Ecclesiastes 4:11

THE MESSAGE

Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm?

Hebrew Names Version
Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one keep warm alone?

King James Version
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?

English Standard Version
Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?

New American Standard Bible
Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?

New Century Version
If two lie down together, they will be warm, but a person alone will not be warm.

Amplified Bible
Again, if two lie down together, then they keep warm; but how can one be warm alone?

World English Bible
Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one keep warm alone?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Also if two sleepe together, then shall they haue heate: but to one how should there be heate?

Legacy Standard Bible
Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?

Berean Standard Bible
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone?

Contemporary English Version
If you sleep alone, you won't have anyone to keep you warm on a cold night.

Complete Jewish Bible
Again, if two people sleep together, they keep each other warm; but how can one person be warm by himself?

Darby Translation
Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one alone be warm?

Easy-to-Read Version
If two people sleep together, they will be warm. But a person sleeping alone will not be warm.

George Lamsa Translation
Again, if two sleep together, they will be warm; but how can one be warm alone?

Good News Translation
If it is cold, two can sleep together and stay warm, but how can you keep warm by yourself

Lexham English Bible
Also if two lie together, they can keep each other warm. But how can one person be warm?

Literal Translation
Also if two lie together , then they have warmth; but for one, how is he warm?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Agayne, when two slepe together, they are warme: but how can a body be warme alone?

American Standard Version
Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone?

Bible in Basic English
So again, if two are sleeping together they are warm, but how may one be warm by himself?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone?

King James Version (1611)
Againe, if two lye together, then they haue heate; but howe can one be warme alone?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Agayne, when two sleepe together they are warme: but howe can a body be warme alone?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Also if two should lie together, they also get heat: but how shall one be warmed alone?

English Revised Version
Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth: but how can one be warm alone?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And if tweyne slepen, thei schulen be nurschid togidere; hou schal oon be maad hoot?

Update Bible Version
Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm [alone]?

Webster's Bible Translation
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm [alone]?

New English Translation
Furthermore, if two lie down together, they can keep each other warm, but how can one person keep warm by himself?

New King James Version
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone?

New Living Translation
Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone?

New Life Bible
And if two lie down together, they keep warm. But how can one be warm alone?

New Revised Standard
Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Moreover, if two lie together, then have they warmth, - but how can, one, have warmth?

Douay-Rheims Bible
And if two lie together, they shall warm one another: how shall one alone be warmed?

Revised Standard Version
Again, if two lie together, they are warm; but how can one be warm alone?

Young's Literal Translation
Also, if two lie down, then they have heat, but how hath one heat?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?

Contextual Overview

⁷I turned my head and saw yet another wisp of smoke on its way to nothingness: a solitary person, completely alone—no children, no family, no friends—yet working obsessively late into the night, compulsively greedy for more and more, never bothering to ask, "Why am I working like a dog, never having any fun? And who cares?" More smoke. A bad business. ⁹It's better to have a partner than go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. And if one falls down, the other helps, But if there's no one to help, tough! ¹¹ Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night. ¹² By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Kings 1:1, 1 Kings 1:2

Cross-References

Genesis 3:14
God told the serpent: "Because you've done this, you're cursed, cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life. I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He'll wound your head, you'll wound his heel."

Genesis 4:15
God told him, "No. Anyone who kills Cain will pay for it seven times over." God put a mark on Cain to protect him so that no one who met him would kill him.

Genesis 4:16
Cain left the presence of God and lived in No-Man's-Land, east of Eden.

Genesis 4:19
Lamech married two wives, Adah and Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal, the ancestor of all who live in tents and herd cattle. His brother's name was Jubal, the ancestor of all who play the lyre and flute. Zillah gave birth to Tubal-Cain, who worked at the forge making bronze and iron tools. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.

Job 16:18
"O Earth, don't cover up the wrong done to me! Don't muffle my cry! There must be Someone in heaven who knows the truth about me, in highest heaven, some Attorney who can clear my name— My Champion, my Friend, while I'm weeping my eyes out before God. I appeal to the One who represents mortals before God as a neighbor stands up for a neighbor. "Only a few years are left before I set out on the road of no return."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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;

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The spectacle of a prosperous man whose condition is rendered vain by his brotherless, childless isolation.

Ecclesiastes 4:8

A second - Any one associated or connected with him.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Compare a saying from the Talmud: “A man without companions is like the left hand without the right.”