Ecclesiastes 7:2
ContextNETBible | It is better to go to a funeral 1 than a feast. 2 For death 3 is the destiny 4 of every person, 5 and the living should 6 take this 7 to heart. |
XREF | Ge 48:1-22; Ge 49:2-33; Ge 50:15-17; Nu 23:10; De 32:29; De 32:46; Job 1:4,5; Isa 5:11,12; Isa 22:12-14; Isa 47:7; Am 6:3-6; Hag 1:5; Mal 2:2; Mt 5:4; Mt 14:6-12; Ro 6:21,22; Php 3:19; Heb 9:27; 1Pe 4:3,4 |
NET © Notes |
1 tn Heb “house of mourning.” The phrase refers to a funeral where the deceased is mourned. 2 tn Heb “house of drinking”; or “house of feasting.” The Hebrew noun מִשְׁתֶּה (mishteh) can denote (1) “feast; banquet,” occasion for drinking-bouts (1 Sam 25:36; Isa 5:12; Jer 51:39; Job 1:5; Esth 2:18; 5:14; 8:17; 9:19) or (2) “drink” (exilic/postexilic – Ezra 3:7; Dan 1:5, 8, 16); see HALOT 653 s.v. מִשְׁתֶּה 4; BDB 1059 s.v. שָׁתַה. sn Qoheleth recommended that people soberly reflect on the brevity of life and the reality of death (It is better to go to a house of mourning) than to waste one’s life in the foolish pursuit of pleasure (than to go to a house of banqueting). Sober reflection on the brevity of life and reality of death has more moral benefit than frivolous levity. 3 tn Heb “it”; the referent (“death”) has been specified in the translation for clarity. 4 tn Heb “the end.” The noun סוֹף (sof) literally means “end; conclusion” (HALOT 747 s.v. סוֹף 1; BDB 693 s.v. סוֹף). It is used in this context in reference to death, as the preceding phrase “house of mourning” (i.e., funeral) suggests. 5 tn Heb “all men” or “every man.” 6 tn The imperfect tense verb יִתֵּן, yitten (from נָתָן, natan, “to give”) functions in a modal sense, denoting obligation, that is, the subject’s obligatory or necessary conduct: “should” or “ought to” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 31-32, §172; IBHS 508-9 §31.4g). 7 tn The word “this” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness. |