SIL Translator’s Notes on Ecclesiastes 2:16

2:16a For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool,

This is so because no one remembers wise people or fools for very long.
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Nobody remembers the wise or the fool for very long (FBV)
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People soon forget the wise man just as they forget the fools.

2:16b seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come.

It is already certain that in the future people will forget all about them.
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In days to come, we will all be forgotten. (Good News Translation)
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People will only too soon forget both, ⌊the wise and the foolish person, once they have died⌋ .

2:16c Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!

How awful! Just like fools, wise people must die too.
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Even wise men, like fools, must die in the end! (EASY2015)

2:16a-c (combined)

The wise person and the fool will both die, and no one will remember either one for long. In the future, both will be forgotten. (New Century Version)
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Wise or foolish, we all die and are soon forgotten.” (Contemporary English Version)
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Whether people are wise or foolish, they will still die, and no one will remember either one of them forever. In the future, people will forget everything both of them did. So the two are really the same. (English Easy-to-Read Version)

© 2006 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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