Whatever exists was named long ago, and what happens to a man is foreknown; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he.
Parallel translations
- WEB Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.
- KJV That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.
- NKJV Whatever one is, he has been named already, For it is known that he is man; And he cannot contend with Him who is mightier than he.
- NASB Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with the one who is mightier than he is.
- NLT Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny.
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
Whatever exists was named long ago, man's nature is known, and he cannot contend with the One mightier than he. It matters because human beings cannot dispute with the sovereign God who ordains all things.
Overview
The Preacher affirms God's sovereign foreknowledge and the futility of arguing against the Almighty. Humanity's frailty ('it is known what man is,' i.e., mere dust) forbids contention with the Creator, as Job learned (Job 9:32; Isaiah 45:9). This humbling truth invites trust rather than rebellion, a trust that rests securely in the good purposes of God revealed in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Job 9:32For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.
- Isa 45:9–10Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?
- Job 40:2“Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who argues with God give an answer.”
- Job 33:13Why do you complain to Him that He answers nothing a man asks?
- Jer 49:19Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Edom from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”
- 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.
- Rom 9:19–20One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?”
- Eccl 3:15What exists has already been, and what will be has already been, for God will call to account what has passed.
- Ps 82:6–7I have said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.’
- Job 9:3–4If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.
- Ps 39:6Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.
- Job 14:1–4“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
- Eccl 1:9–11What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
- Ps 103:15As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field;
- Gen 3:9But the LORD God called out to the man, “Where are you?”
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 6:10 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.