Bible Synapse
Is laughter good, or is sorrow better?
Hard question · Psalms, wisdom and the prophets · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
There is a season for everything: “a time to weep, and a time to laugh”.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
The Preacher commends mirth: there is nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink and be merry in one’s labour.
Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
The house of mourning is better than the house of feasting; sorrow is better than laughter, for it makes the heart better.
It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
The laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns under a pot.
For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.
“Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.”
Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.
“Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.”
Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.
The objection
Ecclesiastes says there is “a time to laugh” and commends mirth (Ecclesiastes 3:4; 8:15). The same book says “Sorrow is better than laughter” (7:3), and Jesus says, “Woe unto you that laugh now!” (Luke 6:25).
The answer
Ecclesiastes itself gives the key: “a time to weep, and a time to laugh” (3:4). Joy and sorrow each have their season, and neither is right at every moment. When the Preacher commends mirth (8:15) he means the simple enjoyment of food, drink and work as gifts from God’s hand (2:24; 9:7). When he says sorrow is better than laughter (7:2–4), he is comparing the house of mourning with the house of feasting: facing death makes a person thoughtful, and “by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better”. The laughter he rejects is the empty laughter of fools, “as the crackling of thorns under a pot” (7:6).
Jesus speaks the same way: in Luke 6 he promises laughter to those who weep now (verse 21), and warns those who laugh now, the comfortable who “have received your consolation” in this life (verses 24–25). His woe falls on careless laughter that ignores God and the needs of others, not on joy as such. Jewish teachers in the Talmud reconciled the verses of Ecclesiastes in a similar way, by distinguishing different kinds of laughter and joy (Shabbat 30b).
From the classic commentators
The joy of life must thus be not riot and tumult, but a joy tempered with seriousnessKeil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Ecclesiastes 7:3
Here is a woe to them that laugh now, that have always a disposition to be merry, and always something to make merry with; that know no other joy than that which is carnal and sensualMatthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Luke 6:25