Bible Chapter Summary
Ecclesiastes 9 Summary
Wisdom and the Certainty of Death
The righteous, wise, and their works are in the hand of God, and no man knows love or hatred by what is before him; one event happens to all—righteous and wicked, good and clean and unclean, those who sacrifice and those who do not. The heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness while they live, and after death they are gone; for the dead know nothing, their love and hatred and envy perishing. A living dog is better than a dead lion. The Preacher advises going one's way eating bread with joy and drinking wine with a merry heart, living joyfully with one's wife, for whatever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might because there is no work in the grave. He observes that time and chance happen to all; the race is not to the swift nor battle to the strong.
Key themes
Key verses
Ecclesiastes 9:2-3
“All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.”
Ecclesiastes 9:5
“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”
Ecclesiastes 9:7-9
“Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 9:11
“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
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