Ecclesiastes 3:21

Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? WHO KNOWETH. Not doubt of the destination of man's spirit (). The question expresses 'how few, by reason of the outward mortality to which man is as liable as the beast, comprehend the wide difference between man and the beast' (). Since man's spirit is the breath of God, it cannot perish with the body, but must at death return to Him who gave it. That which belongs to the earth is given back to the earth: so that which belongs to heaven returns to heaven. The creation of man in the image of God (; ) involves the necessity of an immor...

16-22 Without the fear of the Lord, man is but vanity; set that aside, and judges will not use their power well. And there is another Judge that stands before the door. With God there is a time for the redressing of grievances, though as yet we see it not. Solomon seems to express his wish that men might perceive, that by choosing this world as their portion, they brought themselves to a level with the beasts, without being free, as they are, from present vexations and a future account. Both return to the dust from whence they were taken. What little reason have we to be proud of our bodies, or bodily accomplishments! But as none can fully comprehend, so few consider properly, the difference between the rational soul of man, and the spirit or life of the beast. The spirit of man goes upward, to be judged, and is then fixed in an unchangeable state of happiness or misery. It is as certai...

Verse 21. _WHO KNOWETH THE SPIRIT OF MAN_] I think the meaning of this important verse is well taken by the above able writer: - The nobler part of _man_, 'tis true, survives The frail corporeal frame: but who regards The difference? Those who live like beasts, as such Would die, and be no more, if their own fate Depended on themselves. Who once reflects, Amidst his revels, that the _human soul_, Of origin celestial, _mounts aloft_, While that of _brutes_ to earth shall _downward go_?" The word רוח _ruach_, which is used in this and the nineteenth

That great anomaly in the moral government of this world, the seemingly unequal distribution of rewards and punishments, will be rectified by God, who has future times and events under His control Ecclesiastes 3:16. As for people, they are placed by God, who is their teacher, in a humble condition, even on a level with inferior animals, by death, that great instance of their subjection to vanity Ecclesiastes 3:18, which reduces to its original form all that was made of the dust of the ground Ecclesiastes 3:20. And though the destinies of man and beast are different, yet in our present lack of knowledge as to God’s future dealing with our spirits...

EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 3:1 Section 4. In confirmation of the truth that man's happiness depends upon the will of God, Koheleth proceeds to show how _Providence arranges even the minutest concerns; that man can alter nothing, must make the best of things as they are, bear with anomalies, bounding his desires by this present life._ ECCLESIASTES 3:1 The providence of God disposes and arranges every detail of man's life. This proposition is stated first generally, and then worked out in particular by means of antithetical sentences. In Hebrew manuscripts and most printed texts Ecclesiastes 3:2 are arranged in two parallel col

WHO KNOWETH THE SPIRIT OF MAN THAT GOETH UPWARD?.... There is indeed a difference between a man and a beast; though they have one breath, they have not one spirit or soul; man has a rational and immortal soul, which, when he dies, goes upwards to God that gave it; to be judged by him, and disposed of by him, in its proper apartment, until the day of the resurrection of the body; AND THE SPIRIT OF THE BEAST THAT GOETH DOWNWARD TO THE EARTH? when the beast dies, its spirit goes down to the earth, from whence it came, and is resolved into it, and is no more. But who is it that sees, or can see and know with the eyes of his body, the difference of these two spirits, or the ascent of the one, and the descent of the other?, Or who knows by the dint of reason, by the strength of his own understanding, without a divine revelation, that man has an immortal soul which goes upwards at death, when...

2. FURTHER RESULTS OF THE SEARCH CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The times of man under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1)_ 2. When then is the good? (Ecclesiastes 3:12) 3. Concerning judgment and the future (Ecclesiastes 3:16) Ecclesiastes 3:1. There is a time for everything. Twenty-eight “times” are mentioned, beginning with the time of birth and ending with the time for peace. Everything has a fixed time: Life-death; seeding-harvesting; killing-healing; breaking-down building-up; weeping-laughing; mourning-dancing, etc. These are the times of the entire race; that is what human life

MAN NO BETTER THAN THE BEASTS. Ecclesiastes 3:16. Both in the administration of the law and the observances of religion, wickedness is prevalent; righteousness is here equivalent to piety. Ecclesiastes 3:17 is the insertion of the orthodox glossator; Qoheleth does not regard God as vindicating the godly. Ecclesiastes 3:18 links on to Ecclesiastes 3:16; the corruption already alluded to is God's way of showing that man, despite his vaunt of intelligence, is really on a level with the beasts. They share the same breath, and when it leaves them, the same end, death. Note...

SPIRIT. Hebrew. _ruach._ App-9. OF MAN. Hebrew "of the sons of Adam". See notes on verses: Ecclesiastes 3:3; Ecclesiastes 3:10; Ecclesiastes 3:13; Ecclesiastes 1:13. THAT GOETH, &C. This is mentioned as one of the emendations of the _Sopherim,_ though it is not included in the official lists (see App-33). The primitive Text read the letter _He_ (= H) as an interrogative, "whether it go" (Compare Ecclesiastes 2:19;...

_Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward_ The words imply a strictly sceptical rather than a negative answer. They do not actually deny, still less do they affirm, as some have thought, that the spirit of man does ascend to a higher life, while that of the brute returns to dust. This would indeed be inconsistent with the whole context, and the _consensus_of the LXX., the Vulgate, the Targum, and the Syriac versions, all of which give "Who knoweth whether the spirit of man goeth upward?" is practically decisive. It is not till nearly the close of the book, with all its many wanderings of thought, that the seeker rests in that measure of the hope of immortality which we find in ch. Ecclesiastes 12:7. Here we have the accents, almost the very formula, of Pyrrhonism (Diog. Laert. ix. 11, §. 73), as borrowed from Euripides: τίς δʼ οἶδεν εἰ τὸ ζῇν μὲν ἐστι κατθανεῖν,...