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Friday, August 1st, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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New Life Version

Ecclesiastes 4:11

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

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Fellowship;   Friendship;   Union;   The Topic Concordance - Company;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Church;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Ecclesiastes;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes, Book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Heat;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for September 16;  

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 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?
THE MESSAGE
Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?

Contextual Overview

7 Then I looked again at what is of no use under the sun. 8 There was a certain man who lived alone. He did not have a son or a brother. Yet he worked all the time. His eyes were never happy with the riches he had, and he never asked, "For whom am I working and why am I keeping myself from happiness?" This also is for nothing. It is work that brings sorrow. 9 Two are better than one, because they have good pay for their work. 10 For if one of them falls, the other can help him up. But it is hard for the one who falls when there is no one to lift him up. 11 And if two lie down together, they keep warm. But how can one be warm alone? 12 One man is able to have power over him who is alone, but two can stand against him. It is not easy to break a rope made of three strings.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Kings 1:1, 1 Kings 1:2

Cross-References

Genesis 3:14
Then the Lord God said to the snake, "Because you have done this, you will be hated and will suffer more than all cattle, and more than every animal of the field. You will go on your stomach and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
Genesis 4:14
See, this day You have made me go away from the land. And I will be hidden from Your face. I will run away and move from place to place. And whoever finds me will kill me."
Genesis 4:15
So the Lord said to him, "Whoever kills Cain will be punished by Me seven times worse." And the Lord put a mark on Cain so that any one who found him would not kill him.
Genesis 4:16
Then Cain went away from the face of the Lord, and stayed in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 4:19
Lamech took two wives for himself. The name of one was Adah. And the name of the other was Zillah.
Genesis 4:20
Adah gave birth to Jabal. He was the father of those who live in tents and have cattle.
Genesis 4:21
His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and the horn.
Genesis 4:26
A son was born to Seth also, and he gave him the name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.
Job 16:18
"O earth, do not cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest.
Isaiah 26:21
For see, the Lord is about to come out from His place to punish the people of the earth for their sin. And the earth will let the blood be seen that has poured on her. She will no longer cover her dead.

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.”


 
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