Pengkhotbah 9:4-5

Better to Be Poor but Alive than Rich but Dead

9:4 But whoever is among ¹  the living ²  has hope;

a live dog is better than a dead lion.

9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything;

they have no further reward – and even the memory of them disappears. ³ 

¹ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “is chosen, selected.” The translation follows the marginal reading (Qere), “is joined.” See BDB 288 s.v. חָבַר Pu.

² tn Heb “all the living.”

³ tn Heb “for their memory is forgotten.” The pronominal suffix is an objective genitive, “memory of them.”