Ecclesiastes 12:7

Good News Translation

Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
and the dust returns to the earth as it once was,and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Hebrew Names Version
And the dust returns to the eretz as it was, And the spirit returns to God who gave it.

King James Version
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

English Standard Version
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

New American Standard Bible
then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

New Century Version
You will turn back into the dust of the earth again, but your spirit will return to God who gave it.

Amplified Bible
then the dust [out of which God made man's body] will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

World English Bible
And the dust returns to the earth as it was, And the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And dust returne to the earth as it was, and the spirit returne to God that gaue it.

Legacy Standard Bible
then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Berean Standard Bible
before the dust returns to the ground from which it came, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Contemporary English Version
So our bodies return to the earth, and the life-giving breath returns to God.

Complete Jewish Bible
the dust returns to earth, as it was, and the spirit returns to God, who gave it!

Darby Translation
and the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return unto God who gave it.

Easy-to-Read Version
Your body came from the earth. And when you die, it will return to the earth. But your spirit came from God, and when you die, it will return to him.

George Lamsa Translation
Then the dust shall return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.

Lexham English Bible
And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.

Literal Translation
then the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Or dust be turned againe vnto earth from whence it came, and or the sprete returne vnto God, which gaue it.

American Standard Version
and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.

Bible in Basic English
And the dust goes back to the earth as it was, and the spirit goes back to God who gave it.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.

King James Version (1611)
Then shall the dust returne to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall returne vnto God who gaue it.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Then shall the dust be turned agayne vnto earth from whence it came, and the spirite shall returne vnto God who gaue it.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
before the dust also return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return to God who gave it.

English Revised Version
and the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return unto God who gave it.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and dust turne ayen in to his erthe, wherof it was, and the spirit turne ayen to God, that yaf it.

Update Bible Version
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Webster's Bible Translation
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.

New English Translation
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the life's breath returns to God who gave it.

New King James Version
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

New Living Translation
For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

New Life Bible
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was. And the spirit will return to God Who gave it.

New Revised Standard
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And the dust return to the earth, as it was, - and, the spirit, return unto God, who gave it.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the dust return into its earth, from whence it was, and the spirit return to God, who gave it.

Revised Standard Version
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Young's Literal Translation
And the dust returneth to the earth as it was, And the spirit returneth to God who gave it.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Contextual Overview

¹ So remember your Creator while you are still young, before those dismal days and years come when you will say, "I don't enjoy life." ² That is when the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars will grow dim for you, and the rain clouds will never pass away. ³ Then your arms, that have protected you, will tremble, and your legs, now strong, will grow weak. Your teeth will be too few to chew your food, and your eyes too dim to see clearly. ⁴ Your ears will be deaf to the noise of the street. You will barely be able to hear the mill as it grinds or music as it plays, but even the song of a bird will wake you from sleep. ⁵ You will be afraid of high places, and walking will be dangerous. Your hair will turn white; you will hardly be able to drag yourself along, and all desire will be gone. We are going to our final resting place, and then there will be mourning in the streets. ⁶ The silver chain will snap, and the golden lamp will fall and break; the rope at the well will break, and the water jar will be shattered. ⁷ Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

dust: Ecclesiastes 3:20, Genesis 3:19, Genesis 18:27, Job 4:19, Job 4:20, Job 7:21, Job 20:11, Job 34:14, Job 34:15, Psalms 90:3, Psalms 146:4, Daniel 12:2

the spirit: Ecclesiastes 3:21

God: Genesis 2:7, Numbers 16:22, Numbers 27:16, Isaiah 57:16, Jeremiah 38:16, Zechariah 12:1, Hebrews 12:9, Hebrews 12:23

Reciprocal: Genesis 5:5 - and he died Genesis 15:15 - And thou Genesis 23:4 - burying place Genesis 23:19 - General Genesis 49:33 - and yielded Genesis 50:5 - bury me Genesis 50:24 - I die Job 1:21 - Naked came Job 3:19 - The small Job 10:9 - into dust again Job 21:33 - every man Job 26:4 - whose spirit Psalms 49:14 - they Psalms 49:19 - He Psalms 89:48 - What Psalms 103:14 - we are dust Psalms 104:29 - thou takest Ecclesiastes 6:6 - do Ecclesiastes 9:3 - after Isaiah 57:2 - He shall Zechariah 1:5 - General Malachi 2:15 - the spirit Luke 24:39 - for 1 Corinthians 7:29 - that both Hebrews 9:27 - as James 2:26 - as

Cross-References

Genesis 8:20
Noah built an altar to the Lord ; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burned them whole as a sacrifice on the altar.

