Ecclesiastes 9:2

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Ecclesiastes 9:1–4 · Berean Standard Bible

1 So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.

2 It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.

3 This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

4 There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion.

Hebrew words

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

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Cross-references

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

Ecclesiastes 2:14

The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.

Ecclesiastes 2:15

So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?” And I said to myself that this too is futile.

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!

Job 21:7

Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

Job 21:8

Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes.

Job 21:9

Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is upon them.

Job 21:10

Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.

Job 21:11

They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,

Job 21:12

singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute.

Job 21:13

They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.

Job 21:14

Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.

Job 21:15

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’

Job 21:16

Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.

Job 21:17

How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?

Job 21:18

Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?

Job 21:19

It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it.

Job 21:20

Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty.

Job 21:21

For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?

Job 21:22

Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high?

Job 21:23

One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease.

Job 21:24

His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow.

Job 21:25

Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity.

Job 21:26

But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.

Job 21:27

Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.

Job 21:28

For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’

Job 21:29

Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports?

Job 21:30

Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.

Job 21:31

Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?

Job 21:32

He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.

Job 21:33

The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.

Job 21:34

So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”

Psalms 73:3

For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Malachi 3:15

So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

Ecclesiastes 2:26

To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 7:18

It is good to grasp the one and not let the other slip from your hand. For he who fears God will follow both warnings.

Ecclesiastes 8:12

Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence.

Ecclesiastes 8:13

Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

Ecclesiastes 8:14

There is a futility that is done on the earth: There are righteous men who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.

Genesis 24:3

and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,

Genesis 24:8

And if the woman is unwilling to follow you, then you are released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.”

Genesis 24:9

So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.

Joshua 2:17

The men said to her, “We will not be bound by this oath you made us swear

Joshua 2:18

unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother and brothers and all your family into your house.

Joshua 2:19

If anyone goes out the door of your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head, and we will be innocent. But if a hand is laid on anyone with you in the house, his blood will be on our heads.

Joshua 2:20

And if you report our mission, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

1 Samuel 14:26

And when they entered the forest and saw the flowing honey, not one of them put his hand to his mouth, because they feared the oath.

Ezekiel 17:18

He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Seeing that he gave his hand in pledge yet did all these things, he will not escape!’

Ezekiel 17:19

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘As surely as I live, I will bring down upon his head My oath that he despised and My covenant that he broke.

Zechariah 5:3

Then he told me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of all the land, for according to one side of the scroll, every thief will be removed; and according to the other side, every perjurer will be removed.

Zechariah 5:4

I will send it out, declares the LORD of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and stones.”

Malachi 3:5

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Malachi 3:18

So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”