12For who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone?


In Context

9 Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

10 Whatever exists has already been named, and what man is has been known; no man can contend with one who is stronger than he.

11 The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?

12 For who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone?

Ecclesiastes 6:12 in Other Translations

The King James Version of the Holy Bible

6:12For 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?

The Douay-Rheims Version of the Holy Bible

6:12What needeth a man to seek things that are above him, whereas he knoweth not what is profitable for him in his life, in all the days of his pilgrimage, and the time that passeth like a shadow? Or who can tell him what shall be after him under the sun?

The American Standard Version of the Holy Bible

6:12For who knoweth what is good for man in his 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?

The Darby Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

6:12For who knoweth what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell man what shall be after him under the sun?

The English Revised Version of the Holy Bible

6:12For who knoweth what is good for man in his 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?

The Webster Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

6:12For 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?

The World English Bible Translation of the Holy Bible

6:12For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

The Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible

6:12For who knoweth what is good for a man in life, the number of the days of the life of his vanity, and he maketh them as a shadow? for who declareth to man what is after him under the sun?

The American King James Version of the Holy Bible

6:12For who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?