4 ¶ For to him that is │ For whoever he may be, joined to all the living there │ he chooses altogether as is hope: for a living dog is │ regarding the _living_, this better than a dead lion. │ being his anticipation: for to │ a dog alive it is indeed better │ than the lion when he is dead. (4.) =For whoever= (interrogative pronoun followed by אשר, compare Exodus xxxii. 33; it has here the sense, ‘For whoever he be’) =chooses= (the Kri reads ‘is joined to,’ which the LXX., Syriac, Targum, and Symmachus all have; but this and the pointing as a pual is merely a Masoretic conjecture: it would be better with the LXX. to take it in an active sense, κοινωνεῖ, ‘participates.’ The Chetib is perfectly intelligible, however, and is to be preferred) =towards= (אל, as in verse 3) =all= (but כל is without the article; hence it has the meaning, the ‘whole of’) =the lives= (with the article, and hence generic, ‘lives generally.’ Thus the meaning is, ‘For whoever he be, he is one who chooses entirely with relation to the living’), =it is= (יש, it exists as such) =an expectation= (בטחון, occurs 2 Kings xviii. 19, and its parallel Isaiah xxxvi. 4 besides this place only, in the meaning of a ‘confidence’ or ‘expectation,’ and this meaning gives excellent sense here: ‘is his expectation that he will _live:_’ no man makes plans on the supposition that he is going to _die_; he may indeed provide for others after he is dead, but the horizon of his own hopes is necessarily bounded by his life). =For= (an additional reason confirming the above) =to a dog alive it is= (emphatic) =good above the lion= (with the article, because this is generic; it is not _a_ lion, but lion qualities generally), =the dead= (again generic, for the same reason――‘a live dog is better than the lion when he is dead,’ is the exact turn of thought). 5 For the living know that │ Yet the living are quite aware they shall die: but the dead │ that they shall die; but the know not any thing, neither │ dead are not aware of anything; have they any more a reward; │ and they can have no further for the memory of them is │ recompense, because a forgotten forgotten. │ thing is their memorial: