Ecclesiastes3:21

1

My translation of this sentence is purposefully awkward in English to show the reader what the Hebrew text says. As you can see, there is something which is left out in the Hebrew sentence and must be assumed (this type of omission is quite common in Hebrew).

2

The interpretation of this verse is highly contested, with good scholars and translators on each side.

Instead of getting into all the possibilities, I will simply tell you what I think is going on in this passage. I think this is a continuation of what he has been saying – that the only thing we know for sure is that we will all die!

He has just said that men and animals have the same kind of “life,” the unpredictable kind, and that both men and animals both end up going to back to dust (meaning down, not up). That is the immediate context of this statement and the context can never be ignored.

In Eccl 12:7 Solomon affirms the common Jewish belief that the spirit of man returns to God who gave it (goes up). So yes, Solomon did believe in man’s eternal soul. But here he is making a point about death, not about heaven or hell. When it comes to life and death, we only know two things for sure: Life is unpredictable, but death is certain!

But remember, Solomon was sharing from a heart that had been deeply wounded and had not healed properly; we are hearing the voice of truncated grief. One lesson for us in this is that if you suffer a deep loss, make sure to go all the way through the grieving process; don’t stop part way through or get stuck and fail to finish the process. It is hard, but you need to finish the process or your pain will consume you, ruin you, and begin to wound others around you.