Ecclesiastes 9:1

All these things have I considered in my heart, that I might carefully understand them: there are just men and wise men, and their works are in the hand of God: and yet man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love, or hatred:

Douay-Rheims 1899

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

2But all things are kept uncertain for the time to come, because all things equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the good and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean, to him that offereth victims, and to him that despiseth sacrifices. As the good is, so also is the sinner: as the perjured, so he also that sweareth truth.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 9

Cross References

Deuteronomy 33:3He hath loved the people, all the saints are in his hand: and they that approach to his feet, shall receive of his doctrine.

2 Samuel 15:25And the king said to Sadoc: Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find grace in the sight of the Lord, he will bring me again, and he will shew me it, and his tabernacle.

Job 12:10In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man.

Psalms 37:5Commit thy way to the Lord, and trust in him, and he will do it.

Psalms 73:11And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 9:1

Solomon, in this chapter, for a further proof of the vanity of this world, gives us four observations which he had made upon a survey of the state of the children of men in it:—I. He observed that commonly as to outward things, good and bad men fare much alike, ver. 1-3 . II. That death puts a final period to all our employments and enjoyments in this world ( ver. 4-6 ), whence he infers that it is our wisdom to enjoy the comforts of life and mind the business of life, while it lasts, ver. 7-10 . III. That God's… Read the whole commentary →

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