For he does not know what will happen; So who can tell him when it will occur?
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?
- BSB Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come?
- 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 10:14A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him?
- Matt 24:50the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it, and in an hour when he doesn’t know it,
- Eccl 9:12For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
- Prov 24:22for their calamity will rise suddenly; the destruction from them both — who knows?
- Eccl 6:12For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
- Matt 25:6–13But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold! The bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet him!’
- Matt 24:44Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come.
- Eccl 3:22Therefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?
- Prov 29:1He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy.
- 1 Th 5:1–3But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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.