samuel 15:26, and occasionally elsewhere. The usual phrase is "King of Israel." (For in Jerusalem, see on ver. 1.)

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
I,
אֲנִ֣י (’ă·nî)
Pronoun - first person common singular
Strong's 589: I

the Teacher,
קֹהֶ֗לֶת (qō·he·leṯ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6953: Preacher -- 'a collector (of sentences)', 'a preacher', a son of David

was
הָיִ֥יתִי (hā·yî·ṯî)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

king
מֶ֛לֶךְ (me·leḵ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4428: A king

over
עַל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל (yiś·rā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc

in Jerusalem.
בִּירוּשָׁלִָֽם׃ (bî·rū·šā·lim)
Preposition-b | Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 3389: Jerusalem -- probably 'foundation of peace', capital city of all Israel


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OT Poetry: Ecclesiastes 1:12 I the Preacher was king over Israel (Ecclesiast. Ec Ecc Eccles.)
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