Read & explore together
Human beings need wisdom to understand God’s counsel
This passage explains why people struggle to understand God’s counsel. It describes human limits, then shows that wisdom from God is necessary if people are to know what pleases him and have their ways corrected.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
In this part of Wisdom of Solomon, the speaker asks direct questions about knowing God’s counsel and will. The passage answers by describing the weakness of mortal thinking, the burden carried by human life, and the need for wisdom and God’s holy spirit from on high.
Wisdom of Solomon 9:13–18Main takeaway
Human beings cannot fully discover God’s counsel by themselves, but need the wisdom God gives.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Questions about God’s counselThe passage opens with two questions: who can know God’s counsel, and who can grasp what the Lord wills?
Explanation
The passage opens with two questions: who can know God’s counsel, and who can grasp what the Lord wills? These questions set the theme. God’s counsel and will are presented as beyond ordinary human reach, so the reader is prepared to hear why people need help from God.
02Why human thinking falls shortThe reason is then stated plainly. Mortal thoughts are unstable, and human plans can fail.
Explanation
The reason is then stated plainly. Mortal thoughts are unstable, and human plans can fail. The passage does not praise human certainty. Instead, it highlights weakness and changeability in human thinking, showing that people do not naturally possess firm understanding of God’s purposes.
03The burden of earthly lifeThe writer adds that a corruptible body weighs down the soul, and an earthy tent burdens a mind full of cares.
Explanation
The writer adds that a corruptible body weighs down the soul, and an earthy tent burdens a mind full of cares. These images stress human frailty and pressure. Even nearby earthly things are understood only with labour, so heavenly things are even less accessible to human effort alone.
04Wisdom given from aboveThe final questions lead to the answer. Knowledge of God’s counsel comes only if God gives wisdom and sends his holy spirit from on high.
Explanation
The final questions lead to the answer. Knowledge of God’s counsel comes only if God gives wisdom and sends his holy spirit from on high. Through that wisdom, the ways of people on earth were corrected, they were taught what is pleasing to God, and they were saved through wisdom.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What do the opening questions suggest about human ability to know God’s counsel and will?
Look at how the questions in verse 13 expect the answer that people cannot know these things by themselves.
02Which words in the passage describe the weakness of human thinking and effort?
Notice the terms unstable, prone to fail, weighs down, burdens, hardly guess, and with labor.
03According to the passage, what changes when God gives wisdom?
Verse 18 shows the results: people’s ways were corrected, they were taught what pleases God, and they were saved through wisdom.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Wisdom of Solomon 9:13–18
13For what man will know the counsel of God? Or who will conceive what the Lord wills?
14For the thoughts of mortals are unstable, and our plans are prone to fail.
15For a corruptible body weighs down the soul. The earthy tent burdens a mind that is full of cares.
16We can hardly guess the things that are on earth, and we find the things that are close at hand with labor; but who has traced out the things that are in the heavens?
17Who gained knowledge of your counsel, unless you gave wisdom, and sent your holy spirit from on high?
18It was thus that the ways of those who are on earth were corrected, and men were taught the things that are pleasing to you. They were saved through wisdom.”