What Does Ecclesiastes 7:5 Mean?
It is better to hear and respond to the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb frames both hearings: wisdom and folly can reach the same ear, but what you receive shapes where your attention settles.
THE MEANING
You encounter correction that may sting and voices that entertain. This verse says the wise person’s rebuke is better for your hearing than a fool’s song, because correction can expose what needs to change while entertainment can leave folly undisturbed. What you listen to shapes what your attention takes seriously.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the most pleasant voice is the most helpful one: a song can entertain while leaving folly intact, whereas rebuke can expose what needs correction.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed.
“hear and respond” in this verse is lishmoaʿ. The same root appears in both halves of the verse: to hear the wise person’s rebuke and to be someone hearing the fool’s song. Hebrew holds listening and heeding close together, so the contrast turns on what kind of voice receives your attention.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear in a way that can include a response.
שְׁמַע
It shows that hearing can be more than sound reaching the ear; it can mean receiving what is heard.
shemuʿah: Something heard and passed on as a report.
שְׁמוּעָה
It shows the same root can describe both the act of hearing and what arrives through hearing.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom receives correction even when it stings, while pleasing voices can leave folly undisturbed.
Steady are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.All training, for the present, does not seem to be joy but pain; but afterward it gives back the wholesome fruit of alignment to those who have been exercised by it.For a time will come when they will not bear healthy teaching, but according to their own desires they will heap up teachers for themselves, having itching ears.THE THREAD
The ear that hears and responds to the reproof of life lodges in the midst of the wise.The Hebrew uses the same root שמע (shamaʿ, hear) for the ear receiving life-giving reproof. It makes Ecclesiastes’ comparison concrete: hearing correction keeps you among the wise.
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