Ecclesiastes 8:7

7 For he doesn't know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?

Ecclesiastes 8:7 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 8:7

For he knoweth not that which shall be
Or that "it shall be" ^F2; that he ever shall have the opportunity again he has lost, nor what is to come hereafter; what shall be on the morrow, or what shall befall him in the remaining part of his days; what troubles and sorrows he shall meet with, or what will be the case and circumstances of his family after his death; for who can tell him when it shall be?
or "how it shall be" ^F3? how it will be with him or his; no one that pretends to judicial astrology, or to the art of divination, or any such devices, can tell him what is to come; future things are only certainly known by God; none but he can tell what will certainly come to pass; see ( Ecclesiastes 3:22 ) ( 6:12 ) ; Jarchi interprets it of a man's not considering for what God will bring him to judgment, and that no man can tell him the vengeance and punishment that will be inflicted.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (hyhyv hm) "quod futurum est", Pagninus, Montanus.
F3 (hyhy rvak) "quo modo", Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus, Rambachius, so Broughton.

Ecclesiastes 8:7 In-Context

5 Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure.

6 For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him.

7 For he doesn't know that which will be; for who can tell him how it will be?

8 There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practices it.

9 All this have I seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.