Ecclesiastes 7:2

2 It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the ¹end of every man, And the living ²takes it to heart.

Ecclesiastes 7:2 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 7:2

[It is] better to go to the house of mourning
For deceased relations or friends, who either lie unburied, or have been lately inferred; for the Jews kept their mourning for their dead several days afterwards, when their friends visited them in order to comfort them, as the Jews did Martha and Mary, ( John 11:31 ) . So the Targum here,

``it is better to go to a mourning man to comfort him;''

for at such times and places the conversation was serious and interesting, and turned upon the subjects of mortality and a future state, and preparation for it; from whence useful and instructive lessons are learned; and so it was much better to be there than to go to the house of feasting:
the Targum is,

``than to the house of a feast of wine of scorners;''

where there is nothing but noise and clamour, luxury and intemperance, carnal mirth and gaiety, vain and frothy conversation, idle talk and impure songs, and a jest made of true religion and godliness, death and another world; for that [is] the end of all men;
not the house of feasting, but the house of mourning; or mourning itself, as Jarchi; every man must expect to lose his relation and friend, and so come to the house of mourning; and must die himself, and be the occasion of mourning: death itself seems rather intended, which is the end of all men, the way of all flesh; for it is appointed for men to die; and so the Targum,

``seeing upon them all is decreed the decree of death;''

and the living will lay [it] to his heart;
by going to the house of mourning, he will be put in mind of death, and will think of it seriously, and consider his latter end, how near it is; and that this must be his case shortly, as is the deceased's he comes to mourn for. So the Targum interprets it of words concerning death, or discourses of mortality he there hears, which he takes notice of and lays to his heart, and lays up in it. Jarchi's note is,

``their thought is of the way of death.''

Ecclesiastes 7:2 In-Context

1 A good name is better than a good ointment, And the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth.

2 It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every man, And the living takes it to heart.

3 Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.

4 The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.

5 It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man Than for one to listen to the song of fools.

Cross References

• 1. Ecclesiastes 2:14, 16; Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20; Ecclesiastes 6:6; Ecclesiastes 9:2, 3
• 2. Psalms 90:12

Footnotes

• [a] I.e. death
• [b] Lit "gives"
• [c] Lit "his heart"