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Ecclesiastes 9:4-6
New English Translation
Ecclesiastes 9:4-6
New English Translation
Better to Be Poor but Alive than Rich but Dead
4 But whoever is among[a] the living[b] has hope;
a live dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything;
they have no further reward—and even the memory of them disappears.[c]
6 What they loved,[d] as well as what they hated[e] and envied,[f] perished long ago,
and they no longer have a part in anything that happens on earth.[g]
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 9:4 tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “is chosen, selected.” The translation follows the marginal reading (Qere), “is joined.” See BDB 288 s.v. חָבַר Pu.
- Ecclesiastes 9:4 tn Heb “all the living.”
- Ecclesiastes 9:5 tn Heb “for their memory is forgotten.” The pronominal suffix is an objective genitive, “memory of them.”
- Ecclesiastes 9:6 tn Heb “their love.”
- Ecclesiastes 9:6 tn Heb “their hatred.”
- Ecclesiastes 9:6 tn Heb “their envy.”
- Ecclesiastes 9:6 tn Heb “under the sun.”
New English Translation (NET)
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