All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.
Parallel translations
- WEB All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
- KJV All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
- NKJV All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.
- NASB All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.
- NLT Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.
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
All go to one place, formed from dust and returning to dust. Death returns every creature to the ground from which it came.
Overview
Qoheleth recalls the creation and curse language of Genesis, where man is dust and returns to dust. This sobering reminder of mortality applies to all living things. Yet the gospel answers the dust with hope, for Christ, the second Adam, became 'a life-giving spirit' and guarantees the resurrection of the body for those who are His.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Gen 3:19By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
- Job 34:15all flesh would perish together and mankind would return to the dust.
- Eccl 12:7before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Job 7:9As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.
- Eccl 6:6even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?
- Job 10:9–10Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
- Eccl 9:10Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
- Ps 104:29When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.
- Eccl 3:21Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth?
- Num 27:13After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was;
- Gen 25:17Ishmael lived a total of 137 years. Then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.
- 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.
- Dan 12:2And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Job 17:13If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
- Gen 25:8And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.
- Job 30:24Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 3:20 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.