Here Qoheleth himself expresses the irony directly: the hope of the living is that they will die. For introduces the clause that tells us why the living are better off than the dead.

The living know that they will die represents the painful knowledge that every living person must come to terms with. Regardless of how far in the future we may think death is, we cannot hide from the fact that it is inevitable. The verb know is expressed as a participle in the Hebrew, indicating an ever-present knowledge. This shade of meaning can be expressed by a translation such as “the living are always aware they will die” or “they live with the knowledge that they will die.” Other models are “at least the living know that they will die” or “at least the living know one thing—that they will die.”

But the dead know nothing provides the contrast. The form of the Hebrew is literally “and the dead [plural] there-is-not-to-them knowing anything,” and many languages will prefer a form like this; for example, “but as for the dead, they know nothing,” or “but as far as those who have died are concerned, they know nothing.”

Those who have died know nothing. Again know appears in participle form. Some languages may actually use a similar form of the verb, as in “but the dead are knowing nothing.” This is obviously true, though the saying here probably has the particular meaning that they no longer have to think about dying.

They have no more reward: since they have died, there is nothing further for them to anticipate. They have already received their reward. Reward must be understood in its Old Testament context, not in the light of the New Testament (where “reward” often means “eternal life,” as in Luke 6.23, 35). Reward may be material in form (see 4.9), giving the meaning that after people die they are no longer concerned about material things.

For translation we can follow Revised Standard Version or say:

• They have already received their reward [in this life].

• There is nothing further for them to gain.

• They will not be receiving any [more] reward where they are.

But the memory of them is lost: the expression memory of them refers to what other people remember about them, not their own memory of things. To be remembered and so to live on in the community’s mind was one of the hopes for every Israelite. Qoheleth earlier noted that future generations do not remember even great achievements of people who die. All is soon forgotten (see 1.11; 2.16). He refers to that problem again here. Bringing out that sense we can translate as “people no longer remember them,” or as Good News Translation, New English Bible, and others suggest, “they are completely forgotten.” There is a wordplay in this verse between sh-k-r “reward” and z-k-r “memory,” but rendering this in other languages would be very difficult.

This final clause of the verse begins with ki, which Revised Standard Version renders as “but.” Actually the contrast begins with the conjunction used earlier: “but as for the dead, they….” It makes more sense to render ki here as either “because” or as the forceful “indeed.” In some languages the particle may not need translating if the context makes it clear that the point is an emphatic one.

Translation of the second half of the verse can be “but the dead are not aware of anything; they have no other reward, because they are completely forgotten” or “… indeed, people no longer remember them.”

Our translation can say:

• Sure, the living know something—that they will die! And as for the dead, they know nothing at all. They have no other reward than that. Nobody living remembers anything they’ve done!

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .