Because human beings have authority over the animal world and creation generally (see Genesis 1 and 2), it is assumed that there is some fundamental distinction between human beings and animals. Qoheleth has raised doubts that there is any meaningful distinction, since death is common to all. However, that still allows him to ask whether there is some distinction possible after death.

The rhetorical question Who knows…? suggests that no one knows, that none can answer the question. Qoheleth is commenting (rather than asking) that we can never know what happens after we die. However, the fact that he asks the question in this way is consistent with our assessment of his purpose, namely, to probe beyond the present, even if he is not able to answer definitely whether “lasting benefit” does indeed lie beyond the present.

For spirit see comments on verse 19. In some cultures human beings are thought of as having a spirit element that leaves the body at death, but animals may not be thought of in this same way. That is, the same word for “spirit” cannot be used for both human beings and animals. In this case the translator may be forced to express these ideas a little differently, perhaps as a verbal phrase, “when human beings die they go … and when an animal dies it….”

Goes upward … goes down to the earth is language that rests on the idea that God is in heaven and that heaven is “up.” The dead pass to Sheol, which is “down” in the ground and below it. Using direction words “up” and “down” may not be meaningful in some cultures; if this is the case we may simply say “where God dwells,” and “to Sheol.”

When Good News Translation says “How can anyone be sure…?” it seems to suggest that people and animals go to different places after death, and that the only difficulty is proving it. Qoheleth’s position is slightly different, asserting that no one knows whether there is such a distinction.

Translators can preserve the question form or use a negative statement such as:

• Nobody knows [or, can know] whether the human spirit rises upwards [to Heaven] and the spirit of the beasts descends to Sheol [or, into the earth].

Other examples of ways to translate are:

• No one knows for sure that when a person dies, he [or, that person] goes to heaven, and when an animal dies, it goes down into the earth.

• Some say the souls of humans go up to heaven and the souls of animals go down in the earth, but who really knows what happens after we die?

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Ecclesiates. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .