Ecclesiastes 7:4 {5}
Good News Translation
Someone who is always thinking about happiness is a fool. A wise person thinks about death.

New Revised Standard Version
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

Contemporary English Version
A sensible person mourns, but fools always laugh.

New American Bible
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of merriment.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The heart of the wise is where there is mourning, and the heart of fools where there is mirth.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The heart of the wise is where there is mourning, and the heart of fools where there is mirth.

heart

Nehemiah 2:2,5 And the king said to me: Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou dost not appear to be sick? this is not without cause, but some evil, I know not what, is in thy heart. And I was seized with an exceeding great fear: . . .

Isaiah 53:3,4 Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not. . . .

Matthew 8:14-16 And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother lying, and sick of a fever; . . .

Mark 5:38 And they cone to the house of the ruler of the synagogue; and he seeth a tumult, and people weeping and wailing much.

Luke 7:12,13 And when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother: and she was a widow. And a great multitude of the city was with her. . . .

John 11:31-35 The Jews therefore, who were with her in the house and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up speedily and went out, followed her, saying: She goeth to the grave to weep there. . . .

the heart

1 Samuel 25:36 And Abigail came to Nabal: and behold he had a feast in his house, like the feast of a king: and Nabal's heart was merry, for he was very drunk: and she told him nothing less or more until morning.

1 Samuel 30:16 And when he had brought him, behold they were lying spread abroad upon all the ground, eating and drinking, and as it were keeping a festival day, for all the prey and the spoils which they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Juda.

2 Samuel 13:28 And Absalom had commanded his servants, saying: Take notice when Ammon shall be drunk with wine, and when I shall say to you: Strike him, and kill him, fear not: for it is I that command you: take courage, and be valiant men.

1 Kings 20:16 And they went out at noon. But Benadad was drinking himself drunk in his pavilion, and the two and thirty kings with him, who were come to help him.

Isaiah 21:4 My heart failed, darkness amazed me: Babylon my beloved is become a wonder to me.

Jeremiah 51:39,57 In their heat I will set them drink: and I will make them drunk, that they may slumber, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and awake no more, saith the Lord. . . .

Daniel 5:1-4,30 Baltasar, the king, made a great feast for a thousand of his nobles: and every one drank according to his age. . . .

Hosea 7:5 The day of our king, the princes began to be mad with wine: he stretched out his hand with scorners.

Nahum 1:10 For as thorns embrace one another: so while they are feasting and drinking together, they shall be consumed as stubble that is fully dry.

Mark 6:21 And when a convenient day was come, Herod made a supper for his birthday, for the princes, and tribunes, and chief men of Galilee.

Context
The Value of Wisdom
3Anger is better than laughter: because by the sadness of the countenance the mind of the offender is corrected. 4The heart of the wise is where there is mourning, and the heart of fools where there is mirth.5It is better to be rebuked by a wise man, than to be deceived by the flattery of fools.…
Cross References
Ecclesiastes 2:1
I said in my heart: I will go, and abound with delights, and enjoy good things. And I saw that this also was vanity.

Ecclesiastes 7:3
Anger is better than laughter: because by the sadness of the countenance the mind of the offender is corrected.

Ecclesiastes 7:5
It is better to be rebuked by a wise man, than to be deceived by the flattery of fools.

Ecclesiastes 7:3
Top of Page
Top of Page