Ecclesiastes 8:7

New Living Translation

Indeed, how can people avoid what they don't know is going to happen?

Parallel Translations

Update Bible Version
for he doesn't know that which shall be; for who can tell him how it shall be?

New Century Version
They do not know what the future holds, and no one can tell them what will happen.

New English Translation
Surely no one knows the future, and no one can tell another person what will happen.

Webster's Bible Translation
For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

World English Bible
For he doesn't know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?

Amplified Bible
For no one knows what will happen; So who can tell him how and when it will happen?

English Standard Version
For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
for he knowith not thingis passid, and he mai not knowe bi ony messanger thingis to comynge.

English Revised Version
for he knoweth not that which shall be; for who can tell him how it shall be?

Berean Standard Bible
Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come?

Contemporary English Version
though no one can tell the future.

American Standard Version
for he knoweth not that which shall be; for who can tell him how it shall be?

Bible in Basic English
No one is certain what is to be, and who is able to say to him when it will be?

Complete Jewish Bible
by uncertainty over the future; even when the event takes place, who will tell them about it?

Darby Translation
for he knoweth not that which shall be; for who can tell him how it shall be?

Easy-to-Read Version
and you are not sure what will happen. No one can tell you what will happen in the future.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
For he knoweth not that which shall be; for even when it cometh to pass, who shall declare it unto him?

King James Version (1611)
For hee knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him, when it shall be?

New Life Bible
If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?

New Revised Standard
Indeed, they do not know what is to be, for who can tell them how it will be?

Geneva Bible (1587)
For he knoweth not that which shalbe: for who can tell him when it shalbe?

George Lamsa Translation
For there is no one who knows that which has been; and who can tell him what will be after him?

Good News Translation
None of us knows what is going to happen, and there is no one to tell us.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For there is no one who knoweth what shall be, for, when it shall be, who will tell him?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Because he is ignorant of things past, and things to come he cannot know by any messenger.

Revised Standard Version
For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And why? a man knoweth not what is for to come: for who can tell hym when it shalbe?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For there is no one that knows what is going to be: for who shall tell him how it shall be?

Christian Standard Bible®
Yet no one knows what will happen because who can tell him what will happen?

Hebrew Names Version
For he doesn't know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?

King James Version
For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

Lexham English Bible
Surely no one knows what will be, so who can tell anyone what will happen?

Literal Translation
For he does not know what shall be. For who can tell him when it shall be?

Young's Literal Translation
For he knoweth not that which shall be, for when it shall be who declareth to him?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And why? a man knoweth not what is for to come, for who wyll tell him?

New American Standard Bible
If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?

New King James Version
For he does not know what will happen; So who can tell him when it will occur?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?

Legacy Standard Bible
If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?

Contextual Overview

⁶ for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble. ⁷ Indeed, how can people avoid what they don't know is going to happen? ⁸ None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

he knoweth: Ecclesiastes 6:12, Ecclesiastes 9:12, Ecclesiastes 10:14, Proverbs 24:22, Proverbs 29:1, Matthew 24:44, Matthew 24:50, Matthew 25:6-13, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3

when: or, how

Reciprocal: Job 10:13 - hid Job 24:1 - seeing Ecclesiastes 3:22 - who Ecclesiastes 8:16 - When I

Cross-References

Leviticus 11:15
ravens of all kinds,

1 Kings 17:4
Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food."

1 Kings 17:6
The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook.

Job 38:41
Who provides food for the ravens when their young cry out to God and wander about in hunger?

Psalms 147:9
He gives food to the wild animals and feeds the young ravens when they cry.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For he knoweth not that which shall be,.... Or that "it shall be" b; that he ever shall have the opportunity again he has lost, nor what is to come hereafter; what shall be on the morrow, or what shall befall him in the remaining part of his days; what troubles and sorrows he shall meet with, or what will be the case and circumstances of his family after his death;

for who can tell him when it shall be? or "how it shall be" c? how it will be with him or his; no one that pretends to judicial astrology, or to the art of divination, or any such devices, can tell him what is to come; future things are only certainly known by God; none but he can tell what will certainly come to pass; see Ecclesiastes 3:22; Jarchi interprets it of a man's not considering for what God will bring him to judgment, and that no man can tell him the vengeance and punishment that will be inflicted.

b מה שיהיה "quod futurum est", Pagninus, Montanus. c כאשר יהיה "quo modo", Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus, Rambachius, so Broughton.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

When - Or, as in the margin. For the meaning of this verse, compare marginal references.