Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Parallel translations
- WEB and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- BSB before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- NKJV Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
- NASB then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
- NLT For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
At death the body returns to dust while the spirit returns to God who gave it. This affirms that human life does not simply vanish but answers to its Maker.
Overview
Echoing Genesis 2:7 and 3:19, the verse distinguishes body and spirit: the body decays into the ground from which Adam was formed, while the God-given spirit returns to him. This is not annihilation but accountability, the spirit going back to the One who bestowed it, which sets up the final judgment of verse 14. The fact that we return to the God who gave us life finds its hope in Christ, whose resurrection promises that the dust itself will one day be raised and restored.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Dan 12:2And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Eccl 3:20–21All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
- Ps 146:4His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
- Gen 3:19In 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.
- Job 34:14–15If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;
- Isa 57:16For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
- Zech 12:1The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
- Gen 2:7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- Num 16:22And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?
- Job 20:11His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
- Num 27:16Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation,
- Jer 38:16So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the LORD liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.
- Gen 18:27And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the LORD, which am but dust and ashes:
- Ps 90:3Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
- Job 4:19–20How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
- Heb 12:9Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
- Heb 12:23To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
- Job 7:21And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 12:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.