Ecclesiastes 9:4

4 Anyone who is among the living has hope[a] —even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

Ecclesiastes 9:4 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
English Standard Version (ESV)
4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
New Living Translation (NLT)
4 There is hope only for the living. As they say, “It’s better to be a live dog than a dead lion!”
The Message Bible (MSG)
4 Still, anyone selected out for life has hope, for, as they say, "A living dog is better than a dead lion."
American Standard Version (ASV)
4 For to him that is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
4 But all who are among the living have hope, because a living dog is better than a dead lion.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
4 But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
4 Anyone who is living still has hope. Even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

Ecclesiastes 9:4 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 9:4

For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope
That is, who is among the living, is one of them, and, as long as he is, there is hope, if his circumstances are mean, and he is poor and afflicted, that it may be better with him in time; see ( Job 14:7 ) ; or of his being a good man, though now wicked; of his being called and converted, as some are at the eleventh hour, even on a death bed; and especially there is a hope of men, if they are under the means of grace, seeing persons have been made partakers of the grace of God after long waiting. There is here a "Keri" and a "Cetib", a marginal reading and a textual writing; the former reads, "that is joined", the latter, "that is chosen"; our version follows the marginal reading, as do the Targum, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions: some, following the latter, render the words, "who is to be chosen" F25, or preferred, a living, or a dead man? not a dead but a living man: "to all the living there is hope"; of their being better; and, as Jarchi observes, there is hope, while alive, even though he is a wicked man joined to the wicked; yea, there is hope of the wicked, that he may be good before he dies; for a living dog is better than a dead lion;
a proverbial speech, showing that life is to be preferred to death; and that a mean, abject, and contemptible person, living, who for his despicable condition may be compared to a dog, is to be preferred to the most generous man, or to the greatest potentate, dead; since the one may possibly be useful in some respects or another, the other cannot: though a living sinner, who is like to a dog for his uncleanness and vileness, is not better than a dead saint or righteous man, comparable to a lion, who has hope in his death, and dies in the Lord.


FOOTNOTES:

F25 (rxby rva ym) "quisquis eligatur", Montanus, so Gejerus.

Ecclesiastes 9:4 In-Context

2 All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good, so with the sinful; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them.
3 This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.
4 Anyone who is among the living has hope —even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!
5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten.
6 Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or "What then is to be chosen? With all who live, there is hope"
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