Ecclesiastes 3:17-19

New Living Translation

¹⁷I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”

¹⁸I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. ¹⁹For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe^[a] and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless!

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Footnotes

3:19 Or both have the same spirit.

Ecclesiastes 3:17-19

New International Version

¹⁷I said to myself,

“God will bring into judgment^(A)
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”^(B)

¹⁸I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.^(C) ¹⁹Surely the fate of human beings^(D) is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath^[a]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless.

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