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Christian Standard Bible ®

Ecclesiastes 9:4

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

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Death;   Hades;   Lion;   Thompson Chain Reference - Animals;   Dogs;   The Topic Concordance - Hope;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Death, Mortality;   Hope;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes, Book of;   Fellowship;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Hope;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Dog;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Lion;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Canon of the Old Testament;   Dead;   Wisdom;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Death, Views and Customs Concerning;   Menander;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for August 24;  

Parallel Translations

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.
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.
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

4But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion. 5For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything. There is no longer a reward for them because the memory of them is forgotten. 6Their love, their hate, and their envy have already disappeared, and there is no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun. 7Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. 8Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head. 9Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun. 10Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are 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 creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark.
Genesis 9:14
Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds,
Leviticus 3:17
This is a permanent statute throughout your generations, wherever you live: you must not eat any fat or any blood.”
Leviticus 7:26
Wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal.
Leviticus 19:26
“You are not to eat anything with blood in it. You are not to practice divination or witchcraft.
Deuteronomy 12:16
but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.
Deuteronomy 12:23
But don’t eat the blood, since the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
Deuteronomy 14:21
“You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to a resident alien within your city gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Deuteronomy 15:23
But you must not eat its blood; pour it on the ground like water.
Acts 15:20
but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from eating anything that has been 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.


 
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