Ecclesiastes 9

Death Comes to Good and Bad

¹So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.

²It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.

³This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

• ECC 9:3[HEART]The hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they live.

⁴There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion. ⁵For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten. ⁶Their love, their hate, and their envy have already vanished, and they will never again have a share in all that is done under the sun.

• ECC 9:5[NOTE]THE DEAD KNOW NOTHING. Under the sun, the dead have no part in this world any more, 9:6. See the Big Question What Happens When We Die?

Enjoy Your Portion in This Life

⁷Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works:

• ECC 9:7[ARCHAEOLOGY]An Old Babylonian tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, about 1800 to 1700 BC, where a tavern keeper tells Gilgamesh to eat, drink, wear clean clothes and love his wife, see the Siduri Field Notes page

⁸Let your garments always be white,

and never spare the oil for your head.

⁹Enjoy life with your beloved wife all the days of the fleeting life that God has given you under the sun—all your fleeting days. For this is your portion in life and in your labor under the sun. ¹⁰Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

• ECC 9:10[NOTABLE]Life is short, so give your best to the work in front of you today.
• ECC 9:10[NOTE]SHEOL. The Hebrew name for the place of the dead, the grave. The Old Testament says little about life after death; the New Testament says much more, 2 Timothy 1:10.

¹¹I saw something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth to the intelligent, nor the favor to the skillful. For time and chance happen to all. ¹²For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.

• ECC 9:11[NOTE]TIME AND CHANCE. The fastest runner does not always win. Life is full of surprises no one can plan for.

Wisdom Is Better than Strength

¹³I have also seen this wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me: ¹⁴There was a small city with few men. A mighty king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege ramps against it.

¹⁵Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. ¹⁶And I said, “Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.”

¹⁷The calm words of the wise are heeded

over the shouts of a ruler among fools.

¹⁸Wisdom is better than weapons of war,

but one sinner destroys much good.