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Ecclesiastes 7:4

GriefWisdomDeath and loss

2 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 will lay it to his heart.

3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.

6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.

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Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
KJV
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
WEB
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
ASV
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
DARBY
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools in the house of mirth.
BLB
The heart of the wise [is] in a house of mourning, and the heart of fools [is] in a house of gladness.
ÅB
De vises hjerte er i sorgens hus, men dårenes hjerte i gledens hus.
OTB
De vises hjerte er i sørgehuset, mens dårers hjerte er i lysthuset.
B1930
De vises hjerte er i sorgens hus, men dårenes hjerte i gledens hus.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

  • Matthew 8:14–16

    And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.

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  • Luke 7:12–13

    Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.

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  • 1 Samuel 25:36

    And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

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  • Nehemiah 2:2–5

    Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid,

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  • Jeremiah 51:39

    In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.

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  • Isaiah 53:3–4

    He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

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  • Jeremiah 51:57

    And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

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  • Mark 5:38–43

    And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.

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