the Fourth Week after Easter
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Contemporary English Version
Ecclesiastes 9:4
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But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion.
For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For whoever is joined to all the living, there is hope; for better a live dog, than a dead lion.
But anyone still alive has hope; even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!
[There is no exemption,] but whoever is joined with all the living, has hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.
For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
Surely whosoeuer is ioyned to all ye liuing, there is hope: for it is better to a liuing dog, then to a dead lyon.
For whoever is joined with all the living, there is confidence; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.
There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion.
For as long as a person is linked with the living, there is hope — better to be a living dog than a dead lion!
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
There is hope for those who are still alive—it does not matter who they are. But this saying is true: A living dog is better than a dead lion.
For him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
But anyone who is alive in the world of the living has some hope; a live dog is better off than a dead lion.
Whoever is joined to all the living has hope. After all, even a live dog is better than a dead lion!
For one who is chosen to be among all the living, there is hope. For a living dog is better than a dead lion.
And why? As longe as a man lyueth, he is careles: for a quyck dogg (saye they) is better the a deed lion:
For to him that is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For him who is joined to all the living there is hope; a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For to him that is ioyned to all the liuing, there is hope: for a liuing dogge is better then a dead Lion.
And why? as long as a man liueth, he hath an hope: for a quicke dogge [say they] is better then a dead lion.
for who is he that has fellowship with all the living? there is hope of him: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For to him that is joined with all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
No man is, that lyueth euere, and that hath trist of this thing; betere is a quik dogge than a deed lioun.
For to him that is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
But whoever is among the living has hope; a live dog is better than a dead lion.
But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
There is hope only for the living. As they say, "It's better to be a live dog than a dead lion!"
But there is hope for the one who is among the living. For sure a live dog is better off than a dead lion.
But whoever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For, whosoever was united to all the living, for him, there was hope, - -inasmuch as, a living dog, fared better than a dead lion.
There is no man that liveth always, or that hopeth for this: a living dog is better than a dead lion.
But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
But [to] him who is joined unto all the living there is confidence, for to a living dog it [is] better than to the dead lion.
Still, anyone selected out for life has hope, for, as they say, "A living dog is better than a dead lion." The living at least know something, even if it's only that they're going to die. But the dead know nothing and get nothing. They're a minus that no one remembers. Their loves, their hates, yes, even their dreams, are long gone. There's not a trace of them left in the affairs of this earth.
For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Job 14:7-12, Job 27:8, Isaiah 38:18, Lamentations 3:21, Lamentations 3:22, Luke 16:26-29
Reciprocal: Job 24:19 - so doth Ecclesiastes 4:2 - General Isaiah 57:18 - to his
Cross-References
This includes the birds and the animals that came out of the boat.
When I send clouds over the earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky,
So you and your descendants must never eat any fat or any blood, not even in the privacy of your own homes. This law will never change.
And no matter where you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal,
Don't eat the blood of any animal. Don't practice any kind of witchcraft.
But don't eat the blood. It is the life of the animal, so let it drain out on the ground before you eat the meat.
You belong to the Lord your God, so if you happen to find a dead animal, don't eat its meat. You may give it to foreigners who live in your town or sell it to foreigners who are visiting your town. Don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
But you must never eat the blood of an animal—let it drain out on the ground.
We should simply write and tell them not to eat anything that has been offered to idols. They should be told not to eat the meat of any animal that has been strangled or that still has blood in it. They must also not commit any terrible sexual sins.
So we met together and decided to choose some men and to send them to you along with our good friends Barnabas and Paul.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
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" y, 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.
y מי אשר יבחר "quisquis eligatur", Montanus, so Gejerus.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
For to him - Rather: “Yet to him.” Notwithstanding evils, life has its advantage, and especially when compared with death.
Dog - To the Hebrews a type of all that was contemptible 1 Samuel 17:43.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Ecclesiastes 9:4. For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope — While a man lives he hopes to amend, and he hopes to have a better lot; and thus life is spent, hoping to grow better, and hoping to get more. The Vulgate has, "There is none that shall live always, nor has any hope of such a thing." Perhaps the best translation is the following: "What, therefore, is to be chosen? In him that is living there is hope." Then choose that eternal life which thou hopest to possess.
A living dog is better than a dead lion. — I suppose this was a proverb. The smallest measure of animal existence is better than the largest of dead matter. The poorest living peasant is infinitely above Alexander the Great.
