Ecclesiastes 9:5–10
"Eat thy bread with joy" and Siduri's advice
The dead know nothing and have no more portion under the sun (vv. 5–6); so eat, drink, wear white, anoint your head, enjoy life with the wife you love, and work with all your might, for there is no work in Sheol (vv. 7–10). The witnesses agree. A strikingly similar speech by the ale-wife Siduri appears in the Old Babylonian Gilgamesh; it is described here, not quoted, and is not in the later Standard Babylonian version.
Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning
The family tree
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✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Every witness, in order
Often dated 4th–3rd century BC (debated)
The book as first written
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).
Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592
Latin Vulgate (Clementine)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Viventes enim sciunt se esse morituros; mortui vero nihil noverunt amplius, nec habent ultra mercedem, quia oblivioni tradita est memoria eorum. Amor quoque, et odium, et invidiæ simul perierunt; nec habent partem in hoc sæculo, et in opere quod sub sole geritur. Vade ergo, et comede in lætitia panem tuum, et bibe cum gaudio vinum tuum, quia Deo placent opera tua. Omni tempore sint vestimenta tua candida, et oleum de capite tuo non deficiat. Perfruere vita cum uxore quam diligis, cunctis diebus vitæ instabilitatis tuæ, qui dati sunt tibi sub sole omni tempore vanitatis tuæ: hæc est enim pars in vita et in labore tuo quo laboras sub sole. Quodcumque facere potest manus tua, instanter operare, quia nec opus, nec ratio, nec sapientia, nec scientia erunt apud inferos, quo tu properas.
Latin numbering: Ecclesiastes 9:5–10. 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.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
כִּ֧י הַֽחַיִּ֛ים יוֹדְעִ֖ים שֶׁיָּמֻ֑תוּ וְהַמֵּתִ֞ים אֵינָ֧ם יוֹדְעִ֣ים מְא֗וּמָה וְאֵֽין־ע֤וֹד לָהֶם֙ שָׂכָ֔ר כִּ֥י נִשְׁכַּ֖ח זִכְרָֽם׃ גַּ֣ם אַהֲבָתָ֧ם גַּם־שִׂנְאָתָ֛ם גַּם־קִנְאָתָ֖ם כְּבָ֣ר אָבָ֑דָה וְחֵ֨לֶק אֵין־לָהֶ֥ם עוֹד֙ לְעוֹלָ֔ם בְּכֹ֥ל אֲשֶֽׁר־נַעֲשָׂ֖ה תַּ֥חַת הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃ לֵ֣ךְ אֱכֹ֤ל בְּשִׂמְחָה֙ לַחְמֶ֔ךָ וּֽשֲׁתֵ֥ה בְלֶב־ט֖וֹב יֵינֶ֑ךָ כִּ֣י כְבָ֔ר רָצָ֥ה הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶֽת־מַעֲשֶֽׂיךָ׃ בְּכָל־עֵ֕ת יִהְי֥וּ בְגָדֶ֖יךָ לְבָנִ֑ים וְשֶׁ֖מֶן עַל־רֹאשְׁךָ֥ אַל־יֶחְסָֽר׃ רְאֵ֨ה חַיִּ֜ים עִם־אִשָּׁ֣ה אֲשֶׁר־אָהַ֗בְתָּ כָּל־יְמֵי֙ חַיֵּ֣י הֶבְלֶ֔ךָ אֲשֶׁ֤ר נָֽתַן־לְךָ֙ תַּ֣חַת הַשֶּׁ֔מֶשׁ כֹּ֖ל יְמֵ֣י הֶבְלֶ֑ךָ כִּ֣י ה֤וּא חֶלְקְךָ֙ בַּֽחַיִּ֔ים וּבַעֲמָ֣לְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּ֥ה עָמֵ֖ל תַּ֥חַת הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃ כֹּ֠ל אֲשֶׁ֨ר תִּמְצָ֧א יָֽדְךָ֛ לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת בְּכֹחֲךָ֖ עֲשֵׂ֑ה כִּי֩ אֵ֨ין מַעֲשֶׂ֤ה וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן֙ וְדַ֣עַת וְחָכְמָ֔ה בִּשְׁא֕וֹל אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַתָּ֖ה הֹלֵ֥ךְ שָֽׁמָּה׃
Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a good heart, for God has already approved your works (v. 7)
Hebrew numbering: Ecclesiastes 9:5–10.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun. Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
Greek translation c. 1st–2nd century AD (debated); French 1872
Greek Ecclesiastes (library: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Les vivants savent qu’ils mourront, les morts ne savent rien; et il n’est plus pour eux de récompense, et leur mémoire est en oubli. Et leur amour, et leur haine, et leur jalousie ont péri; et, durant les siècles des siècles, ils n’auront plus rien en partage de ce qui a été créé sous le soleil. Courage donc; mange avec joie ton pain, bois de bon cœur ton vin, car tes œuvres sont agréables à Dieu. En tout temps porte des vêtements blancs, et ne manque pas de te parfumer la tête. Et passe ta vie avec la femme que tu as aimée tous les jours de ta vie passagère, qui t’ont été donnés sous le soleil; car c’est là ton partage en ta vie, et le prix du labeur que tu as gagné sous le soleil. Tout ce que ta main aura trouvé à faire, fais - le selon tes forces; car il n’y a ni œuvres, ni raison, ni savoir, ni sagesse dans le tombeau où tu cours.
