Ecclesiastes 7:3
Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart.
BSB
ASV
Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made glad.
KJV
Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
"Anger is better than laughter, for through a sad face the heart is improved. "Laughter weakens the mind, anger reproves and corrects it. Both let us become angry with ourselves when we sin, and let us get angry with others. Through the sadness of the face, even the spirit becomes better, as Symmachus saw it. And therefore "woe now to those who laugh, since they will mourn." [Luc. 6, 25.]
Sorrow is better than laughter,.... Sorrow, expressed in the house of mourning, is better, more useful and commendable, than that foolish laughter, and those airs of levity, expressed in the house of feasting; or sorrow on account of affliction and troubles, even adversity itself, is oftentimes much more profitable, and conduces more to the good of men, than prosperity; or sorrow for sin, a godly sorrow, a sorrow after a godly sort, which works repentance unto salvation, that needeth not to be repented of, is to be preferred to all carnal mirth and jollity.
Sorrow - Rather, Seriousness. The heart is made better - i. e., is made bright and joyful (compare 2Co 6:10). The mind which bears itself equally in human concerns, whether they be pleasant or sorrowful, must always be glad, free, and at peace.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.