Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come?
Parallel translations
- WEB For he doesn’t know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?
- KJV For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
- NKJV For he does not know what will happen; So who can tell him when it will occur?
- NASB If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen?
- NLT Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen?
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
No one knows what is coming, and no one can tell another how the future will unfold. Human ignorance of the future is a recurring theme that humbles our pride.
Overview
Qoheleth stresses the limits of human knowledge: the future is hidden from us. This uncertainty is part of why life 'under the sun' is so frustrating and why people cannot control outcomes. It directs faith away from self-sufficiency toward the God who alone knows and holds the future (James 4:13-15; Isaiah 46:9-10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Eccl 10:14Yet the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming, and who can tell him what will come after him?
- Matt 24:50The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate.
- Eccl 9:12For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.
- Prov 24:22For they will bring sudden destruction. Who knows what ruin they can bring?
- Eccl 6:12For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?
- Matt 25:6–13At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
- Matt 24:44For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.
- Eccl 3:22I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?
- Prov 29:1A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.
- 1 Th 5:1–3Now about the times and seasons, brothers, we do not need to write to 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 8:7 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.