Ecclesiastes 9:10

Bible in Basic English (1941)

Whatever comes to your hand to do with all your power, do it because there is no work, or thought, or knowledge, or wisdom in the place of the dead to which you are going.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

כֹּ֠ל אֲשֶׁ֨ר תִּמְצָ֧א יָֽדְךָ֛ לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת בְּכֹחֲךָ֖ עֲשֵׂ֑ה כִּי֩ אֵ֨ין מַעֲשֶׂ֤ה וְחֶשְׁבּוֹן֙ וְדַ֣עַת וְחָכְמָ֔ה בִּשְׁא֕וֹל אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַתָּ֖ה הֹלֵ֥ךְ שָֽׁמָּה׃

Transliteration

All that timṣāʾ yādĕkā to-laʿăśôt in-kōḥăkā ʿăśēh; for not maʿăśeh and-ḥešbôn and-daʿat and-ḥokmâ in-šĕʾôl that you hōlēk there.

Grammar Details

• *timṣāʾ*: verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular - you find
• *yādĕkā*: noun, feminine singular with 2nd person masculine singular suffix - your hand
• *laʿăśôt*: verb, qal infinitive construct with preposition - to do
• *kōḥăkā*: noun, masculine singular with 2nd person masculine singular suffix - your strength
• *ʿăśēh*: verb, qal imperative, masculine singular - do
• *maʿăśeh*: noun, masculine singular - work/deed
• *ḥešbôn*: noun, masculine singular - reckoning/account
• *daʿat*: noun, feminine singular - knowledge
• *ḥokmâ*: noun, feminine singular - wisdom
• *šĕʾôl*: noun, feminine singular - Sheol/grave
• *hōlēk*: verb, qal participle, masculine singular - going

Word Meanings

• *timṣāʾ yādĕkā*: your hand finds/you are able/you have opportunity
• *laʿăśôt*: to do/to perform/to accomplish
• *kōḥăkā*: your strength/your power/your ability
• *ʿăśēh*: do/perform/accomplish
• *maʿăśeh*: work/deed/activity/action
• *ḥešbôn*: reckoning/account/reasoning/planning
• *daʿat*: knowledge/understanding/perception
• *ḥokmâ*: wisdom/skill/intelligence
• *šĕʾôl*: Sheol/grave/realm of the dead
• *hōlēk šāmmâ*: going there/headed there

