Tree of Life Version
Ecclesiastes 12:7
7Then the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to 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
5when they also are afraid of heights and of dangers on the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and the caper berry fails to excite— for a man is going to his eternal home, and mourners go about in the street— 6before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is crushed, or the jug at the cistern is shattered, or the wheel at the well is broken. Then the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8“Evanescent vapors,” says Kohelet. All is futility. 9Furthermore, Kohelet was not only wise but he also taught the people knowledge. He pondered, 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
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Ecclesiastes 12:7
- Ecclesiastes 3:20Both go to one place. Both were taken from the dust, and both return to the dust.
- Genesis 3:19By the sweat of your brow will you eat food, until you return to the ground, since from it were you taken. For you are dust, and to dust will you return.”
- Genesis 18:27Then Abraham answered and said, “Look, pray, I have decided to speak to my Lord, though I am dust and ashes.
- Job 4:19how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth?
- Job 7:21Why do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, and You will search for me, but I will be gone.”
- Job 20:11His bones were full of his youthful vigor but it will lie down with him in the dust.
- Job 34:14“If He were to set His heart on it, and gather to Himself His Ruach and breath,
- Psalms 90:3You turn mankind back to dust, saying, “Return, children of Adam!”
- Psalms 146:4His breath departs, he returns to his dust. In that very day his plans perish.
- Daniel 12:2Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake—some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Ecclesiastes 3:21Who knows that the spirit of the sons of man ascends upward and the animal’s spirit descends into the earth?
- Genesis 2:7Then Adonai Elohim formed the man out of the dust from the ground and He breathed into his nostrils a breath of life—so the man became a living being.
- Numbers 16:22But they fell on their faces and cried out, “O God, God of the spirits of all flesh, if one man sins, will you be angry with the entire community?”
- Numbers 27:16“May Adonai, God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the community
- Isaiah 57:16For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry, for the spirit would grow weak before Me, the breath of those whom I made.
- Jeremiah 38:16So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying: “As Adonai lives, that gave us life, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men seeking your 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
Tree of Life Version — © 2015 The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society
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