Ecclesiastes 3:18-22

From Dust to Dust

¹⁸ I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but _n beasts. ¹⁹ _o For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. ²⁰ All go to one place. All are from _p the dust, and to dust all return. ²¹ Who knows whether _q the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? ²² So I saw that there is _r nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for _s that is his lot. Who can bring him to see _t what will be after him?

1. Cross References
   Psalms 49:12
   Man in his pomp will not remain; he is like the beasts that perish.
   Psalms 49:20
   Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
   Psalms 73:22
   I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
   
2. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 2:14
   The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them.
   
3. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 12:7
   And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
   Genesis 3:19
   By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
   
4. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 12:7
   And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
   
5. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 2:24
   There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.
   
6. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 2:10
   And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.
   
7. Cross References
   Ecclesiastes 2:19
   And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
   Ecclesiastes 6:12
   For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?
   Ecclesiastes 8:7
   For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?
   Ecclesiastes 10:14
   A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him?