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Read the Bible

Geneva Bible

Ecclesiastes 3:20

All goe to one place, & all was of the dust, and all shall returne to the dust.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Animals;   Corruption;   Death;   Dust;   Man;   Thompson Chain Reference - Body;   Corruption;   Mortality;   Mortality-Immortality;   The Topic Concordance - Man;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Funeral;   Soul;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Body;   Grave;   Person, Personhood;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Beast;   Ecclesiastes, Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Death;   Dust;   Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Holy Spirit;  

Devotionals:

- Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life - Devotion for November 25;   Every Day Light - Devotion for September 19;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.
Hebrew Names Version
All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
King James Version
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
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.
New Century Version
Both end up the same way; both came from dust and both will go back to dust.
Amplified Bible
All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.
World English Bible
All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Legacy Standard Bible
All go to the same place. All came from the dust, and all return to the dust.
Berean Standard Bible
All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.
Contemporary English Version
All living creatures go to the same place. We are made from earth, and we return to the earth.
Complete Jewish Bible
They all go to the same place; they all come from dust, and they all return to dust.
Darby Translation
All go unto one place: all are of the dust, and all return to dust.
Easy-to-Read Version
The bodies of people and animals end the same way. They came from the earth, and, in the end, they will go back to the earth.
George Lamsa Translation
All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Good News Translation
They are both going to the same place—the dust. They both came from it; they will both go back to it.
Lexham English Bible
Both go to one place—both came from dust and both return to dust.
Literal Translation
All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all return to the dust.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
They go all vnto one place, for as they be all of dust, so shal they all turne vnto dust againe.
American Standard Version
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Bible in Basic English
All go to one place, all are of the dust, and all will be turned to dust again.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all return to dust.
King James Version (1611)
All goe vnto one place, all are of the dust, and all turne to dust againe.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
They go all vnto one place: for as they be all of dust, so shall they all turne vnto dust agayne.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
All go to one place; all were formed of the dust, and all will return to dust.
English Revised Version
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Alle thingis ben suget to vanyte, and alle thingis goen to o place; tho ben maad of erthe, and tho turnen ayen togidere in to erthe.
Update Bible Version
All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Webster's Bible Translation
All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
New English Translation
Both go to the same place, both come from the dust, and to dust both return.
New King James Version
All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.
New Living Translation
Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.
New Life Bible
All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.
New Revised Standard
All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
all, go unto one place, - all, came from the dust, and all, return to the dust.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And all things go to one place: of earth they were made, and into earth they return together.
Revised Standard Version
All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
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.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.

Contextual Overview

16 And moreouer I haue seene vnder the sunne the place of iudgement, where was wickednesse, and the place of iustice where was iniquitie. 17 I thought in mine heart, God wil iudge the iust and the wicked: for time is there for euery purpose and for euery worke. 18 I considered in mine heart the state of the children of men that God had purged them: yet to see to, they are in themselues as beastes. 19 For the condition of the children of men, and the condition of beasts are euen as one condition vnto them. As the one dyeth, so dyeth the other: for they haue all one breath, and there is no excellency of man aboue ye beast: for all is vanitie. 20 All goe to one place, & all was of the dust, and all shall returne to the dust. 21 Who knoweth whether the spirit of man ascend vpward, and the spirit of the beast descend downeward to the earth? 22 Therefore I see that there is nothing better then that a man shoulde reioyce in his affaires, because that is his portion. For who shal bring him to see what shalbe after him?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

go: Ecclesiastes 3:21, Ecclesiastes 6:6, Ecclesiastes 9:10, Genesis 25:8, Genesis 25:17, Numbers 27:13, Job 7:9, Job 17:13, Job 30:24, Psalms 49:14

all are: Genesis 3:19, Job 10:9, Job 10:10, Job 34:15, Psalms 104:29, Daniel 12:2

Reciprocal: Genesis 2:7 - dust 2 Samuel 14:14 - we must Psalms 89:48 - What Ecclesiastes 12:7 - dust Hebrews 9:27 - as

