World English Bible · The united kingdom
Ecclesiastes 9
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For all this I laid to , even to explore all this: that , and , and their works, are in the hand of ; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn't know it; all is before them. All things come alike to all. There is one event to and to ; to the good, to the clean, to the , to him who , and to him who doesn't . As is the good, so is the ; he who takes an , as he who fears an . This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all. Yes also, of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their while they live, and after that they go to . For to him who is joined with all the living there is ; for a living dog is better than a lion. For the living know that they will , but don't know anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has long ago; neither do they any longer have a in anything that is done under the sun. Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your with a merry ; for has already accepted your works. Let your garments be always white, and don't let your head lack oil. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of , which he has given you under the sun, all your days of , for that is your in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor , in , where you are going. 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 , nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. For man also doesn't know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them. I have also seen under the sun in this way, and it seemed great to me. There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now a man was found in it, and he by his the city; yet no man remembered that same man. Then I said, " is better than strength." Nevertheless man's is despised, and his words are not heard. The words of heard in quiet are better than the cry of him who rules among fools. is better than weapons of war; but one destroys much good.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
Christians read this chapter differently
- What happens to a person between death and the resurrection? · Ecclesiastes 9:5
Every view at its strongest, with who holds it and what it has to answer for.
The world at this moment · The united kingdom, 1050 BC to 931 BC ›
Saul, David, and Solomon. A rare window when both Egypt and Mesopotamia are weak, which is how a small kingdom in the corridor between them could briefly become a regional power.
- The power vacuum
- This is the whole political explanation for the united kingdom. Egypt is fragmented, Assyria is recovering but still local, the Hittites are gone, and nobody is in a position to object to a strong state in the corridor. It lasts about a century, and Israel's golden age fits exactly inside it.
- Phoenicia
- Tyre under Hiram is the commercial power of the coast, and supplies the cedar, the craftsmen, and the shipping for Solomon's building programme. The alliance is trade, not charity: Israel had grain and a land route, Tyre had timber and ships.
- Egypt
- Weak enough that a pharaoh gives a daughter in marriage to an Israelite king, which is the opposite of Egyptian practice in stronger centuries. Late in the era it recovers under a new house, and Shishak will invade within five years of Solomon's death.
- Further afield
- Greece is still in its dark age but beginning to recover, and will adopt the Phoenician alphabet within a century or two. Carthage is founded by settlers from Tyre by tradition in 814 BC. In the Americas the Olmec centre shifts to La Venta.