It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that don’t withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come out of them all.
Parallel translations
- KJV It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all.
- BSB It is good to grasp the one and not let the other slip from your hand. For he who fears God will follow both warnings.
- NKJV It is good that you grasp this, And also not remove your hand from the other; For he who fears God will escape them all.
- NASB It is good that you grasp one thing while not letting go of the other; for one who fears God comes out with both of them.
- NLT Pay attention to these instructions, for anyone who fears God will avoid both extremes.
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
It is good to grasp the one warning without letting go of the other, for the God-fearing person will navigate both. It matters because the fear of God keeps us from every destructive extreme.
Overview
The Preacher resolves the tension of the preceding verses: the one who fears God avoids both self-righteous pride and reckless wickedness. The fear of the Lord is the steadying center of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). This reverent fear, deepened in the gospel into loving trust, enables believers to walk the wise path between dangerous extremes by depending on God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Mal 4:2But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the stall.
- Eccl 12:13This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
- Eccl 11:6In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening don’t withhold your hand; for you don’t know which will prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both will be equally good.
- Luke 1:50His mercy is for generations of generations on those who fear him.
- Luke 11:42But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.
- Eccl 8:12Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.
- Prov 8:20I walk in the way of righteousness, in the middle of the paths of justice;
- Ps 145:19–20He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them.
- Eccl 3:14I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God has done it, that men should fear before him.
- Ps 25:12–14What man is he who fears Yahweh? He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose.
- Prov 4:25–27Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.
- Jer 32:40and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.
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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 7:18 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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