Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageWhatever your hands find to do, throw yourself into it completely — because in Sheol, where you are headed, there is no work, no planning, no knowledge, no wisdom whatsoever.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GWhatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength — for in She'ol, where you are going, there is no work, no reckoning, no knowledge, no wisdom.
KJV
King James VersionWhatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleWhatever 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.
Footnotes
שְׁאוֹל (She'ol/Sheol) is the Hebrew underworld — not a place of punishment but the shadowy realm of silence and stillness (cf. Job 10:21–22; Ps. 88:12). Qohelet invokes it not as threat but as motivation. חֶשְׁבּוֹן (cheshbon, "reckoning/calculation/deliberation") implies purposeful strategic thought — the kind of engaged reasoning that makes work meaningful. Its absence in Sheol gives every present act a weight it would not otherwise carry.