Referenced Verses

• Col 3:23 : 23 Whatever you do, do it readily, as to the Lord and not to men;
• Rom 12:11 : 11 Be not slow in your work, but be quick in spirit, as the Lord's servants;
• Eph 5:16 : 16 Making good use of the time, because the days are evil.
• Ps 6:5 : 5 For in death there is no memory of you; in the underworld who will give you praise?
• Ps 71:15-18 : 15 My mouth will make clear your righteousness and your salvation all the day; for they are more than may be measured. 16 I will give news of the great acts of the Lord God; my words will be of your righteousness, and of yours only. 17 O God, you have been my teacher from the time when I was young; and I have been talking of your works of wonder even till now. 18 Now when I am old and grey-headed, O God, give me not up; till I have made clear your strength to this generation, and your power to all those to come.
• Ps 88:10-12 : 10 Will you do works of wonder for the dead? will the shades come back to give you praise? (Selah.) 11 Will the story of your mercy be given in the house of the dead? will news of your faith come to the place of destruction? 12 May there be knowledge of your wonders in the dark? or of your righteousness where memory is dead?
• Eccl 9:5-6 : 5 The living are conscious that death will come to them, but the dead are not conscious of anything, and they no longer have a reward, because there is no memory of them. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy are now ended; and they have no longer a part for ever in anything which is done under the sun.
• Eccl 11:3 : 3 If the clouds are full of rain, they send it down on the earth; and if a tree comes down to the south, or the north, in whatever place it comes down, there it will be.
• Eccl 11:6 : 6 In the morning put your seed into the earth, and till the evening let not your hand be at rest; because you are not certain which will do well, this or that--or if the two will be equally good.
• Isa 38:18-19 : 18 For the underworld is not able to give you praise, death gives you no honour: for those who go down into the underworld there is no hope in your mercy. 19 The living, the living man, he will give you praise, as I do this day: the father will give the story of your mercy to his children.
• Jer 29:13 : 13 And you will be searching for me and I will be there, when you have gone after me with all your heart.
• Matt 6:33 : 33 But let your first care be for his kingdom and his righteousness; and all these other things will be given to you in addition.
• John 4:34 : 34 Jesus said, My food is to do the pleasure of him who sent me and to make his work complete.
• John 9:4 : 4 While it is day we have to do the works of him who sent me: the night comes when no work may be done.
• Acts 20:25-31 : 25 And now I am conscious that you, among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom, will not see my face again. 26 And so I say to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all men. 27 For I have not kept back from you anything of the purpose of God. 28 Give attention to yourselves, and to all the flock which the Holy Spirit has given into your care, to give food to the church of God, for which he gave his blood. 29 I am conscious that after I am gone, evil wolves will come in among you, doing damage to the flock; 30 And from among yourselves will come men who will give wrong teaching, turning away the disciples after them. 31 So keep watch, having in mind that for three years without resting I was teaching every one of you, day and night, with weeping.
• Num 13:30 : 30 Then Caleb made signs to the people to keep quiet, and said to Moses, Let us go up straight away and take this land; for we are well able to overcome it.
• 1 Chr 22:19 : 19 Now give your heart and soul to the worship of the Lord your God; and get to work on the building of the holy place of the Lord God, so that you may put the ark of the Lord's agreement and the holy vessels of God in the house which is to be made for the name of the Lord.
• 1 Chr 28:20 : 20 And David said to his son Solomon, Be strong and of a good heart and do your work; have no fear and do not be troubled, for the Lord God, my God, is with you; he will not give you up, and his face will not be turned away from you, till all the work necessary for the house of the Lord is complete.
• 1 Chr 29:2-3 : 2 Now as far as I am able, I have made ready what is needed for the house of my God; the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the silver things, and the brass for the brass things, iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood; beryls and jewels to be framed, and stones of different colours for ornament; all sorts of stones of great price, and polished building-stone, as much as is needed and more. 3 And because this house of God is dear to me, I give my private store of gold and silver to the house of my God, in addition to all I have got ready for the holy house;
• 2 Chr 31:20-21 : 20 This Hezekiah did through all Judah; he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. 21 And for everything he undertook, in connection with the work of the house of God and his law and orders, he got directions from God and did it with serious purpose; and things went well for him.
• Ezra 6:14-15 : 14 And the responsible men of the Jews went on with their building, and did well, helped by the teaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, the son of Iddo. They went on building till it was complete, in keeping with the word of the God of Israel, and the orders given by Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia. 15 And the building of this house was complete on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the rule of Darius the king.
