Ecclesiastes 3:20

Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Ver. 20. All are of the dust.] {See Trapp on "Gen 3:19"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ecc 3:20-21. All go unto one place — To the earth, as it is expressed Ecc 3:21, out of which they were both taken. All turn to dust again — All their bodies, as it is explained Ecc 12:7. Who knoweth the spirit of a man — True it is, there is a difference, which is known by good men, but the generality of mankind never mind it; their hearts are wholly set on present and sensible things, and take no thought for the things of the future and invisible world.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:20 from dust . . . to dust: The Teacher refers to God’s judgment against human rebellion in Eden (see Gen 3:19).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 20. All go unto one place]

"Man was born

To die, nor aught exceeds in this respect

The vilest brute. Both transient, frail, and vain,

Draw the same breath; alike grow old, decay,

And then expire: both to one grave descend;

There blended lie, to native dust return'd."-C.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. All go unto one place] The “place” thus spoken of is not the Sheol of the Hebrews or the Hades of the Greeks, which implied, however vaguely, some notion of a shadowy disembodied existence, for the souls of men as distinct from those of brutes, but simply the earth as at once the mother, the nourisher, and the sepulchre of every form of life. So Lucretius, as a disciple of Epicurus, speaks (De Rer. Nat. v. 259) of earth as being

“Omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulcrum.”

“The mother and the sepulchre of all.”

all are of the dust] There is an obviously deliberate reference to the narrative of the Creation in Gen_2:7. To those who did not see below the surface, it seemed to affirm, as it did to the Sadducee, the denial of a life to come. “Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return” was the sentence passed, they might say, as on the brute creation, so on man also (Gen_3:19).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

All go unto one place,.... The earth (w) from whence they came;

all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again; Adam's body was made of the dust of the earth, and so all his posterity, all of them; in which they agree with beasts, who are made of the dust also; and, when they die, return to it; see Gen 2:7.

(w) "Magna parens terra est", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 7.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

All go unto one place; to the earth, as it is expressed, Ecc 3:21, out of which they were both taken.

All turn to dust again; which is meant only of their bodies, as it is explained, Ecc 12:7.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. All are of the dust — “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” The perishing and dissolution of the bodies of men and beasts are visibly similar. There can be no doubt about that. And how of the spirit?

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

All go unto one place. All, men and brutes, are buried in the. (Ecc_12:7) The author is not thinking of Sheol, the abode of departed spirits, but merely regarding earth as the universal tomb of all creatures. Plumptre quotes Lueretius, "De Rer. Nat.," 5:260

Omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulchrum.

The mother and the sepulcher of all.

Thus Bailey, "Festus

The course of nature seems a course of death; The prize of life"s brief race, to cease to run; The sole substantial thing, death"s nothingness.

All are of the dust (Gen_3:19; Psa_104:29 Psa_146:4) So Ecc 41:10, "All things that are of earth shall turn to earth again." This is true of the material part of men and brutes alike; the question of the destiny of the immaterial part is touched in the next verse.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

One place - To the earth, out of which they were taken. All turn - All their bodies.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

"All goes hence to one place; all has sprung out of the dust, and all returns to the dust again." The "one place" is (as at Ecc 6:6) the earth, the great graveyard which finally receives all the living when dead. The art. of the first העפר is that denoting species; the art. of the second is retrospective: to the dust whence he sprang (cf. Psa 104:29; Psa 146:4); otherwise, Gen 3:19 (cf. Job 34:15), "to dust shalt thou return," shalt become dust again. From dust to dust (Sir. 40:11; 41:10) is true of every living corporeal thing. It is true there exists the possibility that with the spirit of the dying man it may be different from what it is with the spirit of the dying beast, but yet that is open to question.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)