I said to myself, “As for the sons of men, God tests them so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.”
Parallel translations
- WEB I said in my heart, “As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals.
- KJV I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
- NKJV I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.”
- NASB I said to myself regarding the sons of mankind, “God is testing them in order for them to see that they are as animals, they to themselves.”
- NLT I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals.
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
God tests people so they may see they are, in their mortality, like the animals. This humbling realization confronts human pride.
Overview
Qoheleth states that God's testing reveals humanity's creaturely frailty, sharing mortality with the beasts. This is meant to humble human pride and expose our dependence on God. The verse does not deny humanity's unique creation in God's image, but stresses that, apart from God, we face the same death as the animals, a frailty Christ overcomes through resurrection.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 73:22I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You.
- Ps 49:12But a man, despite his wealth, cannot endure; he is like the beasts that perish.
- Gen 3:17–19And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
- Heb 9:27Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,
- 2 Pet 2:12These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed.
- Rom 9:23What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—
- 1 Pet 1:24For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
- Ps 51:4Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.
- Rom 3:4Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.”
- Job 14:1–4“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
- Ps 73:18–19Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
- Ps 49:14Like sheep they are destined for Sheol. Death will be their shepherd. The upright will rule them in the morning, and their form will decay in Sheol, far from their lofty abode.
- Job 15:16how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?
- Ps 90:5–12You whisk them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning—
- Job 40:8Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?
- Ps 49:19–20he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light of day.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:18 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.