Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 8:7
Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses humanity within a discourse on royal authority and human limitation. He poses the question at a moment that highlights how heavy misery complicates the appointed times and procedures for every purpose.
The words — The Hebrew phrase אֵינֶ֥נּוּ יֹדֵ֖עַ (einenu yoḏeʿaʿ) literally means "not is knowing" or "he does not know." It anchors the verse’s assertion of universal ignorance regarding what will happen.
The thread — This theme of unknown futures appears in Ecclesiastes 10:14, where the fool’s multiplication of words contrasts with human inability to predict what comes. It echoes Proverbs 24:22, which warns that sudden destruction’s ruin remains unknowable.
Why it lands — The text states that no one knows what will happen and no one can tell another what is to come. It asks readers to abandon claims of certainty and submit to the reality that human foresight is fundamentally limited.
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
For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 10:14 Yet the fool multiplies words. No one knows what is coming, and who can tell him what will come after him?
- Proverbs 24:22 For they will bring sudden destruction. Who knows what ruin they can bring?
- Ecclesiastes 6:12 For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?
- Ecclesiastes 9:12 For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.
- Matthew 24:50 The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate.
- Ecclesiastes 3:22 I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?
- Matthew 24:44 For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.
- Matthew 25:6 At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
- Proverbs 29:1 A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:1 Now about the times and seasons, brothers, we do not need to write to you.