Cross-References

Genesis 2:20
The man therefore gaue names vnto all cattell, and to the foule of the heauen, and to euery beast of the fielde: but for Adam founde he not an helpe meete for him.
Genesis 2:23
Then the man said, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shalbe called woman, because she was taken out of man.
Genesis 5:29
And called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort vs concerning our worke and sorowe of our hands, as touching the earth, which the Lord hath cursed.
Genesis 16:11
Also the Angel of the Lord said vnto her, See, thou art with childe, and shalt beare a sonne, and shalt call his name Ishmael: for the Lorde hath heard thy tribulation.
Genesis 35:18
Then as she was about to yeelde vp the Ghost (for she died) she called his name Ben-oni, but his father called him Beniamin.
Exodus 2:10
Nowe the childe grewe, and she brought him vnto Pharaohs daughter, and he was as her sonne, and she called his name Moses, because, said she, I drewe him out of the water.
1 Samuel 1:20
For in processe of time Hannah conceiued, and bare a sonne, and she called his name Samuel, Because, said she, I haue asked him of the Lord.
Matthew 1:21
And she shall bring foorth a sonne, and thou shalt call his name Iesvs: for hee shall saue his people from their sinnes.
Matthew 1:23
Behold, a virgine shalbe with childe, and shall beare a sonne, & they shal call his name Emmanuel, which is by interpretation, God with vs.
Acts 17:26
And hath made of one blood all mankinde, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath assigned the seasons which were ordeined before, and the boundes of their habitation,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

All go unto one place,.... The earth w from whence they came;

all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again; Adam's body was made of the dust of the earth, and so all his posterity, all of them; in which they agree with beasts, who are made of the dust also; and, when they die, return to it; see Genesis 2:7.

w "Magna parens terra est", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 7.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

That great anomaly in the moral government of this world, the seemingly unequal distribution of rewards and punishments, will be rectified by God, who has future times and events under His control Ecclesiastes 3:16-17. As for people, they are placed by God, who is their teacher, in a humble condition, even on a level with inferior animals, by death, that great instance of their subjection to vanity Ecclesiastes 3:18-19, which reduces to its original form all that was made of the dust of the ground Ecclesiastes 3:20. And though the destinies of man and beast are different, yet in our present lack of knowledge as to God’s future dealing with our spirits Ecclesiastes 3:21, man finds his portion (see the Ecclesiastes 2:10 note) in such labor and such joy as God assigns to him in his lifetime Ecclesiastes 3:22.

Ecclesiastes 3:16

I saw ... - Rather, I have seen (as in Ecclesiastes 3:10) under the sun the place etc. The place of judgment means the seat of the authorized judge. Compare “the place of the holy” Ecclesiastes 8:10.

Ecclesiastes 3:17

A time there - i. e., a time with God.

Ecclesiastes 3:18

literally, I said in my heart with regard to the sons of men, it is that God may prove them and show them that they are beasts, they themselves. “Showing” is the reading of the Septuagint and Syriac: the present Hebrew text reads “seeing.” The meaning is that the long delay of God’s judgment Ecclesiastes 3:16-17 is calculated to show people that the brevity of their life renders them incapable of following out and understanding His distributive justice.

Ecclesiastes 3:19

That which befalleth the sons of men - literally, the event (happenstance) of the sons of men, i. e., what comes upon them from outside, by virtue of the ordinance of God. See the Ecclesiastes 2:14 note. Death in particular Ecclesiastes 3:2, Ecclesiastes 3:11 is a part of the “work that God doeth.”

Ecclesiastes 3:21

The King James Version of this verse is the only rendering which the Hebrew text, as now pointed, allows. It is in accordance with the best Jewish and many modern interpreters. A slightly different pointing would be requisite to authorize the translation, “Who knows the spirit of the sons of man whether it goes above, and, the spirit of the beast whether it goes down below?” etc., which, though it seems neither necessary nor suitable, is sanctioned by the Septuagint and other versions and by some modern interpreters.

Who knoweth - This expression (used also in Ecclesiastes 2:19; Ecclesiastes 6:12) does not necessarily imply complete and absolute ignorance. In Psalms 90:11, it is applied to what is partially understood: compare similar forms of expression in Proverbs 31:10; Psalms 94:16; Isaiah 53:1. Moreover, it is evident from marginal references that Solomon did not doubt the future existence and destination of the soul. This verse can only be construed as a confession of much ignorance on the subject.

Ecclesiastes 3:22

What shall be after him - i. e., What shall become of the results of his work after he is dead. Compare Ecclesiastes 2:19; Ecclesiastes 6:12.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 20. All go unto one place

"Man was born

To die, nor aught exceeds in this respect

The vilest brute. Both transient, frail, and vain,

Draw the same breath; alike grow old, decay,

And then expire: both to one grave descend;

There blended lie, to native dust return'd."-C.


 
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