Ecclesiastes 4:11

11 If it is cold, two can sleep together and stay warm, but how can you keep warm by yourself?

Ecclesiastes 4:11 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 4:11

Again, if two lie together, then they have heat
The Targum adds, in the winter; when it is a cold season, they warm one another by lying together. The Targum interprets it of a man and his wife; it is true of others; see ( 1 Kings 1:1 1 Kings 1:2 ) ; but how can one be warm [alone]?
not soon, nor easily, in time of cold weather. This is true in a spiritual sense of persons in a Christian communion and religious society; when they are grown cold in their love, lukewarm in their affections, and backward and indifferent to spiritual exercises, yet by Christian conversation may be stirred up to love and good works: so two cold flints struck against each other, fire comes out of them; and even two cold Christians, when they come to talk with each other about spiritual things, and feel one another's spirits, they presently glow in their affections to each other, and to divine things; and especially if Christ joins them with his presence, as he did the two disciples going to Emmaus, then their hearts burn within them.

Ecclesiastes 4:11 In-Context

9 Two are better off than one, because together they can work more effectively.
10 If one of them falls down, the other can help him up. But if someone is alone and falls, it's just too bad, because there is no one to help him.
11 If it is cold, two can sleep together and stay warm, but how can you keep warm by yourself?
12 Two people can resist an attack that would defeat one person alone. A rope made of three cords is hard to break.
13 Someone may rise from poverty to become king of his country, or go from prison to the throne, but if in his old age he is too foolish to take advice, he is not as well off as a young man who is poor but intelligent.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.