Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 3:20
All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Preacher addresses humanity while reflecting on the shared biological fate of humans and animals, immediately following the observation that both groups possess the same breath and meet the same end.
The words — הַ/כֹּ֥ל (ha./Kol) means "everything" or "all," and הוֹלֵ֖ךְ (ho.Lekh) means "is going," establishing the verse’s claim that every living thing moves toward a single destination.
The thread — This motif of returning to dust appears in Genesis 3:19 as the consequence of the fall, in Job 34:15 as the mechanism of divine judgment, and in Ecclesiastes 12:7 as the final separation of body and spirit.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human existence shares a material origin and termination with all creatures, requiring readers to confront mortality without assuming a guaranteed postmortem destination.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Cross-references
- Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
- Job 34:15 all flesh would perish together and mankind would return to the dust.
- Ecclesiastes 12:7 before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Numbers 27:13 After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was;
- Job 7:9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.
- Job 10:9 Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
- Psalms 104:29 When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.
- Ecclesiastes 3:21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth?
- Ecclesiastes 6:6 even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?
- Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.