For if one falls down, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to help him up!
Parallel translations
- WEB For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and doesn’t have another to lift him up.
- KJV For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
- NKJV For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.
- NASB for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up!
- NLT If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.
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
Companions can lift each other up when they stumble, but the solitary person who falls has no one to help. It matters because human frailty makes mutual support essential.
Overview
The Preacher gives the first concrete benefit of companionship: rescue in times of failure. 'Woe to him who is alone' underscores the peril of isolation in a fallen, fragile world. The verse foreshadows the New Testament's call to restore and support one another (Galatians 6:1-2), reflecting the care Christ models for His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- 1 Th 5:11Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing.
- 1 Th 4:18Therefore encourage one another with these words.
- Isa 35:3–4Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees!
- Gal 6:1Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
- Job 4:3–4Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.
- 1 Sam 23:16And Saul’s son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and strengthened his hand in God,
- Luke 22:31–32Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat.
- 2 Sam 14:6And your maidservant had two sons who were fighting in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.
- Deut 9:19–20For I was afraid of the anger and wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well.
- Exod 32:2–4So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”
- 2 Sam 12:7–14Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
- Gen 4:8Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
- Exod 32:21“What did this people do to you,” Moses asked Aaron, “that you have led them into so great a sin?”
- Gal 2:11–14When Cephas came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, because he stood to be condemned.
- 2 Sam 11:27And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 4:10 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.