Ecclesiastes 6:12

Authorized King James Version (1611)

For who knoweth what [is] good for man in [this] life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

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Referenced Verses

  • Job 14:2 : 2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
  • Eccl 3:22 : 22 Wherefore I perceive that [there is] nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that [is] his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
  • Lam 3:24-27 : 24 The LORD [is] my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25 The LORD [is] good unto them that wait for him, to the soul [that] seeketh him. 26 [It is] good that [a man] should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. 27 [It is] good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
  • Jas 4:14 : 14 Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
  • Eccl 8:7 : 7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
  • Eccl 8:13 : 13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong [his] days, [which are] as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
  • Ps 144:4 : 4 Man is like to vanity: his days [are] as a shadow that passeth away.
  • Ps 39:5-6 : 5 Behold, thou hast made my days [as] an handbreadth; and mine age [is] as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state [is] altogether vanity. Selah. 6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up [riches], and knoweth not who shall gather them.
  • Ps 47:4 : 4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
  • Ps 89:47 : 47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
  • Ps 90:10-12 : 10 The days of our years [are] threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength [they be] fourscore years, yet [is] their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, [so is] thy wrath. 12 ¶ So teach [us] to number our days, that we may apply [our] hearts unto wisdom.
  • Ps 102:11 : 11 My days [are] like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
  • Ps 109:23 : 23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.
  • Job 14:21 : 21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth [it] not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth [it] not of them.
  • Ps 4:6 : 6 ¶ [There be] many that say, Who will shew us [any] good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
  • Ps 16:5 : 5 The LORD [is] the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.
  • Ps 17:15 : 15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
  • Eccl 2:3 : 3 I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what [was] that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.
  • 1 Chr 29:15 : 15 For we [are] strangers before thee, and sojourners, as [were] all our fathers: our days on the earth [are] as a shadow, and [there is] none abiding.
  • Job 8:9 : 9 (For we [are but of] yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth [are] a shadow:)
  • Eccl 9:6 : 6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any [thing] that is done under the sun.
  • Eccl 12:13 : 13 ¶ Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.
  • Mic 6:8 : 8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Eccl 6:1-11
    11 verses
    86%

    1 ¶ There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it [is] common among men:

    2 A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease.

    3 If a man beget an hundred [children], and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also [that] he have no burial; I say, [that] an untimely birth [is] better than he.

    4 For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

    5 Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known [any thing]: this hath more rest than the other.

    6 Yea, though he live a thousand years twice [told], yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?

    7 ¶ All the labour of man [is] for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

    8 For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?

    9 Better [is] the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this [is] also vanity and vexation of spirit.

    10 That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it [is] man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.

    11 ¶ Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what [is] man the better?

  • Eccl 2:15-26
    12 verses
    83%

    15 Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also [is] vanity.

    16 For [there is] no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now [is] in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise [man]? as the fool.

    17 ¶ Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun [is] grievous unto me: for all [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.

    18 Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

    19 And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise [man] or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This [is] also vanity.

    20 Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun.

    21 For there is a man whose labour [is] in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it [for] his portion. This also [is] vanity and a great evil.

    22 For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?

    23 For all his days [are] sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

    24 [There is] nothing better for a man, [than] that he should eat and drink, and [that] he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it [was] from the hand of God.

    25 For who can eat, or who else can hasten [hereunto], more than I?

    26 For [God] giveth to a man that [is] good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to [him that is] good before God. This also [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.

  • Eccl 1:2-3
    2 verses
    82%

    2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all [is] vanity.

    3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

  • Eccl 8:6-7
    2 verses
    81%

    6 ¶ Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man [is] great upon him.

    7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

  • Eccl 3:21-22
    2 verses
    80%

    21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

    22 Wherefore I perceive that [there is] nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that [is] his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

  • 17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek [it] out, yet he shall not find [it]; yea further; though a wise [man] think to know [it], yet shall he not be able to find [it].

  • 12 I know that [there is] no good in them, but for [a man] to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

  • 8 But if a man live many years, [and] rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh [is] vanity.

  • 4 Man is like to vanity: his days [are] as a shadow that passeth away.

  • 6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up [riches], and knoweth not who shall gather them.

  • Eccl 2:11-12
    2 verses
    77%

    11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all [was] vanity and vexation of spirit, and [there was] no profit under the sun.

    12 ¶ And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what [can] the man [do] that cometh after the king? [even] that which hath been already done.

  • 8 ¶ Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all [is] vanity.

  • 16 [There is] no end of all the people, [even] of all that have been before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.

  • 19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity.

  • 16 And this also [is] a sore evil, [that] in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?

  • 15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.

  • 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all [is] vanity and vexation of spirit.

  • Eccl 9:9-10
    2 verses
    75%

    9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that [is] thy portion in [this] life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.

    10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do [it] with thy might; for [there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

  • 18 ¶ Behold [that] which I have seen: [it is] good and comely [for one] to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it [is] his portion.

  • 3 Yea, better [is he] than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

  • 3 This [is] an evil among all [things] that are done under the sun, that [there is] one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness [is] in their heart while they live, and after that [they go] to the dead.

  • 8 There is one [alone], and [there is] not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet [is there] no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither [saith he], For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This [is] also vanity, yea, it [is] a sore travail.

  • 1 ¶ 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.

  • 14 Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.