Ecclesiastes 7:3

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Sorrow is better than laughter, because sober reflection is good for the heart.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

טוֹב כַּעַס מִשְּׂחֹק כִּי־בְרֹעַ פָּנִים יִיטַב לֵב

Transliteration

Ṭôḇ kaʿas from-śəḥōq kî-in-rōaʿ pānîm yîṭaḇ lēḇ

Grammar Details

• *Ṭôḇ*: adjective, masculine singular - good/better
• *kaʿas*: noun, masculine singular - vexation/grief/sorrow
• *śəḥōq*: noun, masculine singular - laughter/mirth
• *kî*: conjunction - for/because
• *rōaʿ*: noun, masculine singular - sadness/severity
• *pānîm*: noun, masculine plural - faces/countenance
• *yîṭaḇ*: Qal imperfect 3rd masculine singular - it is made better
• *lēḇ*: noun, masculine singular - heart

Word Meanings

• *Ṭôḇ*: better/more beneficial
• *kaʿas*: grief/sorrow/sadness/vexation
• *śəḥōq*: laughter/mirth/gaiety
• *rōaʿ* *pānîm*: sadness of face/severity of countenance/solemn expression
• *yîṭaḇ* *lēḇ*: heart becomes better/character is improved

Referenced Verses

• 2 Cor 7:9-9 : 9 Now I rejoice, not because you were made sad, but because you were made sad to the point of repentance. For you were made sad as God intended, so that you were not harmed in any way by us. 10 For sadness as intended by God produces a repentance that leads to salvation, leaving no regret, but worldly sadness brings about death. 11 For see what this very thing, this sadness as God intended, has produced in you: what eagerness, what defense of yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what deep concern, what punishment! In everything you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.
• Heb 12:10-11 : 10 For they disciplined us for a little while as seemed good to them, but he does so for our benefit, that we may share his holiness. 11 Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness for those trained by it.
• Rom 5:3-4 : 3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance, character, and character, hope.
• Jas 4:8-9 : 8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.
• 2 Cor 4:17 : 17 For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison
• Jas 1:2-4 : 2 Joy in Trials My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.
• Ps 119:67 : 67 Before I was afflicted I used to stray off, but now I keep your instructions.
• Ps 119:71 : 71 It was good for me to suffer, so that I might learn your statutes.
• Ps 126:5-6 : 5 Those who shed tears as they plant will shout for joy when they reap the harvest. 6 The one who weeps as he walks along, carrying his bag of seed, will certainly come in with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves of grain.
• Jer 31:8-9 : 8 Then I will reply,‘I will bring them back from the land of the north. I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth. Blind and lame people will come with them, so will pregnant women and women about to give birth. A vast throng of people will come back here. 9 They will come back shedding tears of contrition. I will bring them back praying prayers of repentance. I will lead them besides streams of water, along smooth paths where they will never stumble. I will do this because I am Israel’s father; Ephraim is my firstborn son.’”
• Jer 31:15-20 : 15 The LORD says,“A sound is heard in Ramah, a sound of crying in bitter grief. It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.” 16 The LORD says to her,“Stop crying! Do not shed any more tears! For your heartfelt repentance will be rewarded. Your children will return from the land of the enemy. I, the LORD, affirm it! 17 Indeed, there is hope for your posterity. Your children will return to their own territory. I, the LORD, affirm it! 18 I have indeed heard the people of Israel say mournfully,‘We were like a calf untrained to the yoke. You disciplined us and we learned from it. Let us come back to you and we will do so, for you are the LORD our God. 19 For after we turned away from you we repented. After we came to our senses we struck our thigh in sorrow. We are ashamed and humiliated because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ 20 Indeed, the people of Israel are my dear children. They are the children I take delight in. For even though I must often rebuke them, I still remember them with fondness. So I am deeply moved with pity for them and will surely have compassion on them. I, the LORD, affirm it!
• Jer 50:4-5 : 4 “When that time comes,” says the LORD,“the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together. They will come back with tears of repentance as they seek the LORD their God. 5 They will ask the way to Zion; they will turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the LORD in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
• Dan 9:3-9 : 3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 I prayed to the LORD my God, confessing in this way:“O Lord, great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, and to all the inhabitants of the land as well. 7 “You are righteous, O Lord, but we are humiliated this day– the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. 8 O LORD, we have been humiliated– our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors– because we have sinned against you. 9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. 10 We have not obeyed the LORD our God by living according to his laws that he set before us through his servants the prophets. 11 “All Israel has broken your law and turned away by not obeying you. Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. 12 He has carried out his threats against us and our rulers who were over us by bringing great calamity on us– what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven! 13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify the LORD our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom from your reliable moral standards. 14 The LORD was mindful of the calamity, and he brought it on us. For the LORD our God is just in all he has done, and we have not obeyed him. 15 “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with great power and made a name for yourself that is remembered to this day– we have sinned and behaved wickedly. 16 O Lord, according to all your justice, please turn your raging anger away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors. 17 “So now, our God, accept the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to your devastated sanctuary for your own sake. 18 Listen attentively, my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins and the city called by your name. For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, but because your compassion is abundant. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, and act! Don’t delay, for your own sake, O my God! For your city and your people are called by your name.”
• Dan 10:2-3 : 2 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three whole weeks. 3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine came to my lips, nor did I anoint myself with oil until the end of those three weeks.
• Dan 10:19 : 19 He said to me,“Don’t be afraid, you who are valued. Peace be to you! Be strong! Be really strong!” When he spoke to me, I was strengthened. I said,“Sir, you may speak now, for you have given me strength.”
• Zech 12:10-14 : 10 “I will pour out on the kingship of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. 11 On that day the lamentation in Jerusalem will be as great as the lamentation at Hadad-Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself– the clan of the royal household of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the clan of the family of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; 13 the clan of the descendants of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; and the clan of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves– 14 all the clans that remain, each separately with their wives.”
• Luke 6:21 : 21 “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
• Luke 6:25 : 25 “Woe to you who are well satisfied with food now, for you will be hungry.“Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
• John 16:20-22 : 20 I tell you the solemn truth, you will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, but your sadness will turn into joy. 21 When a woman gives birth, she has distress because her time has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.