It is better to enter a house of mourning than a house of feasting, since death is the end of every man, and the living should take this to heart.
Parallel translations
- WEB It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.
- KJV It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.
- NKJV Better to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; And the living will take it to heart.
- NASB It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every person, And the living takes it to heart.
- NLT Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties. After all, everyone dies— so the living should take this to heart.
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 better to visit the house of mourning than the house of feasting, for death is everyone's end and the wise take it to heart. It matters because facing mortality teaches us to live wisely.
Overview
The Preacher commends honest reflection on death over the distractions of revelry. Grief sobers the heart and presses us to number our days (Psalm 90:12). This wisdom is no morbid pessimism but a call to live in light of eternity, a clarity ultimately found in the gospel, where death is faced and overcome through the risen Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Ps 90:12So teach us to number our days, that we may present a heart of wisdom.
- Heb 9:27Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,
- Deut 32:29If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.
- Deut 32:46he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I testify among you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.
- Hag 1:5Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.
- 1 Pet 4:3–4For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.
- Phil 3:19Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.
- Isa 22:12–14On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
- Num 23:10Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!”
- Isa 47:7You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome.
- Job 1:4–5Job’s sons would take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
- Gen 50:15–17When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge? Then he will surely repay us for all the evil that we did to him.”
- Isa 5:11–12Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine.
- Gen 48:1–22Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he set out with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
- Amos 6:3–6You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence.
- Matt 5:4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
- Gen 49:2–33Come together and listen, O sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.
- Rom 6:21–22What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.
- Mal 2:2If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.
- Matt 14:6–12On Herod’s birthday, however, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod
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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.
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Original language
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