Ecclesiastes 3:20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

◄ Ecclesiastes 3:20 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

English Standard Version
All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.

New American Standard Bible
All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.

King James Bible
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

International Standard Version
All of them go to one place: all of them originate from dust, and all of them return to dust.

American Standard Version
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And all things go to one place: of earth they were made, and into earth they return together.

Darby Bible Translation
All go unto one place: all are of the dust, and all return to dust.

Young's Literal Translation
The whole are going unto one place, the whole have been from the dust, and the whole are turning back unto the dust.

Cross References

Genesis 3:19
In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return to the ground; for out of it were you taken: for dust you are, and to dust shall you return.

Psalm 103:14
For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

Ecclesiastes 7:2
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.

Ecclesiastes 12:7
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

3:16-22 Without the fear of the Lord, man is but vanity; set that aside, and judges will not use their power well. And there is another Judge that stands before the door. With God there is a time for the redressing of grievances, though as yet we see it not. Solomon seems to express his wish that men might perceive, that by choosing this world as their portion, they brought themselves to a level with the beasts, without being free, as they are, from present vexations and a future account. Both return to the dust from whence they were taken. What little reason have we to be proud of our bodies, or bodily accomplishments! But as none can fully comprehend, so few consider properly, the difference between the rational soul of man, and the spirit or life of the beast. The spirit of man goes upward, to be judged, and is then fixed in an unchangeable state of happiness or misery. It is as certain that the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth; it perishes at death. Surely their case is lamentable, the height of whose hopes and wishes is, that they may die like beasts. Let our inquiry be, how an eternity of existence may be to us an eternity of enjoyment? To answer this, is the grand design of revelation. Jesus is revealed as the Son of God, and the Hope of sinners.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

19. Literally, "For the sons of men (Adam) are a mere chance, as also the beast is a mere chance." These words can only be the sentiments of the skeptical oppressors. God's delay in judgment gives scope for the "manifestation" of their infidelity (Ec 8:11; Ps 55:19; 2Pe 3:3,4). They are "brute beasts," morally (Ec 3:18; Jude 10); and they end by maintaining that man, physically, has no pre-eminence over the beast, both alike being "fortuities." Probably this was the language of Solomon himself in his apostasy. He answers it in Ec 3:21. If Ec 3:19, 20 be his words, they express only that as regards liability to death, excluding the future judgment, as the skeptic oppressors do, man is on a level with the beast. Life is "vanity," if regarded independently of religion. But Ec 3:21 points out the vast difference between them in respect to the future destiny; also (Ec 3:17) beasts have no "judgment" to come.

breath—vitality.