Ecclesiastes 3:19 - Exposition

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts ; literally, chance are the sons of men , and chance are beasts (see on Ecclesiastes 2:14 ); Septuagint, " Yea , and to them cometh the event ( συνάντηημα ) of the sons of men, and the event of the beast ." Koheleth explains in what respect man is on a level with the brute creation. Neither are able to rise superior to the law that controls their natural life. So Solon says to Croesus (Herod; 1:32), πᾶν ἐστι ἄνθρωπος συμφορή , "Man is naught but chance;" and Artabanns reminds Xerxes that chances rule men, not men chances (ibid; 7:49). Even one thing befalleth them . A third time is the ominous word repeated, "One chance is to both of them." Free-thinkers perverted this dictum into the materialistic language quoted in the Book of Wisdom (2. 2): "We are born at haphazard, by chance ( αὐτοσχεδιώς Language:English}); etc. But Koheleth's contention is, not that there is no law or order in what happens to man, but that neither man nor beast can dispose events at their own will and pleasure; they are conditioned by a force superior to them, which dominates their actions, sufferings, and circumstances of life. As the one dieth, so dieth the other . In the matter of succumbing to the law of death man has no superiority over other creatures. This is an inference drawn from common observation of exterior facts, and touches not any higher question (comp. Ecclesiastes 2:14 , Ecclesiastes 2:15 ; Ecclesiastes 9:2 , Ecclesiastes 9:3 ). Something similar is found in Psalms 49:20 , "Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." Yea, they have all one breath ( ruach ). This is the word used in verse 23 for the vital principle, "the breath of life," as it is called in Genesis 6:17 , where the same word is found. In the earlier record ( Genesis 2:7 ) the term is nishma . Life in all animals is regarded as the gift of God. Says the psalmist, "Thou sendest forth thy spirit ( ruach ), they are created" ( Psalms 104:30 ). This lower principle presents the same phenomena in men and in brutes. Man hath no pre-eminence above a beast ; i . e . in regard to suffering and death. This is not bare materialism, or a gloomy deduction from Greek teaching, but must be explained from the writer's standpoint, which is to emphasize the impotence of man to effect his own happiness. Taking only a limited and phenomenal view of man's circumstances and destiny, he speaks a general truth which all must acknowledge. Septuagint, "And what hath the man more than the beast? Nothing." For all is vanity . The distinction between man and beast is annulled by death; the former's boasted superiority, his power of conceiving and planning, his greatness, skill, strength. cunning, all come under the category of vanity, as they cannot ward off the inevitable blow.