Ecclesiastes 9:4

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible

For, whosoever was united to all the living, for him, there was hope, - -inasmuch as, a living dog, fared better than a dead lion.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion.

Hebrew Names Version
For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

King James Version
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
But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

New American Standard Bible
For whoever is joined to all the living, there is hope; for better a live dog, than a dead lion.

New Century Version
But anyone still alive has hope; even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

Amplified Bible
[There is no exemption,] but whoever is joined with all the living, has hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.

World English Bible
For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Surely whosoeuer is ioyned to all ye liuing, there is hope: for it is better to a liuing dog, then to a dead lyon.

Legacy Standard Bible
For whoever is joined with all the living, there is confidence; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.

Berean Standard Bible
There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion.

Contemporary English Version
As long as we are alive, we still have hope, just as a live dog is better off than a dead lion.

Complete Jewish Bible
For as long as a person is linked with the living, there is hope — better to be a living dog than a dead lion!

Darby Translation
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Easy-to-Read Version
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.

George Lamsa Translation
For him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Good News Translation
But anyone who is alive in the world of the living has some hope; a live dog is better off than a dead lion.

Lexham English Bible
Whoever is joined to all the living has hope. After all, even a live dog is better than a dead lion!

Literal Translation
For one who is chosen to be among all the living, there is hope. For a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And why? As longe as a man lyueth, he is careles: for a quyck dogg (saye they) is better the a deed lion:

American Standard Version
For to him that is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Bible in Basic English
For him who is joined to all the living there is hope; a living dog is better than a dead lion.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

King James Version (1611)
For to him that is ioyned to all the liuing, there is hope: for a liuing dogge is better then a dead Lion.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And why? as long as a man liueth, he hath an hope: for a quicke dogge [say they] is better then a dead lion.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
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.

English Revised Version
For to him that is joined with all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
No man is, that lyueth euere, and that hath trist of this thing; betere is a quik dogge than a deed lioun.

Update Bible Version
For to him that is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Webster's Bible Translation
For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

New English Translation
But whoever is among the living has hope; a live dog is better than a dead lion.

New King James Version
But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

New Living Translation
There is hope only for the living. As they say, "It's better to be a live dog than a dead lion!"

New Life Bible
But there is hope for the one who is among the living. For sure a live dog is better off than a dead lion.

New Revised Standard
But whoever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Douay-Rheims Bible
There is no man that liveth always, or that hopeth for this: a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Revised Standard Version
But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Young's Literal Translation
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.

THE MESSAGE
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.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.

Contextual Overview

⁴ For, whosoever was united to all the living, for him, there was hope, - -inasmuch as, a living dog, fared better than a dead lion. ⁵ For, the living, knew that they should die, - -but, the dead, knew not, anything, neither had they any longer a reward, because forgotten was their memory. ⁶ Both their love and their hatred and their envy, already had perished, - and, portion, had they none any longer, unto times age-abiding, in aught that was done under the sun. ⁷ Go thy way - eat, with gladness, thy food, and drink, with a happy heart, thy wine, - when already God is well pleased with thy works. ⁸ Continually, let thy garments be white, - and, ointment upon thy bead, let it not be lacking. ⁹ Enjoy life, with thy wife whom thou lovest, all the days of thy life of vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all thy days of vanity, - for, that, is thy portion in life, and in thy toil wherewith, thou, art toiling under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, with thy might, do, - for there is no work nor calculation nor knowledge nor wisdom, in hades, whither, thou, art going.

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

Genesis 9:10
and with every living soul that is with you, of birds, of tame-beasts and of all wild-beasts of the earth that are with you, - of all coming forth out of the ark, even to all wild-beasts of the earth;

Genesis 9:14
and it shall be when I draw a veil of cloud over the earth, - and the bow in the cloud appeareth,

Leviticus 3:17
An age-abiding statute to your generations, in all your dwellings, - none of the fat nor of the blood, shall ye eat.

Leviticus 7:26
And no manner of blood, shall ye eat, in any of your dwellings, - whether of bird or of beast:

Leviticus 19:26
Ye shall eat nothing with the blood thereof, - Ye shall not practise divination neither shall ye use magic.

Deuteronomy 12:16
Howbeit, the blood, shall ye not eat, - upon the earth, shalt thou pour it out, like water.

Deuteronomy 12:23
Howbeit firmly refrain from eating the blood; for the blood, is the life, - therefore must thou not eat the life with the flesh.

Deuteronomy 14:21
Ye shall not eat any thing that dieth of itself: to the sojourner who is within thy gates, mayest thou give it and he may eat it or thou mayest sell it to a foreigner, for a holy people, art thou unto Yahweh thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid, in the milk of its dam.

Deuteronomy 15:23
Only the blood thereof, shalt thou not eat, - on the earth, shalt thou pour it out like water.

Acts 15:20
but to write unto them, to abstain from the pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood.

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.