Job 20:5

20:5 that the elation of the wicked is brief, ¹ 

the joy of the godless ²  lasts but a moment. ³ 

Proverbs 14:13

14:13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, ⁴ 

and the end ⁵  of joy may be ⁶  grief.

Ecclesiastes 7:4-6

7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,

but the heart of fools is in the house of merrymaking. ⁷ 

Frivolous Living Versus Wisdom

7:5 It is better for a person to receive ⁸  a rebuke from those who are wise ⁹ 

than to listen to the song ¹⁰  of fools.

7:6 For like the crackling of quick-burning thorns ¹¹  under a cooking pot,

so is the laughter of the fool.

This kind of folly ¹²  also is useless. ¹³ 

Matthew 24:38-39

24:38 For in those days before the flood, people ¹⁴  were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. 24:39 And they knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away. ¹⁵  It will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man. ¹⁶ 

Luke 17:26-29

17:26 Just ¹⁷  as it was ¹⁸  in the days of Noah, ¹⁹  so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. 17:27 People ²⁰  were eating, ²¹  they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage – right up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then ²²  the flood came and destroyed them all. ²³  17:28 Likewise, just as it was ²⁴  in the days of Lot, people ²⁵  were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; 17:29 but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ²⁶ 

[20:5]  ¹ tn The expression in the text is “quite near.” This indicates that it is easily attained, and that its end is near.

[20:5]  ² tn For the discussion of חָנֵף (khanef, “godless”) see Job 8:13.

[20:5]  ³ tn The phrase is “until a moment,” meaning it is short-lived. But see J. Barr, “Hebrew ’ad, especially at Job 1:18 and Neh 7:3,” JSS 27 (1982): 177-88.

[14:13]  ⁴ sn No joy is completely free of grief. There is a joy that is superficial and there is underlying pain that will remain after the joy is gone.

[14:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “and its end, joy, is grief.” The suffix may be regarded as an Aramaism, a proleptic suffix referring to “joy.”

[14:13]  ⁶ tn The phrase “may be” is not in the Hebrew but is supplied from the parallelism, which features an imperfect of possibility.

[7:4]  ⁷ sn The expression the house of merrymaking refers to a banquet where those who attend engage in self-indulgent feasting and riotous drinking.

[7:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “hear.”

[7:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “rebuke of the wise,” a subjective genitive (“the wise” administer the rebuke).

[7:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “praise.” The antithetical parallelism between “rebuke” (גַּעֲרַת, ga’arat) and “song” (שִׁיר, shir) suggests that the latter is figurative (metonymy of association) for praise/flattery which is “music” to the ears: “praise of fools” (NEB, NJPS) and “flattery of fools” (Douay). However, the collocation of “song” (שִׁיר) in 7:5 with “laughter” (שְׂחֹק, sÿkhoq) in 7:6 suggests simply frivolous merrymaking: “song of fools” (KJV, NASB, NIV, ASV, RSV, NRSV).

[7:6]  ¹¹ tn The term “thorns” (הַסִּירִים, hassirim) refers to twigs from wild thorn bushes which were used as fuel for quick heat, but burn out quickly before a cooking pot can be properly heated (e.g., Pss 58:9; 118:12).

[7:6]  ¹² tn The word “kind of folly” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:6]  ¹³ tn It is difficult to determine whether the Hebrew term הֶבֶל (hevel) means “fleeting” or “useless” in this context. The imagery of quick-burning thorns under a cooking pot is ambiguous and can be understood in more than one way: (1) It is useless to try to heat a cooking pot by burning thorns because they burn out before the pot can be properly heated; (2) the heat produced by quick-burning thorns is fleeting – it produces quick heat, but lasts only for a moment. Likewise, the “laughter of a fool” can be taken in both ways: (1) In comparison to the sober reflection of the wise, the laughter of fools is morally useless: the burning of thorns, like the laughter of fools, makes a lot of noise but accomplishes nothing; (2) the laughter of fools is fleeting due to the brevity of life and certainty of death. Perhaps this is an example of intentional ambiguity.

[24:38]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “they,” but in an indefinite sense, “people.”

[24:39]  ¹⁵ sn Like the flood that came and took them all away, the coming judgment associated with the Son of Man will condemn many.

[24:39]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “So also will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

[17:26]  ¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[17:26]  ¹⁸ tn Or “as it happened.”

[17:26]  ¹⁹ sn Like the days of Noah, the time of the flood in Gen 6:5-8:22, the judgment will come as a surprise as people live their day to day lives.

[17:27]  ²⁰ tn Grk “They.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.

[17:27]  ²¹ tn These verbs (“eating… drinking… marrying… being given in marriage”) are all progressive imperfects, describing action in progress at that time.

[17:27]  ²² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[17:27]  ²³ sn Like that flood came and destroyed them all, the coming judgment associated with the Son of Man will condemn many.

[17:28]  ²⁴ tn Or “as it happened.”

[17:28]  ²⁵ tn Grk “they.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.

[17:29]  ²⁶ sn And destroyed them all. The coming of the Son of Man will be like the judgment on Sodom, one of the most immoral places of the OT (Gen 19:16-17; Deut 32:32-33; Isa 1:10).