Genesis 12:8
After that, he moved on south to the hill country east of the city of Bethel and set up his camp between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There also he built an altar and worshiped the Lord .

Genesis 12:9
Then he moved on from place to place, going toward the southern part of Canaan.

Genesis 12:12
When the Egyptians see you, they will assume that you are my wife, and so they will kill me and let you live.

Genesis 13:4
and had built an altar. There he worshiped the Lord .

Genesis 13:15
I am going to give you and your descendants all the land that you see, and it will be yours forever.

Genesis 13:18
So Abram moved his camp and settled near the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord .

Genesis 15:18
Then and there the Lord made a covenant with Abram. He said, "I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates River,

Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right.

Genesis 17:3
Abram bowed down with his face touching the ground, and God said,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was,.... The body, which is made of dust, and is no other in its present state than dust refined and enlivened; and when the above things take place, mentioned in Ecclesiastes 12:6, or at death, it returns to its original earth; it becomes immediately a clod of earth, a lifeless lump of clay, and is then buried in the earth, where it rots, corrupts, and turns into it; which shows the frailty of man, and may serve to humble his pride, as well as proves that death is not an annihilation even of the body; see Genesis 3:19;

and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it; from whom it is, by whom it is created, who puts it into the bodies of men, as a deposit urn they are entrusted with, and are accountable for, and should be concerned for the safety and salvation of it; this was originally breathed into man at his first creation, and is now formed within him by the Lord; hence he is called the God of the spirits of all flesh; see Genesis 2:4. Now at death the soul, or spirit of man, returns to God; which if understood of the souls of men in general, it means that at death they return to God the Judge of all, who passes sentence on them, and orders those that are good to the mansions of bliss and happiness, and those that are evil to hell and destruction. So the Targum adds,

"that it may stand in judgment before the Lord;''

or if only of the souls of good men, the sense is, that they then return to God, not only as their Creator, but as their covenant God and Father, to enjoy his presence evermore; and to Christ their Redeemer, to be for ever with him, than which nothing is better and more desirable; this shows that the soul is immortal, and dies not with the body, nor sleeps in the grave with it, but is immediately with God. Agreeably to all this Aristotle w says, the mind, or soul, alone enters θυραθεν, from without, (from heaven, from God there,) and only is divine; and to the same purpose are the words of Phocylides x,

"the body we have of the earth, and we all being resolved into it become dust, but the air or heaven receives the spirit.''

And still more agreeably to the sentiment of the wise man here, another Heathen y writer observes, that the ancients were of opinion that souls are given of God, and are again returned unto him after death.

w De Generat. Animal. l. 2. c. 3. x σωμα γαρ εκ γαιης, &c. Poem. Admon. v. 102, 103. So Lucretius l. 2. "cedit item retro de terra", &c. y Macrob. Saturnal. l. I. c. 10.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The spirit - i. e., The spirit separated unto God from the body at death. No more is said here of its future destiny. To return to God, who is the fountain Psalms 36:9 of Life, certainly means to continue to live. The doctrine of life after death is implied here as in Exodus 3:6 (compare Mark 12:26), Psalms 17:15 (see the note), and in many other passages of Scripture earlier than the age of Solomon. The inference that the soul loses its personality and is absorbed into something else has no warrant in this or any other statement in this book, and would be inconsistent with the announcement of a judgment after death Ecclesiastes 12:14.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Ecclesiastes 12:7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God —

5. Putrefaction and solution take place; the whole mass becomes decomposed, and in process of time is reduced to dust, from which it was originally made; while the spirit, הרוח haruach, that spirit, which God at first breathed into the nostrils of man, when he in consequence became a LIVING SOUL, an intelligent, rational, discoursing animal, returns to God who gave it. Here the wise man makes a most evident distinction between the body and the soul: they are not the same; they are not both matter. The body, which is matter, returns to dust, its original; but the spirit, which is immaterial, returns to God. It is impossible that two natures can be more distinct, or more emphatically distinguished. The author of this book was not a materialist.

Thus ends this affecting, yet elegant and finished, picture of OLD AGE and DEATH. See a description of old age similar, but much inferior, to this, in the Agamemnon of AEschylus, v. 76-82.

It has been often remarked that the circulation of the blood, which has been deemed a modern discovery by our countryman Dr. Harvey, in 1616, was known to Solomon, or whoever was the author of this book: the fountains, cisterns, pitcher, and wheel, giving sufficient countenance to the conclusion.