🌀WEB · Ecclesiastes 9:4
What does Ecclesiastes 9:4 mean?
"For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion."
— Ecclesiastes 9:4 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.
All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.
This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten.
Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has perished long ago; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.
Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
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