Eccl 7:1 says, “A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.”
Solomon is writing in a literary style called “parallel”. A parallelism happens when distinct concepts run along parallel paths within the same segment of literature, conveying similar ideas but with different verbiage. In the aforequoted passage, Solomon compares a good name with perfume, and death with birth; likening the greater worth a good name possesses over perfume, with the day one’s death has over the day of their birth.
Removing the morbidity factor, Solomon is saying the aroma of a good name will last longer and smell better than perfume, and the lauding over a life well lived at a memorial service will far out weighs the potential with which each person is born.
The day of our birth when our potential is at its greatest. The day of our death is when our potential is at its least. The goal of our lives should be to make sure we make the most of the “middle” so that instead of people saying what we could have been, they are amazed at what we became.
Let’s live in such a way that this scripture goes from being a target to a testimony. Please, live right and live well…