"For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion." — Ecclesiastes 9:4

Ecclesiastes 9:4 · KJV

“For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.”

— Ecclesiastes 9:4

This {is} an evil among all {things} that are done under the sun, that {there is} one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness {is} in their heart while they live, and after that {they go} to the dead.

Verse 5

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Ecclesiastes 9 — Context

All {things come} alike to all: {there is} one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as {is} the good, so {is} the sinner; {and} he that sweareth, as {he} that feareth an oath.

For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any {thing} that is done under the sun.

Cross References

Job 14:7-12

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

Isaiah 38:18

For the grave cannot praise thee, death can {not} celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

Luke 16:26-29

And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that {would come} from thence.

Lamentations 3:21-22

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. {recall...: Heb. make to return to my heart}

Job 27:8

For what {is} the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?