Greek (digital file) numbering: Ecclesiastes 9:5–10. 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
Siduri (Old Babylonian "Sippar tablet," early 2nd millennium BC) tells Gilgamesh that the gods kept life for themselves and gave death to humans; so let him fill his belly, rejoice day and night, wear clean clothes, wash and bathe, cherish the child holding his hand and the wife in his embrace. The sequence matches Ecclesiastes 9:7–9 closely. The resemblance is literary and thematic; how, or whether, the tradition reached Qoheleth cannot be shown. The tablet is the passage's comparison text, not one of its manuscripts.
"The dead know not any thing" (9:5) describes the dead from the standpoint of this life (they have no share "under the sun," v. 6). Later Jewish and Christian readings in light of resurrection hope are reception.
Hebrew sound-play in 9:5: sakhar (reward) and zikhram (their memory).
What the evidence shows
- The witnesses agree on 9:5–10.
- The Old Babylonian Gilgamesh has a close parallel to 9:7–9.
- Ecclesiastes 9:7–9 depends directly on Gilgamesh. Shared motif; transmission not demonstrable.
Sources
Related lessons
- Ecclesiastes 9: Eat Your Bread with Joy →The righteous and the wise are in God's hand, but no one knows from events whether love or hatred awaits (9:1). One fate comes to all, righteous and wicked, clean and unclean (vv. 2–3). Yet "a living dog is better than a dead lion": the living know they will die, the dead know nothing and their memory is forgotten (vv. 4–6). So: eat your bread with joy, drink your wine with a merry heart, wear white, anoint your head, enjoy life with the wife you love, and work with all your might, for there is no work in Sheol (vv. 7–10). The race is not to the swift: "time and chance happeneth to them all" (vv. 11–12). A poor wise man saved a little city from a great king, and no one remembered him; still, wisdom is better than strength and weapons, though one sinner destroys much good (vv. 13–18).
- Investigation: The Gilgamesh Connection →Two passages of Ecclesiastes have strikingly close parallels in the Gilgamesh tradition: Siduri's advice to enjoy food, festivity, clean clothes and family in the face of death (Old Babylonian version) beside Ecclesiastes 9:7–9, and the saying about a three-ply rope (Sumerian Bilgamesh and Huwawa) beside 4:12. This investigation identifies which versions contain them, how old they are, and what can and cannot be concluded.
- Investigation: The Fate of Humans and Animals →Ecclesiastes speaks of death more than any other book of the Bible: one fate for wise and fool (2:14–16), for humans and animals (3:19–20), for righteous and wicked (9:2–3); the dead know nothing (9:5); there is no work in Sheol (9:10); the dust returns to the earth and the ruach to God (12:7). This investigation reads these passages in their Hebrew setting and separates them from later doctrines of the afterlife.
- Investigation: The Gift of Enjoyment →Seven times Ecclesiastes says there is nothing better than to eat, drink and find joy in one's work, and it calls this "the gift of God" and a person's "portion" (heleq). Some have read these passages as resignation ("since nothing lasts, grab what you can"), others as editorial patches, others as the book's positive message. This investigation reads all seven together.