• Neh 2:12-3:16 : 12 And in the night I got up, taking with me a small band of men; I said nothing to any man of what God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem: and I had no beast with me but the one on which I was seated. 13 And I went out by night, through the doorway of the valley, and past the dragon's water-spring as far as the place where waste material was put, viewing the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and the doorways which had been burned with fire. 14 Then I went on to the door of the fountain and to the king's pool: but there was no room for my beast to get through. 15 Then in the night, I went up by the stream, viewing the wall; then turning back, I went in by the door in the valley, and so came back. 16 And the chiefs had no knowledge of where I had been or what I was doing; and I had not then said anything to the Jews or to the priests or the great ones or the chiefs or the rest of those who were doing the work. 17 Then I said to them, You see what a bad condition we are in; how Jerusalem is a waste, and its doorways burned with fire: come, let us get to work, building up the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer be put to shame. 18 Then I gave them an account of how the hand of my God was on me, helping me; and of the king's words which he had said to me. And they said, Let us get to work on the building. So they made their hands strong for the good work. 19 But Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, hearing of it, made sport of us, laughing at us and saying, What are you doing? will you go against the king? 20 Then answering them I said, The God of heaven, he will be our help; so we his servants will go on with our building: but you have no part or right or any name in Jerusalem. 1 Then Eliashib, the chief priest, got up with his brothers the priests, and took in hand the building of the sheep doorway; they made it holy and put its doors in position; as far as the tower of Hammeah they made it holy, even to the tower of Hananel. 2 And by his side the men of Jericho were building. And after them, Zaccur, the son of Imri. 3 The sons of Hassenaah were the builders of the fish doorway; they put its boards in place and put up its doors, with their locks and rods. 4 By their side Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, was making good the walls. Then Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel; and by him, Zadok, the son of Baana. 5 Near them, the Tekoites were at work; but their chiefs did not put their necks to the work of their Lord. 6 Joiada, the son of Paseah, and Meshullam, the son of Besodeiah, made good the old doorway; they put its boards in place and put up its doors, with their locks and rods. 7 By their side were working Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah from the seat of the ruler across the river. 8 Near them was working Uzziel, the son of Harhaiah, the gold-worker. And by him was Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, building up Jerusalem as far as the wide wall. 9 Near them was working Rephaiah, the son of Hur, the ruler of half Jerusalem. 10 By his side was Jedaiah, the son of Harumaph, opposite his house. And by him was Hattush, the son of Hashabneiah. 11 Malchijah, the son of Harim, and Hasshub, the son of Pahath-moab, were working on another part, and the tower of the ovens. 12 Near them was Shallum, the son of Hallohesh, the ruler of half Jerusalem, with his daughters. 13 Hanun and the people of Zanoah were working on the doorway of the valley; they put it up and put up its doors, with their locks and rods, and a thousand cubits of wall as far as the doorway where the waste material was placed. 14 And Malchijah, the son of Rechab, the ruler of the division of Beth-haccherem, made good the doorway of the waste, building it up and putting up its doors, with their locks and rods. 15 And Shallun, the son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of the division of Mizpah, made good the doorway of the fountain, building it up and covering it and putting up its doors, with their locks and rods, with the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king's garden, as far as the steps which go down from the town of David. 16 By his side was working Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, ruler of half the division of Beth-zur, as far as the place opposite the last resting-places of David's family, and the pool which was made and the house of the men of war.
• Neh 4:2 : 2 And in the hearing of his countrymen and the army of Samaria he said, What are these feeble Jews doing? will they make themselves strong? will they make offerings? will they get the work done in a day? will they make the stones which have been burned come again out of the dust?
• Neh 4:6 : 6 So we went on building the wall; and all the wall was joined together half-way up: for the people were working hard.
• Neh 4:9-9 : 9 But we made our prayer to God, and had men on watch against them day and night because of them. 10 And Judah said, The strength of the workmen is giving way, and there is much waste material; it is impossible for us to put up the wall. 11 And those who were against us said, Without their knowledge and without their seeing us, we will come among them and put them to death, causing the work to come to a stop. 12 And it came about that when the Jews who were living near them came, they said to us ten times, From all directions they are coming against us. 13 So in the lowest part of the space at the back of the walls, in the open places, I put the people by families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
• Neh 4:17-23 : 17 Those who were building the wall and those who were moving material did their part, everyone working with one hand, with his spear in the other; 18 Every builder was working with his sword at his side. And by my side was a man for sounding the horn. 19 And I said to the great ones and the chiefs and the rest of the people, The work is great and widely spaced and we are far away from one another on the wall: 20 Wherever you may be when the horn is sounded, come here to us; our God will be fighting for us. 21 So we went on with the work: and half of them had spears in their hands from the dawn of the morning till the stars were seen. 22 And at the same time I said to the people, Let everyone with his servant come inside Jerusalem for the night, so that at night they may keep watch for us, and go on working by day. 23 So not one of us, I or my brothers or my servants or the watchmen who were with me, took off his clothing, everyone went armed to the water.
