Ecclesiastes 3:16-22

Ecclesiastes 3:16-Song of Solomon : . Man no Better than the Beasts.

Ecclesiastes 3:16 . Both in the administration of the law and the observances of religion, wickedness is prevalent; “ righteousness” is here equivalent to “ piety.”

Ecclesiastes 3:17 is the insertion of the orthodox glossator; Qoheleth does not regard God as vindicating the godly.

Ecclesiastes 3:18 links on to Ecclesiastes 3:16; the corruption already alluded to is God’ s way of showing that man, despite his vaunt of intelligence, is really on a level with the beasts. They share the same breath, and when it leaves them, the same end, death. Note mg., reminding us of Solon’ s saying quoted by Herodotus, “ Man is altogether a chance.” In Psalms 49:12-Proverbs : it is only the unworthy man that perishes like the beasts; here all men. The one place ( Ecclesiastes 3:20) is not Sheol, but the earth whence all spring and whither all return.

Ecclesiastes 3:21 , like Ecclesiastes 3:9, throws a negative into the form of an interrogative. Qoheleth combats the idea that man’ s breath goes back to “ God who gave it” (though in changed mood he allows this in Ecclesiastes 12:7). No one can prove that it takes a direction different from that of the breath of beasts. No man knows what will happen after he is gone, so the best thing to do is to have a good time now.