Verse (Click for Chapter) New International Version What advantage have the wise over fools? What do the poor gain by knowing how to conduct themselves before others? New Living Translation So are wise people really better off than fools? Do poor people gain anything by being wise and knowing how to act in front of others? English Standard Version For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Berean Standard Bible What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool? What gain comes to the poor man who knows how to conduct himself before others? King James Bible For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living? New King James Version For what more has the wise man than the fool? What does the poor man have, Who knows how to walk before the living? New American Standard Bible For what advantage does the wise person have over the fool? What does the poor person have, knowing how to walk before the living? NASB 1995 For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living? NASB 1977 For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living? Legacy Standard Bible For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the afflicted man have, knowing how to walk before the living? Amplified Bible For what advantage has the wise man over the fool [for being worldly-wise is not the secret to happiness]? What advantage has the poor man who has learned how to walk [publicly] among the living [with men’s eyes on him; for being poor is not the secret to happiness either]? Christian Standard Bible What advantage then does the wise person have over the fool? What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others? Holman Christian Standard Bible What advantage then does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others? American Standard Version For what advantage hath the wise more than the fool? or what hath the poor man, that knoweth how to walk before the living? Aramaic Bible in Plain English Because there is more profit to the wise than to the fool. Why does the poor man know to go to The Life? Brenton Septuagint Translation For what advantage has the wise man over the fool, since even the poor knows how to walk in the direction of life? Contemporary English Version We may be sensible, yet we are no better off than a fool. And if we are poor, it still doesn't do us any good to try to live right. Douay-Rheims Bible What hath the wise man more than the fool? and what the poor man, but to go thither, where there is life? English Revised Version For what advantage hath the wise more than the fool? or what hath the poor man, that knoweth to walk before the living? GOD'S WORD® Translation What advantage does a wise person have over a fool? What advantage does a poor person have in knowing how to face life? Good News Translation How are the wise better off than fools? What good does it do the poor to know how to face life? International Standard Version For what advantage has the wise person over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have in knowing how to face life? JPS Tanakh 1917 For what advantage hath the wise more than the fool? or the poor man that hath understanding, in walking before the living? Literal Standard Version For what advantage [is] to the wise above the fool? What to the poor who knows to walk before the living? Majority Standard Bible What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool? What gain comes to the poor man who knows how to conduct himself before others? New American Bible What profit have the wise compared to fools, or what profit have the lowly in knowing how to conduct themselves in life? NET Bible So what advantage does a wise man have over a fool? And what advantage does a pauper gain by knowing how to survive? New Revised Standard Version For what advantage have the wise over fools? And what do the poor have who know how to conduct themselves before the living? New Heart English Bible For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living? Webster's Bible Translation For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living? World English Bible For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living? Young's Literal Translation For what advantage is to the wise above the fool? What to the poor who knoweth to walk before the living? Additional Translations ... Audio Bible Context The Futility of Life…7All a man’s labor is for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied. 8What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool? What gain comes to the poor man who knows how to conduct himself before others? 9Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.