• Neh 13:8-9 : 8 And it was evil in my eyes: so I had all Tobiah's things put out of the room. 9 Then I gave orders, and they made the rooms clean: and I put back in them the vessels of the house of God, with the meal offerings and the perfume. 10 And I saw that the Levites had not been given what was needed for their support; so that the Levites and the music-makers, who did the work, had gone away, everyone to his field. 11 Then I made protests to the chiefs, and said, Why has the house of God been given up? And I got them together and put them in their places. 12 Then all Judah came with the tenth part of the grain and wine and oil and put it into the store-houses. 13 And I made controllers over the store-houses, Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and with them was Hanan, the son of Zaccur the son of Mattaniah: they were taken to be true men and their business was the distribution of these things to their brothers. 14 Keep me in mind, O my God, in connection with this, and do not let the good which I have done for the house of my God and its worship go from your memory completely. 15 In those days, I saw in Judah some who were crushing grapes on the Sabbath, and getting in grain and putting it on asses; as well as wine and grapes and figs and all sorts of goods which they took into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: and I gave witness against them on the day when they were marketing food. 16 And there were men of Tyre there, who came with fish and all sorts of goods, trading with the children of Judah and in Jerusalem on the Sabbath. 17 Then I made protests to the chiefs of Judah, and said to them, What is this evil which you are doing, not keeping the Sabbath day holy? 18 Did not your fathers do the same, and did not our God send all this evil on us and on this town? but you are causing more wrath to come on Israel by not keeping the Sabbath holy. 19 And so, when the streets of Jerusalem were getting dark before the Sabbath, I gave orders for the doors to be shut and not to be open again till after the Sabbath: and I put some of my servants by the door so that nothing might be taken in on the Sabbath day. 20 So the traders in all sorts of goods took their night's rest outside Jerusalem once or twice. 21 Then I gave witness against them and said, Why are you waiting all night by the wall? if you do so again I will have you taken prisoners. From that time they did not come again on the Sabbath. 22 And I gave the Levites orders to make themselves clean and come and keep the doors and make the Sabbath holy. Keep this in mind to my credit, O my God, and have mercy on me, for great is your mercy. 23 And in those days I saw the Jews who were married to women of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab: 24 And their children were talking half in the language of Ashdod; they had no knowledge of the Jews' language, but made use of the language of the two peoples. 25 And I took up the cause against them, cursing them and giving blows to some of them and pulling out their hair; and I made them take an oath by God, saying, You are not to give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Was it not in these things that Solomon, king of Israel, did wrong? among a number of nations there was no king like him, and he was dear to his God, and God made him king over all Israel: but even he was made to do evil by strange women. 27 Are we then without protest to let you do all this great evil, sinning against our God by taking strange women for your wives? 28 And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the chief priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: so I sent him away from me. 29 Keep them in mind, O my God, because they have put shame on the priests' name and on the agreement of the priests and the Levites. 30 So I made them clean from all strange people, and had regular watches fixed for the priests and for the Levites, everyone in his work; 31 And for the wood offering, at fixed times, and for the first fruits. Keep me in mind, O my God, for good.
• Job 14:7-9 : 7 For there is hope of a tree; if it is cut down, it will come to life again, and its branches will not come to an end. 8 Though its root may be old in the earth, and its cut-off end may be dead in the dust; 9 Still, at the smell of water, it will make buds, and put out branches like a young plant. 10 But man comes to his death and is gone: he gives up his spirit, and where is he? 11 The waters go from a pool, and a river becomes waste and dry; 12 So man goes down to his last resting-place and comes not again: till the heavens come to an end, they will not be awake or come out of their sleep.
• 2 Pet 1:12-15 : 12 For this reason I will be ready at all times to keep your memory of these things awake, though you have the knowledge of them now and are well based in your present faith. 13 And it seems right to me, as long as I am in this tent of flesh, to keep your minds awake by working on your memory; 14 For I am conscious that in a short time I will have to put off this tent of flesh, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will take every care so that you may have a clear memory of these things after my death.
• Rom 15:18-20 : 18 And I will keep myself from talking of anything but those things which Christ has done by me to put the Gentiles under his rule in word and in act, 19 By signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have given all the good news of Christ; 20 Making it my purpose not to take the good news where Christ was named, so that my work might not be resting on that of others;
• 1 Cor 9:24 : 24 Do you not see that in a running competition all take part, but only one gets the reward? So let your minds be fixed on the reward.
• 1 Cor 9:26 : 26 So then I am running, not uncertainly; so I am fighting, not as one who gives blows in the air:
• 1 Cor 15:10 : 10 But by the grace of God, I am what I am: and his grace which was given to me has not been for nothing; for I did more work than all of them; though not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
• 1 Cor 16:10 : 10 Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without fear; because he is doing the Lord's work, even as I am: