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Ecclesiastes 7

Eccl. 7:2 KJV (With Strong’s)

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2
It is better
towb (Hebrew #2896)
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense; used likewise as a noun, both in the masculine and the feminine, the singular and the plural (good, a good or good thing, a good man or woman; the good, goods or good things, good men or women), also as an adverb (well)
KJV usage: beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, at ease, X fair (word), (be in) favour, fine, glad, good (deed, -lier, -liest, -ly, -ness, -s), graciously, joyful, kindly, kindness, liketh (best), loving, merry, X most, pleasant, + pleaseth, pleasure, precious, prosperity, ready, sweet, wealth, welfare, (be) well ((-favoured)).
Pronounce: tobe
Origin: from 2895
to go
yalak (Hebrew #3212)
to walk (literally or figuratively); causatively, to carry (in various senses)
KJV usage: X again, away, bear, bring, carry (away), come (away), depart, flow, + follow(-ing), get (away, hence, him), (cause to, made) go (away, -ing, -ne, one's way, out), grow, lead (forth), let down, march, prosper, + pursue, cause to run, spread, take away ((-journey)), vanish, (cause to) walk(-ing), wax, X be weak.
Pronounce: yaw-lak'
Origin: a primitive root (compare 1980)
to the house
bayith (Hebrew #1004)
a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etc.)
KJV usage: court, daughter, door, + dungeon, family, + forth of, X great as would contain, hangings, home(born), (winter)house(-hold), inside(-ward), palace, place, + prison, + steward, + tablet, temple, web, + within(-out).
Pronounce: bah'-yith
Origin: probably from 1129 abbreviated
of mourning
'ebel (Hebrew #60)
lamentation
KJV usage: mourning.
Pronounce: ay'-bel
Origin: from 56
, than to go
yalak (Hebrew #3212)
to walk (literally or figuratively); causatively, to carry (in various senses)
KJV usage: X again, away, bear, bring, carry (away), come (away), depart, flow, + follow(-ing), get (away, hence, him), (cause to, made) go (away, -ing, -ne, one's way, out), grow, lead (forth), let down, march, prosper, + pursue, cause to run, spread, take away ((-journey)), vanish, (cause to) walk(-ing), wax, X be weak.
Pronounce: yaw-lak'
Origin: a primitive root (compare 1980)
to the house
bayith (Hebrew #1004)
a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etc.)
KJV usage: court, daughter, door, + dungeon, family, + forth of, X great as would contain, hangings, home(born), (winter)house(-hold), inside(-ward), palace, place, + prison, + steward, + tablet, temple, web, + within(-out).
Pronounce: bah'-yith
Origin: probably from 1129 abbreviated
of feasting
mishteh (Hebrew #4960)
drink, by implication, drinking (the act); also (by implication) a banquet or (generally) feast
KJV usage: banquet, drank, drink, feast((-ed), -ing).
Pronounce: mish-teh'
Origin: from 8354
: for
'aher (Hebrew #834)
who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.
KJV usage: X after, X alike, as (soon as), because, X every, for, + forasmuch, + from whence, + how(-soever), X if, (so) that ((thing) which, wherein), X though, + until, + whatsoever, when, where (+ -as, -in, -of, -on, -soever, -with), which, whilst, + whither(- soever), who(-m, -soever, -se). As it is indeclinable, it is often accompanied by the personal pronoun expletively, used to show the connection.
Pronounce: ash-er'
Origin: a primitive relative pronoun (of every gender and number)
that is the end
cowph (Hebrew #5490)
a termination
KJV usage: conclusion, end, hinder participle
Pronounce: sofe
Origin: from 5486
of all men
'adam (Hebrew #120)
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.)
KJV usage: X another, + hypocrite, + common sort, X low, man (mean, of low degree), person.
Pronounce: aw-dawm'
Origin: from 119
; and the living
chay (Hebrew #2416)
alive; hence, raw (flesh); fresh (plant, water, year), strong; also (as noun, especially in the feminine singular and masculine plural) life (or living thing), whether literally or figuratively
KJV usage: + age, alive, appetite, (wild) beast, company, congregation, life(-time), live(-ly), living (creature, thing), maintenance, + merry, multitude, + (be) old, quick, raw, running, springing, troop.
Pronounce: khah'-ee
Origin: from 2421
will lay
nathan (Hebrew #5414)
to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etc.)
KJV usage: add, apply, appoint, ascribe, assign, X avenge, X be ((healed)), bestow, bring (forth, hither), cast, cause, charge, come, commit, consider, count, + cry, deliver (up), direct, distribute, do, X doubtless, X without fail, fasten, frame, X get, give (forth, over, up), grant, hang (up), X have, X indeed, lay (unto charge, up), (give) leave, lend, let (out), + lie, lift up, make, + O that, occupy, offer, ordain, pay, perform, place, pour, print, X pull , put (forth), recompense, render, requite, restore, send (out), set (forth), shew, shoot forth (up), + sing, + slander, strike, (sub-)mit, suffer, X surely, X take, thrust, trade, turn, utter, + weep, + willingly, + withdraw, + would (to) God, yield.
Pronounce: naw-than'
Origin: a primitive root
it to his heart
leb (Hebrew #3820)
the heart; also used (figuratively) very widely for the feelings, the will and even the intellect; likewise for the centre of anything
KJV usage: + care for, comfortably, consent, X considered, courag(-eous), friend(-ly), ((broken-), (hard-), (merry-), (stiff-), (stout-), double) heart((-ed)), X heed, X I, kindly, midst, mind(-ed), X regard((-ed)), X themselves, X unawares, understanding, X well, willingly, wisdom.
Pronounce: labe
Origin: a form of 3824
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More on:

