Ecclesiastes 8:16–9:6

16 When I applied my mind to know wisdoms and to observe the labor that is done on eartht—people getting no sleep day or night—17 then I saw all that God has done.u No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.v

A Common Destiny for All

9 So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.w 2 All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad,a the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,

so with the sinful;

as it is with those who take oaths,

so with those who are afraid to take them.x

3 This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all.y The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live,z and afterward they join the dead.a 4 Anyone who is among the living has hopeb—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

5 For the living know that they will die,

but the dead know nothing;b

they have no further reward,

and even their namec is forgotten.d

6 Their love, their hate

and their jealousy have long since vanished;

never again will they have a part

in anything that happens under the sun.e