Ecclesiastes 7:2

Footnotes

1. 9 Heb “house of mourning.” The phrase refers to a funeral where the deceased is mourned.
2. 10 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 מִשְׁתֶּה 4; 1059 שָׁתַה. 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. 11 Heb “it”; the referent (“death”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4. 12 Heb “the end.” The noun סוֹף (sof) literally means “end; conclusion” ( סוֹף 1; 693 סוֹף). It is used in this context in reference to death, as the preceding phrase “house of mourning” (i.e., funeral) suggests.
5. 13 Heb “all men” or “every man.”
6. 14 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; §31.4g).
7. 15 The word “this” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness.