And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
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Ecclesiastes 4:10-14
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871) (public domain).
one--enemy. threefold cord--proverbial for a combination of many--for example, husband, wife, and children (Pro 11:14); so Christians (Luk 10:1; Col 2:2, Col 2:19). Untwist the cord, and the separate threads are easily "broken."
Other Bible passages linked to this one, most cited first.
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away:
He was more honourable than the thirty, but he attained not to the first three. And David set him over his guard.
And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief among three. And he lifted up his spear against three hundred, and slew them, and had the name among three. Was he not most honourable of three? therefore he was their captain: howbeit he attained not unto the first three.
And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD.
Authorship: the book itself or Christian tradition. Approximate dates, as in Carson and Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament, and Longman and Dillard, An Introduction to the Old Testament.