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Heart,
House,
Mourning

Cross References

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Ministry on This Verse

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better.
Gen. 48:1‑22• 1And it came to pass after these things, that [one] told Joseph, Behold, thy father [is] sick. And he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim.
 2And [one] told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee; and Israel strengthened himself and sat upon the bed.
 3And Jacob said to Joseph, The Almighty God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me
 4and said to me, Behold I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a company of peoples; and I will give this land to thy seed after thee, an everlasting possession.
 5And now thy two sons, who were born to thee in the land of Egypt before I came to thee into Egypt, [shall be] mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon.
 6And thy family which thou hast begotten after them shall be thine: they shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance,
 7And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan on the way, when yet a certain distance to come to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.
 8And Israel beheld Joseph's sons and said, Who [are] these?
 9And Joseph said to his father, They [are] my sons whom God hath given me here. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee unto me, that I may bless them.
 10Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age—he could not see. And he brought them nearer to him; and he kissed them and embraced them.
 11And Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face; and, behold, God hath also let me see thy seed.
 12And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and bowed down with his face to the earth.
 13And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand towards Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel's right hand, and brought [them] near to him.
 14And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid [it] on Ephraim's head—and he [was] the younger—and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding wittingly his hands, for Manasseh [was] the first-born.
 15And he blessed Joseph and said, The God before whom walked my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, the God that tended me all my life long till this day,
 16the angel that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth .
 17And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it was evil in his eyes; and he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
 18And Joseph said to his father, Not so my father, for this [is] the first-born: put thy right hand on his head.
 19But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know: he also will become a people and he also will be great; but truly his younger brother will be greater than he; and his seed will become a fullness of nations.
 20And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee will Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh; and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
 21And Israel said to Joseph, Behold I die; and God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers.
 22And I have given to thee one slope [shoulder] above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow. (Gen. 48:1‑22)
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Gen. 49:2‑33• 2Assemble yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father.
 3Reuben, thou [art] my first-born, my might, and the firstfruits of my vigour, excellency of dignity and excellency of strength.
 4Bubbling up as the waters, thou shalt have no pre-eminence; because thou wentest up to thy father's couch: then defiledst thou [it]; he went up to my bed.
 5Simeon and Levi [are] brethren, weapons of violence their swords.
 6My soul, come not into their council; mine honour, be not united to their assembly; for in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will houghed oxen.
 7Cursed [be] their anger, for [it was] fierce, and their rage, for [it was] cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
 8Judah, thee will thy brethren praise: thy hand [will be] on the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children will bow down to thee.
 9Judah [is] a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stoopeth, he coucheth as a lion, and as a lioness: who will rouse him up?
 10The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and to him will be the obedience of peoples.
 11He bindeth his foal to the vine, and his ass's colt to the choice vine; he washeth his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes;
 12his eyes [are] red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
 13Zebulun shall dwell at the breach of the seas, and he [shall be] for a haven of ships; and his border [shall be] upon Zidon.
 14Issachar [is] a bony ass, couching between two hurdles;
 15and he saw rest that [it was] good, and the land that [it was] pleasant; and he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a tributary servant.
 16Dan shall judge his people, as another of the tribes of Israel.
 17Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned serpent in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider falleth backward.
 18I wait for thy salvation, O Jehovah.
 19Gad—troops shall press upon him; but he shall press upon their heel.
 20Out of Asher his bread [shall be] fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
 21Naphtali [is] a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words.
 22Joseph [is] a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a fountain; daughters shoot over the wall.
 23The archers have provoked, and shot at and hated him;
 24but his bow abideth firm, and the arms of his hands are supple by the hands of the mighty One of Jacob. From thence [is] the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel;
 25from the God of thy father, he will help thee, and from the Almighty, he will bless thee, with blessings of heaven above, with blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath, with blessings of the breast and of the womb.
 26The blessings of thy father surpass the blessings of my progenitors unto the bounds of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
 27Benjamin [is] a wolf that raveneth; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil.
 28All these [are] the twelve tribes of Israel, and this [is] what their father spake to them; and he blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
 29And he charged them and said to them, I am gathered to my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that [is] in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
 30in the cave that [is] in the field of Machpelah which [is] opposite to Mamre in the land of Canaan; which Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite with the field for a possession of a burying-place.
