Ecclesiastes 3:19

Read in context

Ecclesiastes 3:17–21 · Berean Standard Bible

17 I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed.”

18 I said to myself, “As for the sons of men, God tests them so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.”

19 For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is futile.

20 All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth?

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Study Ecclesiastes 3:19

Read the commentary on Ecclesiastes 3

Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Ecclesiastes 2:16

For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!

Psalms 49:12

But a man, despite his wealth, cannot endure; he is like the beasts that perish.

Psalms 49:20

A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Psalms 92:6

A senseless man does not know, and a fool does not understand,

Psalms 92:7

that though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.

2 Samuel 14:14

For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.

Job 14:10

But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?

Job 14:11

As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dry,

Job 14:12

so a man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no more, he will not be awakened or roused from sleep.

Psalms 104:29

When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.

Ecclesiastes 2:20

So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:21

When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a man who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great evil.

Ecclesiastes 2:22

For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 2:23

Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

Psalms 39:5

You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

Psalms 39:6

Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.

Psalms 89:47

Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!

Psalms 89:48

What man can live and never see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah