All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the 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.
- BSB All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.
- NKJV All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to 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 face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
- Job 34:15all flesh would perish together, and man would turn again to dust.
- Eccl 12:7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Job 7:9As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.
- Eccl 6:6Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, don’t all go to one place?
- Job 10:9–10Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?
- Eccl 9:10Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.
- Ps 104:29You hide your face: they are troubled; you take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust.
- Eccl 3:21Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?”
- Num 27:13When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered;
- Gen 25:17These are the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred thirty-seven years. He gave up his spirit and died, and was gathered to his people.
- Ps 49:14They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion.
- Dan 12:2Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Job 17:13If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
- Gen 25:8Abraham gave up his spirit, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
- Job 30:24“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
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.