 31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah.
 32The purchase of the field, and of the cave that [is] in it, [was] from the children of Heth.
 33And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered to his people. (Gen. 49:2‑33)
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Gen. 50:15‑17• 15And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, If now Joseph should be hostile to us, and should indeed requite us all the evil that we did to him!
 16And they sent a messenger to Joseph, saying, Thy father commanded before he died, saying,
 17Thus shall ye speak to Joseph: Oh forgive, I pray thee, the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin! for they did evil to thee. And now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. (Gen. 50:15‑17)
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Job 1:4‑5• 4And his sons went and feasted each in [his] house on his day; and sent and called for their three sisters, to eat and to drink with them.
 5And it was [so], when the days of their feasting had gone round, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, Perhaps my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. (Job 1:4‑5)
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Isa. 5:11‑12• 11Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, [that] they may follow strong drink; that tarry late into the night, [till] wine inflame them!
 12And the harp and the lute, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of Jehovah, neither have they considered the operation of his hands. (Isa. 5:11‑12)
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Isa. 22:12‑14• 12And in that day did the Lord Jehovah of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth;
 13and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
 14And it was revealed in mine ears by Jehovah of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts. (Isa. 22:12‑14)
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Amos 6:3‑6• 3Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
 4that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
 5that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David;
 6that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. (Amos 6:3‑6)
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Matt. 5:4• 4Blessed they that mourn; for they shall be comforted. (Matt. 5:4)
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Matt. 14:6‑12• 6But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod;
 7whereupon he promised with oath to give her whatsoever she should ask.
 8But she, being set on by her mother, says, Give me here upon a dish the head of John the Baptist.
 9And the king was grieved; but on account of the oaths, and those lying at table with [him], he commanded [it] to be given.
 10And he sent and beheaded John in the prison;
 11and his head was brought upon a dish, and was given to the damsel, and she carried [it] to her mother.
 12And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and came and brought word to Jesus. (Matt. 14:6‑12)
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1 Peter 4:3‑4• 3For the past time [is] sufficient to have wrought out the will of the Gentiles, walking as ye had done in lasciviousness, lusts, wine-bibbings, revels, carousings, and unhallowed idolatries;
 4wherein they think it strange that ye run not with [them] into the same excess of profligacy, speaking injuriously, (1 Peter 4:3‑4)
that.
Num. 23:10• 10Who can count the dust of Jacob,{HR}And the number of the fourth part of Israel?{HR}Let me die the death of the righteous,{HR}And let my last end be like his! (Num. 23:10)
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Deut. 32:29• 29Oh that they had been wise!{HR}They would have understood this;{HR}They would have considered their latter end!{HR} (Deut. 32:29)
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Rom. 6:21‑22• 21What fruit then had you at that time? [Things] of which ye are now ashamed, for the end of those things [is] death.
 22But now freed from sin, and made bondservants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end life eternal. (Rom. 6:21‑22)
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Phil. 3:19• 19whose end [is] destruction, whose God [is] the belly, and they glory in their shame, who mind the things of earth. (Phil. 3:19)
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Heb. 9:27• 27And forasmuch as it is appointed to men once to die, and, after this, judgment; (Heb. 9:27)
living.
Deut. 32:46• 46he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words that I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to take heed to do, all the words of this law. (Deut. 32:46)
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Isa. 47:7• 7And thou saidst, I shall be a mistress forever; [so] that thou didst not lay these [things] to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end thereof. (Isa. 47:7)
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Hag. 1:5• 5Now therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts; Consider your ways. (Hag. 1:5)
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Hag. 1•  (Hag. 1)
:*marg:;
Mal. 2:2• 2If ye do not hear, and if ye do not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, I will even send the curse among you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have already cursed them, because ye do not lay it to heart. (Mal. 2:2)
• That is, the loftiest purest wisdom of man recognizes a quality in sorrow itself that is purifying. “In the sadness of the face the heart becometh fair.” In a scene where all is in confusion―where Death, as King of Terrors, reigns supreme over all, forcing his presence on us hourly, where wickedness and falsehood apparently prosper, and goodness and truth are forced to the wall―in such a scene of awful disorder, laughter and mirth are but discord, and grate upon the awakened spirit’s ear with ghastly harshness. Whilst an honest acceptance of the truth of things as they are, looking Death itself full in the face, the house of mourning not shunned, but sought out; the sorrow within is at least in harmony with the sad state of matters without; the “ministration of death” has its effect, the spirit learns its lesson of humiliation; and this, says all wisdom, is “better.” (“Ecclesiastes 7” by F.C. Jennings)

J. N. Darby Translation

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It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: in that that is the end of all men, and the living taketh it to heart.

W. Kelly Translation

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[It is] better to go to the house of mourning,{HR}Than to go to the house of feasting:{HR}For that [is] the end of all men;{HR}And the living will lay it to heart.