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Ecclesiastes 7:1–4

"A good name is better than precious ointment"

The "better than" sayings begin with a Hebrew sound-play: tov shem mi-shemen tov, "better a name than good oil." Death's day is better than birth's; the house of mourning better than the house of feasting. Greek and Latin Bibles number these verses 7:2–5. The Qumran fragment 4Q109 (mid-2nd century BC) is reported to preserve parts of 7:1–10.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

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✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The book as first writtenOften dated 4th–3rd century BC (debated)
  2. 4Q109 (4QQoh-a), Qumran Cave 4mid-2nd century BC (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The book as first written
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The book as first written
Greek
  1. Greek Ecclesiastes (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 1st–2nd century AD (debated); French 1872Translated from the Greek Ecclesiastes
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
New Testament quotation

    Every witness, in order

    1. Often dated 4th–3rd century BC (debated)

      The book as first written

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Ecclesiastes are two Qumran fragments, 4Q109 (4QQoh-a, mid-2nd century BC, reported) and 4Q110 (4QQoh-b, reported).

    2. mid-2nd century BC (reported)

      4Q109 (4QQoh-a), Qumran Cave 4

      ⓘ Reports what manuscripts containedDescends, through lost copies, from The book as first written

      How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

      Among the oldest biblical manuscripts. Reported to preserve parts of 5:13–17; 6:1?, 3–8, 12; 7:1–10, 19–20 (7:1–4 here). Exact readings: C check against DJD XVI (EC-C03).

    3. Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592

      Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Melius est nomen bonum quam unguenta pretiosa, et dies mortis die nativitatis. Melius est ire ad domum luctus quam ad domum convivii; in illa enim finis cunctorum admonetur hominum, et vivens cogitat quid futurum sit. Melior est ira risu, quia per tristitiam vultus corrigitur animus delinquentis. Cor sapientium ubi tristitia est, et cor stultorum ubi lætitia.

      Latin numbering: Ecclesiastes 7:2–5. Jerome translated Ecclesiastes from Hebrew (c. AD 398), after writing a commentary on it (c. 388); the Vulgate is an indirect witness to a Hebrew text, with Jerome's interpretation.

    4. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The book as first written

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      ט֥וֹב שֵׁ֖ם מִשֶּׁ֣מֶן ט֑וֹב וְי֣וֹם הַמָּ֔וֶת מִיּ֖וֹם הִוָּלְדֽוֹ׃ ט֞וֹב לָלֶ֣כֶת אֶל־בֵּֽית־אֵ֗בֶל מִלֶּ֙כֶת֙ אֶל־בֵּ֣ית מִשְׁתֶּ֔ה בַּאֲשֶׁ֕ר ה֖וּא ס֣וֹף כָּל־הָאָדָ֑ם וְהַחַ֖י יִתֵּ֥ן אֶל־לִבּֽוֹ׃ ט֥וֹב כַּ֖עַס מִשְּׂחֹ֑ק כִּֽי־בְרֹ֥עַ פָּנִ֖ים יִ֥יטַב לֵֽב׃ לֵ֤ב חֲכָמִים֙ בְּבֵ֣ית אֵ֔בֶל וְלֵ֥ב כְּסִילִ֖ים בְּבֵ֥ית שִׂמְחָֽה׃

      Better a name (shem) than good oil (shemen), and the day of death than the day of one's birth

      Hebrew numbering: Ecclesiastes 7:1–4.

    5. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth. 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. 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.

    6. Greek translation c. 1st–2nd century AD (debated); French 1872

      Greek Ecclesiastes (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Ecclesiastes

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Bon renom vaut mieux que bon parfum; le jour de la mort vaut mieux que le jour de la naissance. Il vaut mieux aller à la maison du deuil qu’à la maison du festin, puisque le deuil est la fin de tout homme, et que le vivant donnera ainsi de bons avertissements à son cœur. La tristesse vaut mieux que le rire; parce que, par la tristesse du visage, le cœur deviendra bon. Le cœur des sages est à la maison des pleurs; le cœur des insensés est à la maison d’allégresse.

      Greek (digital file) numbering: Ecclesiastes 7:2–5. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). A C check needs the Göttingen edition of Greek Ecclesiastes (P. J. Gentry, 2019).

    What changed, and why

    The wordplay shem / shemen cannot be kept in Greek, Latin or English. Perfumed oil was a luxury for feasts and burials; a good name outlasts it (Proverbs 22:1).

    "The day of death than the day of one's birth": at death a life's name is complete; at birth it is unwritten. The sayings are comparative and provocative. They do not forbid celebrating births or feasts (compare 9:7).

    4Q109 offers early physical evidence for these lines; its exact readings are a C check against DJD XVI.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documented7:1 plays on shem and shemen.
    • Independently documentedGreek and Latin number 7:1 as 7:2.
    • Strongly supported4Q109 preserves parts of 7:1–10. Reported; C check (EC-C03).

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Ecclesiastes 7: Better Than →Chapter 7 answers 6:12 ("who knoweth what is good?") with "better than" sayings: a good name than fine oil, the day of death than the day of birth, the house of mourning than the house of feasting (7:1–4); a wise rebuke than fools' songs (vv. 5–6). Oppression and bribes corrupt the wise (v. 7); the end is better than the beginning, patience than pride (vv. 8–9); do not ask why former days were better (v. 10). Wisdom is good with an inheritance; consider God's work: who can straighten what he made crooked? (vv. 11–14). Then the hardest sayings: the righteous perishing and the wicked living long, "Be not righteous over much" (vv. 15–18), and "there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" (v. 20). Qoheleth's search for wisdom ends with bitter words about a woman like a snare and "one man among a thousand" (vv. 23–28), and one finding: "God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions" (v. 29).
      • Investigation: Ecclesiastes at Qumran →Cave 4 at Qumran yielded two fragmentary Hebrew manuscripts of Ecclesiastes: 4Q109 (4QQoh-a) and 4Q110 (4QQoh-b). 4Q109, dated by its script to the mid-2nd century BC, is among the oldest surviving manuscripts of any biblical book. This investigation reports what is known, what is only reported, and what the site has not yet checked.