Translations
KJVPrimary
King James VersionFor 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?
F.O.G.Secondary
The F.O.GFor who knows what is truly good for a person in life — in the numbered days of his vaporous existence, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell him what will come after him under the sun?
F.O.G.M.
F.O.G MessageFor who can truly know what is good for a man during the brief, numbered days of his life — days he passes through like a shadow? And who can tell him what will come after him under the sun?
BSB
Berean Standard BibleFor 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?
Footnotes
יְמֵי-חַיֵּי הֶבְלוֹ — literally "the days of the life of his hebel" — the genitive construction makes vapour the defining quality of existence itself, not merely a descriptor of its brevity; F.O.G renders this with "his vaporous existence" to hold that force. כַּצֵּל (katzzel, "like a shadow") is a recurring biblical motif for transience (cf. Ps. 102:11; Job 8:9; 1 Chr. 29:15). The double question that closes the chapter — what is good? and what comes after? — strips humanity of both a reliable guide for living and any knowledge of what lies beyond death, leaving the reader in a posture of deep epistemic humility before the mystery of existence under the sun.
