Ecclesiastes 9:4

For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. FOR TO HIM THAT IS JOINED TO ALL THE LIVING. So the Keri, some manuscripts of Kennicott and Rossius; and Septuagint, Chaldaic, Syriac, and Vulgate read [ yªchubar (H2266)]. But the Kethibh reads [yªbuchar, 'Who is there that is chosen?' i:e., Who is there exempted, from the common lot of death? Thus, the "for" gives the reason for the previous words, "after that they go to the dead." HOPE. Join thus, "to all the living there is hope." FOR A LIVING DOG ... This and Ecclesiastes 9:5, may be the language of carnal reason, when tempted by trials to doubt God's righteousness of dealing in this world. The voice of the s...

4-10 The most despicable living man's state, is preferable to that of the most noble who have died impenitent. Solomon exhorts the wise and pious to cheerful confidence in God, whatever their condition in life. The meanest morsel, coming from their Father's love, in answer to prayer, will have a peculiar relish. Not that we may set our hearts upon the delights of sense, but what God has given us we may use with wisdom. The joy here described, is the gladness of heart that springs from a sense of the Divine favour. This is the world of service, that to come is the world of recompence. All in their stations, may find some work to do. And above all, sinners have the salvation of their souls to seek after, believers have to prove their faith, adorn the gospel, glorify God, and serve their generation....

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....

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....

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 9:1 One fate happens to all, and the dead are cut off from all the feelings and interests of life in the upper world. ECCLESIASTES 9:1 This continues the subject treated above, confirming the conclusion arrived at in Ecclesiastes 8:17, viz. that God's government of the world is unfathomable. FOR ALL THIS I CONSIDERED IN MY HEART EVEN TO DECLARE ALL THIS; literally, _for_ _all this laid up in my heart, and all this I have been about _(equivalent to _I sought_)_ to clear up_._ _The reference is both to what has been said and to what is coming. The ki,...

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,...

CHAPTER 9 _ 1. The common fate (Ecclesiastes 9:1)_ 2. Make the best of life (Ecclesiastes 9:7) 3. The great uncertainty (Ecclesiastes 9:11) Ecclesiastes 9:1. Here is another conclusion. The righteous and the wise with their works are in the hands of God. One event is in store for all, for the righteous, the wicked, the good, the clean, the unclean, the one who sacrificeth and the one who sacrificeth not--the grave is the one common goal. In that goal there is the end of all human toil and ambition. But even with this knowledge that all go one way, and the certainty of it,

ECCLESIASTES 8:16 TO ECCLESIASTES 9:16. LIFE'S RIDDLE BAFFLES THE WISEST QUEST. The parenthesis in Ecclesiastes 8:16_ b_ describes the ceaseless effort of the keen student of life, or perhaps the fate of the toiler who is too tired to sleep; with Ecclesiastes 8:17; cf. Ecclesiastes 7:24; Job 11:6, and from the Christian standpoint Romans 11:33

FOR TO HIM THAT IS JOINED. Connect this with the end of preceding verse and render "For who is excepted? To all the living", &c. HOPE. confidence. Hebrew. _bittahon_ (from _batah)_. App-69. Occurs only here, 2 Kings 18:19, and Isaiah 36:4. A LIVING DOG, &C. Figure of speech _Paroemia,_ App-6. Same proverb in Arabic. LIVING DOG. Regarded by the Jews as the most unclean and despicable creature (1 Samuel 17:43; 1 Samuel 24:14. 2Sa 9:8. 2 Samuel 16:9;...

_For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope_ A different and preferable punctuation gives the rendering: FOR WHO IS SPECIALLY CHOSEN, _i.e._ WHO IS EXCEPTED from the common lot of death. TO ALL THE LIVING THERE IS HOPE. The passage has, however, received many conflicting interpretations, of which this seems, on the whole, the best. It was quite after the tone of Greek thought to find in the inextinguishable hope which survives in most men even to the end, even though the hope does not stretch beyond the horizon of the grave, their one consolation, that which made life at least liveable, even if not worth living. So Hope was found at the bottom of Pandora's treasure-chest of evils. So Sophocles: ἂ γὰρ δὴ πολύπλαγκτος ἐλπὶς πολλοῖς μέν ὄνασις ἀνδρῶν. "For unto men comes many-wandering hope, Bringing vain joy." _Antig_. 613. _a living dog is better than a dead lion_ The p...