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Read the Bible
THE MESSAGE
Ecclesiastes 12:7
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalDevotionals:
- ChipParallel Translations
and the dust returns to the earth as it once was,and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
And the dust returns to the eretz as it was, And the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
You will turn back into the dust of the earth again, but your spirit will return to God who gave it.
then the dust [out of which God made man's body] will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
And the dust returns to the earth as it was, And the spirit returns to God who gave it.
And dust returne to the earth as it was, and the spirit returne to God that gaue it.
then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
before the dust returns to the ground from which it came, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
So our bodies return to the earth, and the life-giving breath returns to God.
the dust returns to earth, as it was, and the spirit returns to God, who gave it!
and the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return unto God who gave it.
Your body came from the earth. And when you die, it will return to the earth. But your spirit came from God, and when you die, it will return to him.
Then the dust shall return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.
Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.
And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.
then the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.
Or dust be turned againe vnto earth from whence it came, and or the sprete returne vnto God, which gaue it.
and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.
And the dust goes back to the earth as it was, and the spirit goes back to God who gave it.
And the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.
Then shall the dust returne to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall returne vnto God who gaue it.
Then shall the dust be turned agayne vnto earth from whence it came, and the spirite shall returne vnto God who gaue it.
before the dust also return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return to God who gave it.
and the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return unto God who gave it.
and dust turne ayen in to his erthe, wherof it was, and the spirit turne ayen to God, that yaf it.
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the life's breath returns to God who gave it.
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was. And the spirit will return to God Who gave it.
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.
And the dust return to the earth, as it was, - and, the spirit, return unto God, who gave it.
And the dust return into its earth, from whence it was, and the spirit return to God, who gave it.
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
And the dust returneth to the earth as it was, And the spirit returneth to God who gave it.
then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
dust: Ecclesiastes 3:20, Genesis 3:19, Genesis 18:27, Job 4:19, Job 4:20, Job 7:21, Job 20:11, Job 34:14, Job 34:15, Psalms 90:3, Psalms 146:4, Daniel 12:2
the spirit: Ecclesiastes 3:21
God: Genesis 2:7, Numbers 16:22, Numbers 27:16, Isaiah 57:16, Jeremiah 38:16, Zechariah 12:1, Hebrews 12:9, Hebrews 12:23
Reciprocal: Genesis 5:5 - and he died Genesis 15:15 - And thou Genesis 23:4 - burying place Genesis 23:19 - General Genesis 49:33 - and yielded Genesis 50:5 - bury me Genesis 50:24 - I die Job 1:21 - Naked came Job 3:19 - The small Job 10:9 - into dust again Job 21:33 - every man Job 26:4 - whose spirit Psalms 49:14 - they Psalms 49:19 - He Psalms 89:48 - What Psalms 103:14 - we are dust Psalms 104:29 - thou takest Ecclesiastes 6:6 - do Ecclesiastes 9:3 - after Isaiah 57:2 - He shall Zechariah 1:5 - General Malachi 2:15 - the spirit Luke 24:39 - for 1 Corinthians 7:29 - that both Hebrews 9:27 - as James 2:26 - as
Cross-References
Noah built an altar to God . He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, "I'll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but I'll never again kill off everything living as I've just done.
He moved on from there to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there and prayed to God .
Abram kept moving, steadily making his way south, to the Negev.
Abram moved his tent. He went and settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to God .
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God showed up and said to him, "I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! I'll make a covenant between us and I'll give you a huge family."
Overwhelmed, Abram fell flat on his face. Then God said to him, "This is my covenant with you: You'll be the father of many nations. Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, meaning that ‘I'm making you the father of many nations.' I'll make you a father of fathers—I'll make nations from you, kings will issue from you. I'm establishing my covenant between me and you, a covenant that includes your descendants, a covenant that goes on and on and on, a covenant that commits me to be your God and the God of your descendants. And I'm giving you and your descendants this land where you're now just camping, this whole country of Canaan, to own forever. And I'll be their God."
