ris3n's Apologetics Codex
Ecclesiastes 7.1
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Passage

Ecclesiastes 7.1

Book: Ecclesiastes · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

1. A good name is better than precious oil; and the day of death, than the day of one's birth.

  1. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. 3. Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made glad. (Ecclesiastes 7:1-3, ASV)
WEB

1. A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.

  1. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart. 3. Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the face the heart is made good. (Ecclesiastes 7:1-3, WEB)
KJV

1. A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.

  1. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. 3. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. Sorrow: or, Anger (Ecclesiastes 7:1-3, KJV)
YLT

1. Better [is] a name than good perfume, And the day of death than the day of birth.

  1. Better to go unto a house of mourning, Than to go unto a house of banqueting, For that is the end of all men, And the living layeth [it] unto his heart. 3. Better [is] sorrow than laughter, For by the sadness of the face the heart becometh better. (Ecclesiastes 7:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Qohelet, "the Preacher" (Ecclesiastes 1:1), traditionally Solomon
  • Audience: readers of Israel's wisdom tradition weighing life "under the sun"
  • Location: Jerusalem, where the Preacher "was king over Israel" (Ecclesiastes 1:12)
  • Time period: traditionally c. 970-930 BC (Solomon's reign); many scholars date the book later, c. 450-200 BC

Theological reading

The verse opens with a wordplay that English cannot keep: tov shem mishemen tov, "good is a name, more than good oil." Shem, name, and shemen, oil, sound alike, and tov, good, frames both. Perfumed oil gives a pleasant scent for a while; a good name, a person's character and reputation, lasts.

The second half is harder: "the day of death, than the day of one's birth." It opens a run of sayings that prefer sober things to pleasant ones, mourning to feasting and sorrow to laughter (Ecclesiastes 7:2-4). At birth a name is only begun; at death it is complete and can no longer be lost.

The verse does not praise death as such. Qohelet elsewhere says "a living dog is better than a dead lion" (Ecclesiastes 9:4). It weighs the finished life above the unfinished one and calls the reader to live so that the name at the end is good. Compare "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches" (Proverbs 22:1).

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.