A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
Parallel translations
- WEB If a man prevails against one who is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
- KJV And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
- BSB And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
- NKJV Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
- NASB And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.
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
One person can be overpowered, but two can resist, and a three-stranded cord is hard to break. It matters because unity provides strength and security that isolation cannot.
Overview
The Preacher caps his praise of companionship with the proverb of the threefold cord, an enduring image of strength through union. The progression from two to three suggests that added bonds bring greater resilience. Many Christians have seen in the 'threefold cord' a picture of relationships strengthened when God is the third strand, though the text itself simply commends the durability of united effort.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Dan 3:16–17Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.
- Eph 4:3being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
- 2 Sam 23:9After him was Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel had gone away.
- 2 Sam 23:23He was more honorable than the thirty, but he didn’t attain to the three. David set him over his guard.
- 2 Sam 23:18–19Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the three. He lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three.
- 2 Sam 23:16The three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David; but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh.
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 4:12 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.