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Ecclesiastes 7 Bible study: Better is the end of a thing
Find is this chapter's word: every find and found in it is one Hebrew verb, nine of the book's seventeen. After all his seeking the Preacher says, "Behold, I have only found this: that God made mankind upright; but they search for many inventions" (7:29), and search for is the verb of his own seeking (7:25, 7:28).
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“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”
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“Ecclesiastes 7 names the Preacher.”
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What's really going on
The house of mourning
The chapter opens with a string of sayings built on better. "A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth" (7:1). "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting" (7:2). "Sorrow is better than laughter" (7:3). In Hebrew 7:1, 7:2, 7:3, 7:5 and 7:8 each begin with tov, the word for good, where the WEB has better (tap better). Here is what almost everyone misses: the Preacher gives his reasons in the same verses, and they are about the living. "for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart" (7:2); "for by the sadness of the face the heart is made good" (7:3). Then, "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth" (7:4) (tap mourning). Heart comes in each of 7:2, 7:3 and 7:4. These are the Preacher's sayings, quoted as the text has them, and these notes add no teaching of their own about death.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Ecclesiastes 7
That was a taste
The rest of Ecclesiastes 7 is waiting in Favor
- Better is the end of a thing
- Consider the work of God
- Found, and not found
- Consider, and behold
- The words of 2:26, again
- Not a righteous man on earth
- 16 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
מָצָאmatsa'say ma-TSA
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "attain to, find". Strong's: "to attain, i.e. find or acquire". "Who can find it out?" (7:24). In this chapter each of the WEB's nine find and found is this one verb: once in 7:14, once in 7:24, and seven times in 7:26-29, three of them in 7:28 alone: "which my soul still seeks, but I have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all those" (7:28). Ecclesiastes has the verb seventeen times, and nine of them are here. The chapter's last found is the Preacher's conclusion: "Behold, I have only found this: that God made mankind upright" (7:29).
For your group
Ecclesiastes 7 Bible study questions
- 1"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" (7:2). What do you think the Preacher wants the living to take to heart?
- 2"Don’t say" (7:10), the Preacher warns, "Why were the former days better than these?" (7:10). What helps you live well in the days you actually have?
- 3"In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider" (7:14). What does each of those look like for you?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Ecclesiastes 7 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home