Ecclesiastes 9 — Hebrew and Greek compared
Each card keeps the independently rendered source readings above their shared comparison and reception notes. The badge records the source’s governing classification; disparate readings are marked in red. Each reading retains its original reference.
Chapter 9
Hebrew source [BHS9] • Greek source [LXX9]
Mortality, life and the limits of strength (9:1–18)
Verse 9:1 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:1] For I set all this upon my heart, to examine all this: the righteous, the wise and their deeds are in God's hand. A person knows neither love nor hatred; everything lies before them.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:1] For I set all this upon my heart, and my heart saw all this: the righteous, the wise and their works are in God's hand. A person knows neither love nor hatred; everything lies before them.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek repeats the heart as the subject of seeing rather than Hebrew's difficult infinitive of examination. Whose love and hatred are meant is not supplied.
Verse 9:2 Divergent
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:2] Everything is alike for everyone: one event comes to the righteous and the wicked, to the good, the clean and the unclean, to the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As the good person, so the sinner; as the one who swears, so the one who fears an oath.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:2] There is futility in everything: one event comes to the righteous and the ungodly, to the good and the bad, to the clean and the unclean, to the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As the good person, so the sinner; as the one who swears, so the one who fears an oath.
Classification & Notes
Divergent. Text: Greek opens with futility and adds an explicit bad counterpart to good. One event points in context to death without replacing the wording with that interpretation. Rabbinic reception [RASHI9]: Rashi identifies the common event as death in this world while affirming a distinction between the righteous and wicked in the world to come. The later distinction remains commentary, not an addition to the verse.
Verse 9:3 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:3] This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: one event comes to everyone. Moreover, the heart of human beings is full of evil, and madness is in their heart during their lives; afterward they go to the dead.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:3] This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: one event comes to everyone. Moreover, the heart of human beings is full of evil, and delirium is in their heart during their lives; afterward they go to the dead.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Go is supplied to complete the compressed closing movement to the dead in both columns.
Verse 9:4 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:4] For whoever is joined to all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:4] Who shares with all the living? There is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Hebrew follows the traditional reading yehubbar, joined, explicitly distinguished from the written yebuhar, chosen, displayed in the publisher running text. The reading distinction is directly visible in the Chabad Hebrew text. Greek asks a question before affirming hope. Rabbinic reception [RASHI9]: Rashi takes continued life as an opportunity even for a wicked person to repent before death. His application explains the hope he finds in the image without replacing its dog-and-lion comparison.
Verse 9:5 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:5] For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, for their memory is forgotten.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:5] For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, for their memory is forgotten.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The statement is retained in the discourse's earthly horizon; no additional doctrine about the intermediate state is inserted.
Verse 9:6 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:6] Their love, their hatred and their envy have already perished; they have no further share forever in anything done under the sun.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:6] Their love, their hatred and their envy have already perished; they have no further share forever in anything done under the sun.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Under the sun remains explicit and governs the described loss of participation.
Verse 9:7 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:7] Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a good heart, for God has already favored your deeds.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:7] Come, eat your bread with gladness and drink your wine with a good heart, for God has already favored your deeds.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The opening motion differs slightly; no promise approving every possible deed is added.
Verse 9:8 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:8] Let your garments be white at all times, and let oil not be lacking on your head.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:8] Let your garments be white at all times, and let oil not be lacking on your head.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The festive images are retained without placing a later ritual interpretation inside the verse.
Verse 9:9 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:9] Enjoy life with the woman whom you love, all the days of your vaporous life that He has given you under the sun, all your vaporous days; for this is your share in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:9] Enjoy life with the woman whom you love, all the days of your futile life that have been given you under the sun, all your futile days; for this is your share in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Woman can contextually mean wife in both. Hebrew has an active divine giver understood from context; Greek has a passive. The repeated days phrase is preserved.
Verse 9:10 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:10] Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your strength, for there is no deed, account, knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:10] Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your strength, for there is no deed, reckoning, knowledge or wisdom in Hades, where you are going.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: The source-specific names Sheol and Hades are retained, not replaced with a developed doctrine of hell.
Verse 9:11 Similar
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:11] Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor battle to the mighty, nor bread to the wise, nor wealth to those with understanding, nor favor to those with knowledge; for time and chance happen to them all.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:11] Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor battle to the mighty, nor bread to the wise, nor wealth to those with understanding, nor favor to those with knowledge; for time and encounter happen to them all.
Classification & Notes
Similar. Text: Encounter retains Greek apantema, which can denote what happens by chance. The observation is not expanded into a denial of divine providence.
Verse 9:12 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:12] For a person does not know his time: like fish caught in an evil net, and birds caught in a snare, so human beings are trapped at an evil time when it falls upon them suddenly.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:12] For a person does not know his time: like fish caught in an evil net, and birds caught in a snare, so human beings are trapped at an evil time when it falls upon them suddenly.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The trapping imagery and suddenness agree.
Verse 9:13 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:13] This too I saw as wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me:
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:13] This too I saw as wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me:
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The speaker introduces the following example without naming a historical city.
Verse 9:14 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:14] There was a small city with few people in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it and built great siegeworks against it.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:14] There was a small city with few people in it; a great king might come against it, surround it and build great siegeworks against it,
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek shifts from the city's past existence to a possible siege through subjunctive verbs; Hebrew recounts the siege as past action.
Verse 9:15 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:15] In it a poor wise man was found, and he delivered the city by his wisdom; yet no one remembered that poor man.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:15] and he might find in it a poor wise man, who will deliver the city by his wisdom; yet no one remembered that poor man.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek continues the hypothetical finding and uses future deliverance, then past remembrance. Its unexpressed finder is not identified with certainty. Hebrew recounts deliverance as past.
Verse 9:16 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:16] I said, Wisdom is better than strength; yet the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:16] I said, Wisdom is better than strength; yet the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: The practical value of wisdom and the social dismissal of its poor bearer remain in tension.
Verse 9:17 Different
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:17] The words of the wise, heard quietly, are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:17] The words of the wise, heard quietly, are better than the shouting of rulers in follies.
Classification & Notes
Different. Text: Greek has plural rulers and the abstraction follies rather than Hebrew's singular ruler among fools.
Verse 9:18 Same
Hebrew–English: Literal-Smooth (Rabbinic Priority)
[9:18] Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
[9:18] Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
Classification & Notes
Same. Text: Both end with the destructive influence of one sinner.