BOOK 21 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ecclesiastes 9

Ecclesiastes book home•Chapter 9 of 12•18 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Ecclesiastes 9 Overview

The Preacher emphasizes that death comes to all, urges joyful and diligent use of present life, and closes with a story showing that quiet wisdom can save a city even though the wise may soon be forgotten.

EcclesiastesBook

9Chapter

18Verses

PoetryDivision

Before you read Ecclesiastes 9

Coming from

Chapter 8 affirmed God’s ultimate moral government while admitting that present providence is difficult to trace. Chapter 9 presses the most unavoidable earthly limit: everyone dies.

In this chapter

Leads into

Chapter 10 continues the wisdom theme by contrasting wise and foolish conduct in speech, work, leadership, and public life.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The language about the dead knowing nothing is spoken in the book’s “under the sun” horizon, focusing on participation in earthly activities, rewards, loves, hatreds, and projects. It should not be isolated as a denial of every later biblical teaching about conscious existence or resurrection.

“Time and chance happeneth to them all” describes the unpredictability of events from the human point of view. It does not mean God has surrendered sovereignty to a force called Chance.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Death levels earthly distinctions

Righteous and wicked, clean and unclean, wise and foolish all face physical death.

Present life should be used gratefully

Food, clothing, marriage, and work are to be received and pursued while life remains.

Earthly outcomes are unpredictable

Strength, speed, wisdom, and skill do not mechanically guarantee success in every circumstance.

Wisdom may be valuable yet uncelebrated

A poor wise man can deliver a city and still be forgotten.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Hebrews 9:27

Scripture likewise treats death as an appointed reality followed by judgment.

Colossians 3:23

The call to do present work with one’s might resonates with the New Testament command to work heartily as unto the Lord.

Luke 16:19-31

Jesus’ account of the rich man and Lazarus prevents using Ecclesiastes 9 as though the Bible taught unconscious nonexistence after death.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep the earthly perspective of verses 5-6 clear.

The statement concerns what the dead no longer know or participate in “under the sun,” not the totality of post-death existence.

Do not turn “time and chance” into atheistic randomness.

The point is human unpredictability, not the absence of divine providence.

Read Ecclesiastes 9 watching for…

the shared certainty of death

the command to enjoy lawful gifts

doing work with present strength

unexpected earthly outcomes

the forgotten poor wise man

Chapter outline4 sections

1-3The righteous and wicked are in God’s hand, yet death comes to all 4-10While alive there is hope, so enjoy God’s gifts and do present work with might 11-12Ability does not guarantee earthly success because time and chance overtake all 13-18A poor wise man may save a city and still be forgotten; wisdom is better than strength though one sinner can destroy much good

For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.

Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:

There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:

Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.

Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.

The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.

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Ecclesiastes 9:16

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