Ecclesiastes 3:20

The NET Bible®

Both go to the same place, both come from the dust, and to dust both return.

Parallel Translations

New Living Translation
Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.

Update Bible Version
All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

New Century Version
Both end up the same way; both came from dust and both will go back to dust.

Webster's Bible Translation
All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

World English Bible
All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Amplified Bible
All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Geneva Bible (1587)
All goe to one place, & all was of the dust, and all shall returne to the dust.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

New King James Version
All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.

Legacy Standard Bible
All go to the same place. All came from the dust, and all return to the dust.

Contextual Overview

¹⁶ I saw something else on earth: In the place of justice, there was wickedness, and in the place of fairness, there was wickedness. ¹⁷ I thought to myself, "God will judge both the righteous and the wicked; for there is an appropriate time for every activity, and there is a time of judgment for every deed. ¹⁸ I also thought to myself, "It is for the sake of people, so God can clearly show them that they are like animals. ¹⁹ For the fate of humans and the fate of animals are the same: As one dies, so dies the other; both have the same breath. There is no advantage for humans over animals, for both are fleeting. ²⁰ Both go to the same place, both come from the dust, and to dust both return. ²¹ Who really knows if the human spirit ascends upward, and the animal's spirit descends into the earth? ²² So I perceived there is nothing better than for people to enjoy their work, because that is their reward; for who can show them what the future holds?

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
So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field, but for Adam no companion who corresponded to him was found.

Genesis 2:23
Then the man said, "This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called ‘woman,' for she was taken out of man."

Genesis 5:29
He named him Noah, saying, "This one will bring us comfort from our labor and from the painful toil of our hands because of the ground that the Lord has cursed."

Genesis 16:11
Then the Lord 's angel said to her, "You are now pregnant and are about to give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your painful groans.

Genesis 35:18
With her dying breath, she named him Ben Oni. But his father called him Benjamin instead.

Exodus 2:10
When the child grew older she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "Because I drew him from the water."

1 Samuel 1:20
After some time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, thinking, "I asked the Lord for him.

Matthew 1:21
She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

Matthew 1:23
" Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel ," which means " God with us ."

Acts 17:26
From one man he made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live,

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.