The third imperative do it urges readers to get on with the task of living and working enthusiastically.

Whatever your hand finds to do is placed first, before the imperative, for emphasis. The phrase finds to do is an idiom for being able to do something, as in 1 Sam 10.7. Whatever means “everything.” Qoheleth uses the noun phrase your hand to mean “you.” He is thinking not only of what a person can do using the hands, but of all that can be done in general. We can translate as “whatever you are able to do.” Good News Translation “whatever you do” lacks the sense of being able to do things. New American Bible is close to the Hebrew with an English idiom, “anything you can turn your hand to.” Similar idioms may exist in other languages. In some cases such general statements are expressed in conditional clauses: “If you have some thing to do, do it….”

Do it with your might calls for intense and enthusiastic action. The adverbial phrase with your might is literally “by [or, with] your strength” and means the use of all your energies, intellectual and physical. Both aspects are found in the examples that follow. We can express its meaning as “Whatever you are able to do, do it wholeheartedly.” The translator should be able to find an idiomatic expression to indicate this wholeheartedness.

For there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol: this statement turns us back to verse 5, where it is noted that the dead “know nothing.” The motive for working energetically is that after death there are no further opportunities for work. This reminds us again of how work is central to Qoheleth’s definition of a meaningful life. Once in Sheol, four things are no longer possible. These are introduced by the negative “there is no….” The first is described by the term work. Though in other examples this is a general term, in this context it probably has a narrower meaning, referring to the kind of work the wise person did. However, in translation the general term “work” can also be used.

Thought is similar to what the philosopher does. See comments on 7.25, where the same word is translated “the sum of things.” New American Bible uses “reason.” We can also say “drawing logical conclusions” or “making logical deductions.” Knowledge is the term for “information,” while wisdom is the standard term for what the wise men taught.

These last three nouns summarize the concerns of the wise. Although Hebrew uses nouns here, each is actually an activity, so verbs can be used in our translation. If we take this approach we will have to name the agent: “the dead…” or “dead people….” We can render the sense as “For the dead don’t work, they don’t think things through, they don’t gather information, nor do they hand on the teachings of the wise….”

In Sheol: the Old Testament speaks of a person going down after death “to Sheol,” the place of departed spirits; see, for example, Psa 88.3-4. Sheol is also known as “the Pit,” “Abaddon,” “the grave,” “the land of forgetfulness,” “the darkness” (see Psa 88.11-12). Translators may have trouble translating the idea here if there is a clash of ideas between their world-view and the broad biblical understanding. Good News Translation suggests “the world of the dead,” while New American Bible has “the netherworld.” Both are alternatives to borrowing the Hebrew term “Sheol” in our translation, as Revised Standard Version does. Another possible solution is to avoid all reference to both the place and the name, and refer directly to death itself by saying “after death” or “after you die.” (In this case some adjustment may be needed in the next clause also.)

To which you are going is a reminder to the living that there is only one destination toward which every living being is moving. The use of the Hebrew participle going and the ending on the Hebrew adverb translated “there” stress this movement toward death or the place of the dead. We can use the verb “to head for” or some such verb expressing movement.

Revised Standard Version reflects the Hebrew order of clauses in this part of the verse, which has quite a dramatic effect. However, in other languages it may be much more effective to change this order; for example,

• Because in Sheol, where you are going, there’s no more working, no more reasoning, no more knowing, no more being wise!

• For in the place of the dead, nobody works, they don’t think, they aren’t wise, they don’t know anything—and that is where you’re headed!

New Jerusalem Bible provides another acceptable model for the whole verse:

• Whatever it is in your power to do, do with all your might. For there is no action, no reasoning, no learning, no wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.

As a further alternative we can suggest:

• So everything that you are able to do, do it with all your heart, because where you’re headed, you will not be able to do anything—to think, to find out anything, or to become wise.

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 .