Revised Version 1895
Ecclesiastes 12:7
7and the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return unto God who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
- New International Version (NIV)and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- English Standard Version (ESV)and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
Context of Ecclesiastes 12:7
5yea, they shall be afraid of that which is high, and terrors shall be in the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and the caper-berry shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: 6or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern; and the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return unto God who gave it. 8Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity. 9And further, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he pondered, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
Read all of Ecclesiastes 12Ecclesiastes 12:7 word by word
וְיָשֹׁ֧ב הֶעָפָ֛ר עַל־הָאָ֖רֶץ כְּשֶׁהָיָ֑ה וְהָר֣וּחַ תָּשׁ֔וּב אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִ֖ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר נְתָנָֽהּ׃Read the interlinear
Cross-references for Ecclesiastes 12:7
- Ecclesiastes 3:20All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
- Genesis 3:19in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
- Genesis 18:27And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
- Job 4:19How much more them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth!
- Job 7:21And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I lie down in the dust; and thou shall seek me diligently, but I shall not be.
- Job 20:11His bones are full of his youth, but it shall lie down with him in the dust.
- Job 34:14If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;
- Psalms 90:3Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
- Psalms 146:4His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
- Daniel 12:2And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Ecclesiastes 3:21Who knoweth the spirit of man whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goeth downward to the earth?
- Genesis 2:7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- Numbers 16:22And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?
- Numbers 27:16Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation,
- Isaiah 57:16For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
- Jeremiah 38:16So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the LORD liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.
Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 12:7
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 7Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God - 5. Putrefaction and solution take place; the whole mass becomes decomposed, and in process of time is reduced to dust, from which it was originally made; while the spirit, הרוח haruach, that spirit, which God at first breathed into the nostrils of man, when he in consequence became a Living Soul, an intelligent, rational, discoursing animal, returns to God who gave…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 7The spirit - i. e., The spirit separated unto God from the body at death. No more is said here of its future destiny. To return to God, who is the fountain Psalm 36:9 of Life, certainly means to continue to live. The doctrine of life after death is implied here as in Exodus 3:6 (compare Mark 12:26), Psalm 17:15 (see the note), and in many other passages of Scripture earlier than the age of Solomon. The inference that the soul loses its personality and is…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 7dust returns to the ground: See Genesis 2:7; 3:19. The idea that the spirit will return to God who gave it suggests a belief in an afterlife (compare Ecclesiastes 3:21; see “The Afterlife” Theme Note).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 77. dust--the dust-formed body. spirit--surviving the body; implying its immortality (Ec 3:11).Read the comment
Topics related to Ecclesiastes 12:7
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Ecclesiastes 12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
Revised Version 1895 — 1895 — Public Domain
Commentaries