⁵ “Where are your ancestors now? They and the prophets are long dead.

⁵ Remember him before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets; before your hair turns white like an almond tree in bloom, and you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper, and the caperberry no longer inspires sexual desire. Remember him before you near the grave, your everlasting home, when the mourners will weep at your funeral.

² I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles.

³ Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. ⁴ They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”

⁷ For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

²⁷ And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,

²³ There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office. ²⁴ But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever.

³⁶ This is not a reference to David, for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed.

⁵² The people said, “Now we know you are possessed by a demon. Even Abraham and the prophets died, but you say, ‘Anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!’

Death Comes to All

9 This, too, I carefully explored: Even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God’s hands, no one knows whether God will show them favor. ² The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad,^[a] ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don’t.

³ It seems so wrong that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate. Already twisted by evil, people choose their own mad course, for they have no hope. There is nothing ahead but death anyway.