Ecclesiastes 9:12
For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.
Majority Standard Bible
In The King James Version
In Context
13I have also seen this wisdom under the sun, and it was great to me:
Cross References
Psalms 11:6On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.
Psalms 73:19How suddenly they are laid waste, completely swept away by terrors!
Proverbs 7:22He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap,
Proverbs 29:6An evil man is caught by his own sin, but a righteous one sings and rejoices.
Ecclesiastes 8:8As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
Isaiah 30:13this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!
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 →