Ecclesiastes 9:12
For a man knoweth not his tyme: but like as the fishes are taken with the angle, and as the byrdes are caught with the snare: euen so are men taken in the perillous time, when it commeth sodaynly vpon them.
Bible (Bishops')
In The King James Version
In Context
13This wysdome haue I seene also vnder the sunne, and me thought it a great thing:
Cross References
Proverbs 7:22Sodainly he folowed her, as it were an oxe led to the slaughter, and lyke as it were a foole [that laugheth] when he goeth to the stockes to be punished,
Proverbs 29:6The sinne of the wicked is his owne snare: but the ryghteous doth syng and reioyce.
Ecclesiastes 8:8Neither is there any man that hath power ouer the spirite to kepe styll the spirite, nor to haue any power in the tyme of death, nor that can make an ende of the battayle, neither may vngodlynesse deliuer them that meddle withall.
Isaiah 30:13Therfore shall ye haue this mischiefe for your destruction and fall, like as an hye wall that falleth because of some rift or blast, whose breakyng commeth sodainly.
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 9:12-13
The Disappointment of Hopes. 11 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. 12 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. The preacher here, for a… Read the whole commentary →