For the wise and the foolish both die. The wise will not be remembered any longer than the fool. In the days to come, both will be forgotten.
Parallel translations
- WEB For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory for ever, since in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool!
- KJV For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.
- BSB For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!
- NKJV For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool!
- NASB For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, along with the fool, since in the coming days everything will soon be forgotten. And how the wise and the fool alike die!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Neither wise nor fool is long remembered, for both die and are forgotten. Death and oblivion erase the earthly distinction between them.
Overview
Qoheleth grieves that the wise gain no lasting memorial, since they too die and fade from memory like the fool. This sharpens the futility of seeking immortality through reputation. Against this bleak prospect, Scripture offers the comfort that those in Christ are remembered eternally by God and raised to imperishable life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Eccl 1:11There is no memory of the former; neither shall there be any memory of the latter that are to come, among those that shall come after.
- Eccl 9:5For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten.
- Heb 9:27Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
- Ps 88:12Are your wonders made known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
- Exod 1:8Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph.
- Mal 3:16Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who honored his name.
- Ps 49:10For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.
- Eccl 6:8For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?
- Ps 103:16For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.
- Exod 1:6Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation.
- Eccl 2:14The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness — and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.
- 2 Sam 3:33The king lamented for Abner, and said, “Should Abner die as a fool dies?
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 2:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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