Ecclesiastes 9:8
in Ecclesiastes 9Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Let thy garments be always white; and let not thy head lack oil.
KJV
Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.
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This verse in Ecclesiastes 9
Commentary
15 notes on this verseLet thy garments be always white - The Jews wore white garments on festal occasions, as emblems of joy and innocence. Be always pure, and always happy. The inhabitants of India are all dressed in clean white cotton, and to this is the allusion in the text. The Targum says: “At all times let thy garments be washed and pure from the stain of sin. Acquire a good name, which is likened to the oil of anointing, that blessings may be called down up thy head, and goodness not forsake thee.”
This site's exposition
Go, eat your bread with joy
on Ecclesiastes 9:7-8
Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works. The ordinary meal is received as already approved rather than earned by a further test. White garments and oil for the head were marks of festivity, as Clarke notes.
This site's exposition
Let your garments always be white
White garments and oil on the head marked days of joy, as Wesley says of the East. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that Solomon wore white, a picture of the righteousness of Christ that the redeemed will wear. Origen read the white garments as those washed clean in baptism.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
The Holy Spirit actually teaches us not to put things off from day to day but to do to our soul all the good that is possible. [This we do] to adorn it with every virtue worthy of heaven, so as to clothe it with …
"You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." See, even the companions are anointed. But he himself was anointed before them, since he has not been anointed because of them, but they …
"Go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a glad heart, for God has already approved your deeds. Let your garments always be white, and your head never lack oil. "Regarding the passage until that verse where he says: 'like fish caught in a fatal net, like birds seized in a snare, so are men caught in the moment of disaster when it falls upon them suddenly'. [Eccl. 9, 12.] Before I discuss them individually, it will be useful to link them together, so that it can be seen how all pertain to the same meaning.
Because they can do no more under the sun, now he introduces the idea of human madness and habit, whereby men of this world encourage themselves in turn to enjoy good things; and prosopopoiian, using this in the manner of rhetoricians and poets, saying: "O man, since there is nothing for you after death, and death herself hears not my complaint, and while you live this brief life, take pleasure in enjoyment, hold feasts, suppress your worries with wine, and understand, since they are all given by God to be used by you.
No one, therefore, can hear the Word of God unless he has first been sanctified, that is, unless he is "holy in body and spirit," unless he has washed his garments. For a little later he shall go in to the wedding dinner, he shall eat from the flesh of the lamb, he shall drink the cup of salvation. Let no one go in to this dinner with dirty garments. Wisdom also has commanded this elsewhere, saying, "Let your garments be clean at all times." For your garments were washed once when you came to the grace of baptism; you were purified in body; you were cleansed from all filth of flesh and spirit.
7 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church2 voices
Tropology (that is, a moral manner of speech) has regard to the establishment and correction of manners, pronounced in words that are either plain or figurative; in plain words, as when John admonishes, saying, "My little children, let us love not in word or speech …
A commentator
BonaventureCommentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 9 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Then according to sight he says: "At all times let your garments be white," so that you may appear comely in clothing; "and let not oil be lacking from your head," so that you may appear comely in appearance. In this manner those adorn themselves …
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
White - The eastern people of the best sort, used white garments, especially in times of rejoicing. Ointment - Which upon joyful occasions was poured upon mens heads.
Thy religious services, when performed with holy joy, are pleasing to God; he loves to have his servants sing at their work, it proclaims him a good Master. "Live joyfully, for," [1.] "It is all little enough to make thy passage through this world easy and comfortable: The days of thy life are the days of thy vanity; there is nothing here but trouble, and disappointment.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Let thy garments be always white,....
That God's providence often crosses the fairest and most hopeful probabilities of men's endeavour, and great calamities often surprise men ere they are aware,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
white--in token of joy (Isa 61:3). Solomon was clad in white (JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 8:7,3); hence his attire is compared to the "lilies" (Mt 6:29), typical of the spotless righteousness of Jesus Christ, which the redeemed shall wear (Re 3:18;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּכָל־ | bekhol | at every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| עֵ֕ת | ʾet | time | H6256 → | 296 times |
| יִהְי֥וּ | yihyu | let them be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| בְגָדֶ֖יךָ | vegadeikha | clothes your | H899 → | |
| לְבָנִ֑ים | levanim | white | H3836 → | |
| וְשֶׁ֖מֶן | veshemen | and oil | H8081 → | 193 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| רֹאשְׁךָ֥ | roshekha | head your | H7218 → | 599 times |
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| יֶחְסָֽר׃ | yechsar | it be lacking | H2637 → | 23 times |
בְּכָל־at every
bekholH3605 →5413 times
עֵ֕תtime
ʾetH6256 →296 times
יִהְי֥וּlet them be
yihyuH1961 →3559 times
בְגָדֶ֖יךָclothes your
vegadeikhaH899 →
לְבָנִ֑יםwhite
levanimH3836 →
וְשֶׁ֖מֶןand oil
veshemenH8081 →193 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
רֹאשְׁךָ֥head your
roshekhaH7218 →599 times
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →724 times
יֶחְסָֽר׃it be lacking
yechsarH2637 →23 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Revelation 7:9After this I looked and saw a multitude too large to count, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes…
it leads to
- Revelation 5:9
And they sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and…
- John 12:13
They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting: “Hosanna!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!”
- Psalms 117:1–2
Praise the LORD, all you nations! Extol Him, all you peoples!
- Revelation 7:13–15
Then one of the elders addressed me: “These in white robes,” he asked, “who are they, and where have they come from?”
- Psalms 2:8
Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession.
- Revelation 5:9
Through
Revelation 19:8She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints.
it leads to
- Isaiah 61:10
I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom…
- Revelation 7:13–14
Then one of the elders addressed me: “These in white robes,” he asked, “who are they, and where have they come from?”
- Ephesians 5:26–27
to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
- Isaiah 61:10
Where this verse is studied
About Ecclesiastes
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, On the Tabernacle 1; Bonaventure, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 9; Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 273:13; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes; Jerome, COMMENTARY ON ECCLESIASTES 9:8; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oresiesis-Heru-sa Ast, INSTRUCTIONS 4:1 and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON EXODUS 11:7.