Ecclesiastes · 18 verses
Ecclesiastes 9
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
A poor wise man saves a small city from a mighty king, and then nobody remembers him. The siege is defeated; remembrance, apparently, is not.
One fate, with a live dog in itvv. 1–6
The righteous and the wise, along with their deeds, remain in God’s hands, but what lies ahead may be love or hate—or simply the same fate that waits for everyone. The clean and unclean, the sacrificer and the non-sacrificer, the vow-maker and the vow-refuser all arrive at the same door. Still, life keeps one distinctly undignified advantage: the living dog outranks the dead lion. The living know they will die; the dead know nothing, and their loves, hates, and envies have vanished.
Bread, wine, and the netvv. 7–12
While life lasts, bread is to be eaten with joy, wine with a cheerful heart, garments kept white, and oil not spared. Life with a beloved wife is called a portion, though the days are fleeting. Work is to be done with all the might available, since Sheol contains no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom. Yet speed, strength, intelligence, and skill cannot command the result: time and chance happen to all, and an evil time may fall suddenly, like a net on fish or a snare on birds.
The city that forgot its saviourvv. 13–18
A small city with few men is besieged by a mighty king, who surrounds it and builds large siege ramps. Inside is a poor wise man, and his wisdom saves the city. The grand rescue ends in a remarkably flat register: nobody remembers him. Wisdom is better than strength and better than weapons of war, but the poor man’s wisdom is despised, the wise man’s calm words must compete with a ruler’s shouting, and one sinner can destroy much good.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Eccl 9:1So 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.
Eccl 9:2It 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.
Eccl 9:3This 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.
Eccl 9:4There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion.
Eccl 9:5For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.
Eccl 9:6Their 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.
Eccl 9:7Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works:
Eccl 9:8Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head.
Eccl 9:9Enjoy 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.
Eccl 9:10Whatever 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.
Eccl 9:11I 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.
Eccl 9:12For 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.
Eccl 9:13I have also seen this wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me:
Eccl 9:14There was a small city with few men. A mighty king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege ramps against it.
Eccl 9:15Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.
Eccl 9:16And I said, “Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.”
Eccl 9:17The calm words of the wise are heeded over the shouts of a ruler among fools.
Eccl 9:18Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 240 passages were voted onto 18 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 10Colossians 3:23Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, as for the Lord and not for men,
- 10Ephesians 5:16redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
- 10Romans 12:11Do not let your zeal subside; keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
- 11Jeremiah 9:23This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches.
- 11Proverbs 21:30–31There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD.
- 10Psalms 6:5For there is no mention of You in death; who can praise You from Sheol?
- 10Ecclesiastes 11:6Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.
- 5Isaiah 26:14The dead will not live; the departed spirits will not rise. Therefore You have punished and destroyed them; You have wiped out all memory of them.
- 102 Chronicles 31:20–21So this is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and upright and true before the LORD his God.
- 11Lamentations 3:37–38Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
- 5Ecclesiastes 1:11There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow after.
- 101 Corinthians 9:24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize.
- 11Job 5:11–14He sets the lowly on high, so that mourners are lifted to safety.
- 10John 9:4While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
- 11Ecclesiastes 3:17I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed.”
- 10Jeremiah 29:13You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Onward