Ecclesiastes 12:7

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible

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

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.

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.

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.

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 Yet remember thy Creator, in the days of thy vigour, - or ever come in, the days of discomfort, and the years arrive, in which thou shalt say - I have, in them, no pleasure; ² Or ever be darkened - the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, - and the clouds return after a downpour of rain; ³ In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the men of might bow themselves, - and the grinders cease because they are few, and they who look through the windows are darkened; ⁴ And the doors in the street be closed, when the sound of the mill become low, - and one rise at the chirp of a small bird, and low-voiced be all the daughters of song; ⁵ Yea, at what is high, they be in fear, and there be, terrors, in the way, and the almond be rejected, and the grasshopper drag itself along, and desire perish, - for man is going to his age-abiding home, when the wailers shall go round in the streets; ⁶ Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, - or the bucket by the fountain be shivered, or the wheel at the well be broken; ⁷ And the dust return to the earth, as it was, - and, the spirit, return unto God, who gave it.

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
And Noah builded an altar to Yahweh, - and took of all the clean beasts and of all the clean birds, and caused ascending Sacrifices to go up on the altar.

Genesis 12:8
And he moved on from thence towards the hill country, on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, - with Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east, and bulk there an altar to Yahweh, and called on the name of Yahweh.

Genesis 12:9
Thus Abram brake up, again and again, towards the South.

Genesis 12:12
so will it come to pass when the Egyptians behold thee, that they will say, His wife, this! and will slay me while thee, they preserve alive.

Genesis 13:4
unto the place of the altar, which he made there at first, - and Abram called there, on the name of Yahweh.

Genesis 13:15
for all the land which thou art beholding - to thee, will I give it, and to thy seed unto times age-abiding;

Genesis 13:18
So Abram moved his tent and came in and dwelt among the oaks of Mamre, which were in Hebron, - and built there an altar to Yahweh.

Genesis 15:18
In that day, did Yahweh solemnise with Abram a covenant, saying, - To thy seed, have I given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river - the river Euphrates:

Genesis 17:1
And it came to pass that, when Abram was ninety and nine years old, Yahweh appeared unto Abram, and said unto him, I, am GOD Almighty, - Walk, thou before me and become thou blameless:

Genesis 17:3
And Abram fell on his face, - and God spake with him, saying:

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.