Ecclesiastes 9:1-12

New International Version

A Common Destiny for All

9 So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.^(A) ²All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad,^[a] the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,
so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
so with those who are afraid to take them.^(B)

³This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all.^(C) The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live,^(D) and afterward they join the dead.^(E) ⁴Anyone who is among the living has hope^[b]—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

⁵For the living know that they will die,
    but the dead know nothing;^(F)
they have no further reward,
    and even their name^(G) is forgotten.^(H)
⁶Their love, their hate
    and their jealousy have long since vanished;
never again will they have a part
    in anything that happens under the sun.^(I)

⁷Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine^(J) with a joyful heart,^(K) for God has already approved what you do. ⁸Always be clothed in white,^(L) and always anoint your head with oil. ⁹Enjoy life with your wife,^(M) whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot^(N) in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. ¹⁰Whatever^(O) your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,^(P) for in the realm of the dead,^(Q) where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.^(R)

¹¹I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift
    or the battle to the strong,^(S)
nor does food come to the wise^(T)
    or wealth to the brilliant
    or favor to the learned;
but time and chance^(U) happen to them all.^(V)

¹²Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,
or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times^(W)
that fall unexpectedly upon them.^(X)

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Footnotes

Ecclesiastes 9:2 Septuagint (Aquila), Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew does not have and the bad.
Ecclesiastes 9:4 Or What then is to be chosen? With all who live, there is hope