Text -- Ecclesiastes 9:4-6 (NET)

Better to Be Poor but Alive than Rich but Dead

9:4 But whoever is among the living has hope; a live dog is better than a dead lion. 9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything; they have no further reward– and even the memory of them disappears. 9:6 What they loved, as well as what they hated and envied, perished long ago, and they no longer have a part in anything that happens on earth.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Ecc 9:4

¹ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “is chosen, selected.” The translation follows the marginal reading (Qere), “is joined.” See BDB 288 s.v. חָבַר Pu.

² tn Heb “all the living.”

NET Notes: Ecc 9:5

¹ tn Heb “for their memory is forgotten.” The pronominal suffix is an objective genitive, “memory of them.”

NET Notes: Ecc 9:6

¹ tn Heb “their love.”

² tn Heb “their hatred.”

³ tn Heb “their envy.”

⁴ tn Heb “under the sun.”