Ecclesiastes 3:19-21

EasyEnglish Bible

¹⁹The same thing happens to humans as happens to animals. We all breathe for a time and then we die. Humans are no different to animals. Life has no purpose. ²⁰All living things finally go to the same place. We all come from the dust of the ground. And we all go back to the dust when we die.^[a] ²¹Do the spirits of humans go up into the sky when we die? Do the spirits of animals go down into the ground? Nobody really knows.’^[b]

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Footnotes

3:20 See Genesis 3:19.
3:21 The Hebrew word for ‘spirit’ can also mean ‘breath’. The Teacher says more about this in Ecclesiastes 12:7.

Ecclesiastes 3:19-21

New International Version

¹⁹Surely the fate of human beings^(A) is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath^[a]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. ²⁰All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.^(B) ²¹Who knows if the human spirit rises upward^(C) and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”