All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Parallel Translations
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All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
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All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
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All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all return to dust.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Ecclesiastes 3:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 3:19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”
- Job 34:15 all flesh would perish together, and man would turn again to dust.
- Ecclesiastes 12:7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Numbers 27:13 When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered;
- Job 7:9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol will come up no more.
- Job 10:9-10 Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again? Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
- Psalms 104:29 You hide your face; they are troubled. You take away their breath; they die and return to the dust.
- Ecclesiastes 3:21 Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?”
- Ecclesiastes 6:6 Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, don’t all go to one place?
- Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.
- Genesis 25:8 Abraham gave up his spirit, and died at a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
- Genesis 25:17 These are the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred thirty-seven years. He gave up his spirit and died, and was gathered to his people.
- Job 17:13 If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
- Psalms 49:14 They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion.
- Daniel 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Job 30:24 “However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are…
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Ver. 20. All are of the dust.] {See Trapp on "Gen 3:19"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain All go unto one place; to the earth, as…
All go unto one place; to the earth, as it is expressed, Ecc 3:21, out of which they were both taken.
All turn to dust again; which is meant only of their bodies, as it is explained, Ecc 12:7.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain All go unto one place,.... The earth (w) from…
All go unto one place,.... The earth (w) from whence they came;
all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again; Adam's body was made of the dust of the earth, and so all his posterity, all of them; in which they agree with beasts, who are made of the dust also; and, when they die, return to it; see Gen 2:7.
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(w) "Magna parens terra est", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain One place - To the earth, out of which…
One place - To the earth, out of which they were taken. All turn - All their bodies.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. All go unto one place]
Verse 20. All go unto one place]
"Man was born
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To die, nor aught exceeds in this respect
The vilest brute. Both transient, frail, and vain,
Draw the same breath; alike grow old, decay,
And then expire: both to one grave descend;
There blended lie, to native dust return'd."-C.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Ecc 3:20-21. All go unto one place — To…
Ecc 3:20-21. All go unto one place — To the earth, as it is expressed Ecc 3:21, out of which they were both taken. All turn to dust again — All their bodies, as it is explained Ecc 12:7. Who knoweth the spirit of a man — True it is, there is a difference, which is known by good men, but the generality of mankind never mind it; their hearts are wholly set on present and sensible things, and take no thought for the things of the future and invisible world.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 20. All are of the dust — “Dust thou…
20. All are of the dust — “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” The perishing and dissolution of the bodies of men and beasts are visibly similar. There can be no doubt about that. And how of the spirit?
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. All go unto one place] The “place” thus…
20. All go unto one place] The “place” thus spoken of is not the Sheol of the Hebrews or the Hades of the Greeks, which implied, however vaguely, some notion of a shadowy disembodied existence, for the souls of men as distinct from those of brutes, but simply the earth as at once the mother, the nourisher, and the sepulchre of every form of life. So Lucretius, as a disciple of Epicurus, speaks (De Rer. Nat. v. 259) of earth as being
“Omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulcrum.”
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“The mother and the sepulchre of all.”
all are of the dust] There is an obviously deliberate reference to the narrative of the Creation in Gen_2:7. To those who did not see below the surface, it seemed to affirm, as it did to the Sadducee, the denial of a life to come. “Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return” was the sentence passed, they might say, as on the brute creation, so on man also (Gen_3:19).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain All go unto one place. All, men and brutes,…
All go unto one place. All, men and brutes, are buried in the. (Ecc_12:7) The author is not thinking of Sheol, the abode of departed spirits, but merely regarding earth as the universal tomb of all creatures. Plumptre quotes Lueretius, "De Rer. Nat.," 5:260
Omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulchrum.
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The mother and the sepulcher of all.
Thus Bailey, "Festus
The course of nature seems a course of death; The prize of life"s brief race, to cease to run; The sole substantial thing, death"s nothingness.
All are of the dust (Gen_3:19; Psa_104:29 Psa_146:4) So Ecc 41:10, "All things that are of earth shall turn to earth again." This is true of the material part of men and brutes alike; the question of the destiny of the immaterial part is touched in the next verse.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:20 from dust . . . to dust: The…
3:20 from dust . . . to dust: The Teacher refers to God’s judgment against human rebellion in Eden (see Gen 3:19).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.