… Cross References Ecclesiastes 2:15 So I said to myself, "The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?" And I said to myself that this too is futile. Ecclesiastes 6:9 Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind. Treasury of Scripture For what has the wise more than the fool? what has the poor, that knows to walk before the living? what hath the wise Ecclesiastes 2:14-16 The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all… Ecclesiastes 5:11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? the poor Genesis 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. Psalm 101:2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. Psalm 116:9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. Jump to Previous Advantage Conduct Fool Foolish Gain Others Poor Understanding Walk Walking Wise WiselyJump to Next Advantage Conduct Fool Foolish Gain Others Poor Understanding Walk Walking Wise WiselyEcclesiastes 6 1. the vanity of riches without use3. though a man have many children and a long life 7. the vanity of sight and wandering desires 10. The conclusion of vanities (8) That knoweth to walk.--Understands how to conduct himself. But why this should be limited to the poor is not obvious.Verse 8. - For what hath the wise more fire than the fool? i.e. What advantage hath the wise man over the fool? This verse confirms the previous one by an interrogative argument. The same labor for support, the same unsatisfied desires, belong to all, wise or foolish; in this respect intellectual gifts have no superiority. (For a similar interrogation implying an emphatic denial, see Ecclesiastes 1:30) What hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living? The Septuagint gives the verse thus: Ὅτι τίς περίσσεια (A, C, א) τῷ σοφῷ ὑπὲρ τὸν ἄφρονα; διότι ὁ πένης οἰδε πορευθῆναι κατέναντι τῆς ζωῆς, "For what advantage hath the wise man over the fool? since the poor man knows how to walk before life?" Vulgate, Quid habet amplius sapiens a stulto? et quid pauper, nisi ut pergat illuc, ubi est vita? "And what hath the poor man except that he go thither where is life?" Both these versions regard הַחַיִּים as used in the sense of "life," and that the life beyond the grave; but this idea is foreign to the context; and the expression must be rendered, as in the Authorized Version, "the living." The interpretation of the clause has much exercised critics. Plumptre adheres to that of Bernstein and others, "What advantage hath the poor over him who knows how to walk before the living?' (i.e. the man of high birth or station, who lives in public, with the eyes of men upon him). The poor has his cares and unsatisfied desires as much as the man of culture and position. Poverty offers no protection against such assaults, But the expression, to know how to walk before the living, means to understand and to follow the correct path of life; to know how to behave properly and uprightly in the intercourse with one's fellow-men; to have what the French call savoir vivre. (So Volok.) The question must be completed thus: "What advantage has the discreet and properly conducted poor man over the fool?" None, at least in this respect. The poor man, even though he be well vetoed in the rule of life, has insatiable desires which he has to check or conceal, and so is no better off than the fool, who equally is unable to gratify them. The two 'extremities of the social scale are taken - the rich wise man, and the prudent poor man - and both are shown to fail in enjoying life; and what is true of these must be also true of all that come between these two limits, "the appetite is not filled" (ver. 7). Parallel Commentaries ... Hebrew Whatמַה־ (mah-) Interrogative Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what advantage, יּוֹתֵ֥ר (yō·w·ṯêr) Noun - masculine singular Strong's 3148: Superiority, advantage, excess then, כִּ֛י (kî) Conjunction Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction has the wise man לֶחָכָ֖ם (le·ḥā·ḵām) Preposition-l, Article | Adjective - masculine singular Strong's 2450: Wise over מִֽן־ (min-) Preposition Strong's 4480: A part of, from, out of the fool? הַכְּסִ֑יל (hak·kə·sîl) Article | Noun - masculine singular Strong's 3684: Stupid fellow, dullard, fool What [gain comes] מַה־ (mah-) Interrogative Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what to the poor man לֶּעָנִ֣י (le·‘ā·nî) Preposition-l, Article | Adjective - masculine singular Strong's 6041: Poor, afflicted, humble who knows יוֹדֵ֔עַ (yō·w·ḏê·a‘) Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine singular Strong's 3045: To know how to conduct לַהֲלֹ֖ךְ (la·hă·lōḵ) Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct Strong's 1980: To go, come, walk himself before נֶ֥גֶד (ne·ḡeḏ) Preposition Strong's 5048: A front, part opposite, a counterpart, mate, over against, before others? הַחַיִּֽים׃ (ha·ḥay·yîm) Article | Adjective - masculine plural Strong's 2416: Alive, raw, fresh, strong, life Links Ecclesiastes 6:8 NIVEcclesiastes 6:8 NLT Ecclesiastes 6:8 ESV Ecclesiastes 6:8 NASB Ecclesiastes 6:8 KJV Ecclesiastes 6:8 BibleApps.com Ecclesiastes 6:8 Biblia Paralela Ecclesiastes 6:8 Chinese Bible Ecclesiastes 6:8 French Bible Ecclesiastes 6:8 Catholic Bible OT Poetry: Ecclesiastes 6:8 For what advantage has the wise more (Ecclesiast. Ec Ecc Eccles.) |
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