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19 After all, the same fate awaits human beings and animals alike. One dies just like the other. They are the same kind of creature. A human being is no better off than an animal, because life has no meaning for either. 20 They are both going to the same place—the dust. They both came from it; they will both go back to it. 21 How can anyone be sure that the human spirit goes upward while an animal's spirit goes down into the ground? 22 So I realized then that the best thing we can do is enjoy what we have worked for. There is nothing else we can do.[a] There is no way for us to know what will happen after we die.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 3:22 what we have … do; or our work, because we are going to have to do it anyway.

19 Surely 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. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.(B) 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward(C) and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work,(D) because that is their lot.(E) For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 3:19 Or spirit