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Passage

Ecclesiastes 7.2-4

Book: Ecclesiastes · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV
  1. A good name is better than precious oil; and the day of death, than the day of one's birth.

2. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. 3. Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made glad. 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

  1. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. 6. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 7:1-6, ASV)
WEB
  1. A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.

2. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart. 3. Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the face the heart is made good. 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

  1. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. 6. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 7:1-6, WEB)
KJV
  1. A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.

2. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. 3. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. Sorrow: or, Anger 4. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

  1. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. 6. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity. crackling: Heb. sound (Ecclesiastes 7:1-6, KJV)
YLT
  1. Better [is] a name than good perfume, And the day of death than the day of birth.

2. Better to go unto a house of mourning, Than to go unto a house of banqueting, For that is the end of all men, And the living layeth [it] unto his heart. 3. Better [is] sorrow than laughter, For by the sadness of the face the heart becometh better. 4. The heart of the wise [is] in a house of mourning, And the heart of fools in a house of mirth.

  1. Better to hear a rebuke of a wise man, Than [for] a man to hear a song of fools, 6. For as the noise of thorns under the pot, So [is] the laughter of a fool, even this [is] vanity. (Ecclesiastes 7:1-6, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: TBD
  • Audience: TBD
  • Location: TBD
  • Time period: TBD

Theological reading

Patristic / early-church-father exegesis, to be added.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

  • TBD
  • TBD
  • TBD
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Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Lexicon:

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.