What Does Ecclesiastes 4:9 Mean in the King James?
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse calls the return of shared labor a reward, making togetherness part of the work’s fruit.
THE MEANING
Your labor can have a better return when it is shared; companionship is part of how fruitful work takes shape. The verse speaks to the work in your hands now: two can produce a good return together that one may not reach alone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that self-reliance always produces the strongest result: some labor bears its good return through partnership.
THE ROOT
שָׂכָר
sākār
GROWS FROM
שכר
To hire or recompense; payment given in return for service.
The word שָׂכָר (sākār, wages or reward) can make “reward” sound like a prize paid later. Its wage sense keeps the return concrete: shared effort itself carries a good return.
ALSO GROWS
sākhar: To hire or pay wages.
שָׂכַר
The verb ties recompense directly to work performed, giving “reward for their labour” a concrete texture.
sākhîr: A hired worker.
שָׂכִיר
The person who works and the payment for that work belong to the same word family.
טוֹב
tov
GROWS FROM
טוב
Good, beneficial, or pleasing.
The word טוֹב (tov, good) describes the return of shared labor here and the goodness of dwelling together in Psalm 133:1. The same word links the fruit of working together with the goodness of shared life.
ALSO GROWS
tuv: Goodness, benefit, or bounty.
טוּב
It shows “good” as something experienced as benefit, like the return attached to shared work.
tovah: A good thing or benefit.
טוֹבָה
It keeps the word family’s goodness concrete, rather than merely describing an abstract quality.
THE PATTERN
Shared effort can multiply strength and carry a return that isolated work may not produce.
How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.THE THREAD
A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!The Hebrew word טוֹב (tov, good) appears in both verses: it names the return of shared labor here and the goodness of dwelling together in Psalm 133:1. Ecclesiastes locates that goodness in the fruit of working together; the Psalm extends it to shared life itself.
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