God appeared to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent. It was the hottest part of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing. He ran from his tent to greet them and bowed before them.
They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son.
Isaac built an altar there and prayed, calling on God by name. He pitched his tent and his servants started digging another well.
Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God , the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you."
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was,.... The body, which is made of dust, and is no other in its present state than dust refined and enlivened; and when the above things take place, mentioned in Ecclesiastes 12:6, or at death, it returns to its original earth; it becomes immediately a clod of earth, a lifeless lump of clay, and is then buried in the earth, where it rots, corrupts, and turns into it; which shows the frailty of man, and may serve to humble his pride, as well as proves that death is not an annihilation even of the body; see Genesis 3:19;
and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it; from whom it is, by whom it is created, who puts it into the bodies of men, as a deposit urn they are entrusted with, and are accountable for, and should be concerned for the safety and salvation of it; this was originally breathed into man at his first creation, and is now formed within him by the Lord; hence he is called the God of the spirits of all flesh; see Genesis 2:4. Now at death the soul, or spirit of man, returns to God; which if understood of the souls of men in general, it means that at death they return to God the Judge of all, who passes sentence on them, and orders those that are good to the mansions of bliss and happiness, and those that are evil to hell and destruction. So the Targum adds,
"that it may stand in judgment before the Lord;''
or if only of the souls of good men, the sense is, that they then return to God, not only as their Creator, but as their covenant God and Father, to enjoy his presence evermore; and to Christ their Redeemer, to be for ever with him, than which nothing is better and more desirable; this shows that the soul is immortal, and dies not with the body, nor sleeps in the grave with it, but is immediately with God. Agreeably to all this Aristotle w says, the mind, or soul, alone enters θυραθεν, from without, (from heaven, from God there,) and only is divine; and to the same purpose are the words of Phocylides x,
"the body we have of the earth, and we all being resolved into it become dust, but the air or heaven receives the spirit.''
And still more agreeably to the sentiment of the wise man here, another Heathen y writer observes, that the ancients were of opinion that souls are given of God, and are again returned unto him after death.
w De Generat. Animal. l. 2. c. 3. x σωμα γαρ εκ γαιης, &c. Poem. Admon. v. 102, 103. So Lucretius l. 2. "cedit item retro de terra", &c. y Macrob. Saturnal. l. I. c. 10.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The spirit - i. e., The spirit separated unto God from the body at death. No more is said here of its future destiny. To return to God, who is the fountain Psalms 36:9 of Life, certainly means to continue to live. The doctrine of life after death is implied here as in Exodus 3:6 (compare Mark 12:26), Psalms 17:15 (see the note), and in many other passages of Scripture earlier than the age of Solomon. The inference that the soul loses its personality and is absorbed into something else has no warrant in this or any other statement in this book, and would be inconsistent with the announcement of a judgment after death Ecclesiastes 12:14.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Ecclesiastes 12:7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God —
5. Putrefaction and solution take place; the whole mass becomes decomposed, and in process of time is reduced to dust, from which it was originally made; while the spirit, הרוח haruach, that spirit, which God at first breathed into the nostrils of man, when he in consequence became a LIVING SOUL, an intelligent, rational, discoursing animal, returns to God who gave it. Here the wise man makes a most evident distinction between the body and the soul: they are not the same; they are not both matter. The body, which is matter, returns to dust, its original; but the spirit, which is immaterial, returns to God. It is impossible that two natures can be more distinct, or more emphatically distinguished. The author of this book was not a materialist.
Thus ends this affecting, yet elegant and finished, picture of OLD AGE and DEATH. See a description of old age similar, but much inferior, to this, in the Agamemnon of AEschylus, v. 76-82.
It has been often remarked that the circulation of the blood, which has been deemed a modern discovery by our countryman Dr. Harvey, in 1616, was known to Solomon, or whoever was the author of this book: the fountains, cisterns, pitcher, and wheel, giving sufficient countenance to the conclusion.
