Ecclesiastes 3:18–20

²²So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.

¹²Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

¹²But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

¹⁷And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

¹⁸Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

¹⁹In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

²⁷And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

²⁴For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

²³And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

¹MAN that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

²He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

³And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

¹⁶How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

⁸Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

¹⁴Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

¹⁹He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.

²⁰Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

⁴Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

¹⁸Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.

¹⁹How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

⁵Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

⁶In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

⁷For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

⁸Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

⁹For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

¹⁰The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

¹¹Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

¹²So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

⁴God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

¹²Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

²⁰Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

¹⁰But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

¹¹As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:

¹²So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

¹⁴The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.

²⁰Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.

²¹For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

²²For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?

²³For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

⁵Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

⁶Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

⁴⁷Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?

⁴⁸What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.

¹⁴For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

¹⁶For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.

²⁹Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

⁶A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.

⁷When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:

¹⁹In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

¹⁵All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.

⁷Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

²¹Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

⁶¶ Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?

¹⁰Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

⁹Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

¹⁰Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

¹³And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered.

²⁹Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

²And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

¹⁷And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people.

⁸Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.

¹³If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

¹⁴Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

²⁴Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.