Pengkhotbah 4:10

4:10 For if they fall, one will help his companion up,

but pity ¹  the person who falls down and has no one to help him up.

Pengkhotbah 6:8

6:8 So what advantage does a wise man have over a fool? ² 

And what advantage ³  does a pauper gain by knowing how to survive? ⁴ 

Pengkhotbah 9:4

Better to Be Poor but Alive than Rich but Dead

9:4 But whoever is among ⁵  the living ⁶  has hope;

a live dog is better than a dead lion.

[4:10]  ¹ tn Heb “woe to him.”

[6:8]  ² sn So what advantage does the wise man have over a fool? The rhetorical question in Hebrew implies a negative answer: the wise man has no absolute advantage over a fool in the sense that both will share the same fate: death. Qoheleth should not be misunderstood here as denying that wisdom has no relative advantage over folly; elsewhere he affirms that wisdom does yield some relative benefits in life (7:1-22). However, wisdom cannot deliver one from death.

[6:8]  ³ sn As in the preceding parallel line, this rhetorical question implies a negative answer (see the note after the word “fool” in the preceding line).

[6:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “ What to the pauper who knows to walk before the living”; or “how to get along in life.”

[9:4]  ⁵ 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.

[9:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the living.”