Ecclesiastes 9:3

This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The author addresses readers immediately after establishing that righteousness and wickedness share the same physical destiny. He uses this observation to characterize the universal condition of human life.

The words — זֶה (zeh) means "this," and רָע (ra') denotes "evil," forming the opening claim that shared mortality and moral corruption define existence under the sun.

The thread — The passage’s diagnosis of human corruption runs parallel to Jeremiah 17:9 and Ecclesiastes 8:11, while its framing of earthly pursuits as ultimately empty aligns with Ecclesiastes 1:17.

Why it lands — The text requires acknowledgment that moral failure and death are inescapable facts of life under the sun. It forces the reader to confront the limits of human agency and the urgency of living while opportunity remains.

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

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.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Ecclesiastes 8:11 When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.
Ecclesiastes 1:17 So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.
Job 15:16 how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?
Psalms 51:5 Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
Romans 1:29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
Titus 3:3 For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
Genesis 8:21 When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
Proverbs 14:32 The wicked man is thrown down by his own sin, but the righteous man has a refuge even in death.
Ecclesiastes 7:25 I directed my mind to understand, to explore, to search out wisdom and explanations, and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the folly of madness.