Qoheleth passes judgment on this “common fate,” stating that This is an evil. Note that the demonstrative This seems to be pointing back to verse 2, though some versions consider it to point forward (New International Version, Jerusalem Bible, French Colombe).

An evil (raʿ) may also be expressed as an adjective “[this is] sad” or “calamitous.” On Qoheleth’s use of the term raʿ see comments in 2.17 under “grievous.” Good News Translation “wrong” gives the sense of some moral failure, an injustice. From a human viewpoint and from Israel’s traditional understanding of God’s justice, this may be the case; God is expected to make a clear distinction between good and evil. However, we should recognize Qoheleth’s normal word usage here and treat raʿ as the adjective describing a situation that is painful or distressing.

All that is done under the sun is similar to the phrase found in 8.17. The passive is done renders a participle in Hebrew, and the participle has no pronoun suffix. In other contexts we have suggested that this phrase can refer to what God does or to what human beings do. However, here it seems quite clear that Qoheleth is referring to death. Thus a passive or impersonal expression to be the best option: “all that happens,” “all that occurs,” “all that goes on.”

All can be thought of not so much as “everything” but rather as expressing “a large portion.” We have seen in examples like 7.15 that “all” can mean “so much” or “a great amount,” and that interpretation seems justified here.

Under the sun: see comments in 1.3.

Possible translations of the first part of the verse are:

• This is what is so painful about this life.

• That is what is so distressing about what goes on in this world.

That one fate comes to all: once again the key issue of a common fate is mentioned. See comments on verse 2 above. That can be brought out by saying “every living thing meets the same end” or “the same fate, death, comes to every living thing.”

The importance of this idea to Qoheleth’s argument can be highlighted by placing it at the beginning of the verse for emphasis if necessary, as in Good News Translation. In some cases it may be necessary to make the meaning of one fate clearer. We may say “all of us await the same fate—death!” or “every living person shares the same destiny. We all will die.”

Good News Translation translates the first clause “One fate comes to all alike, and this is as wrong as anything that happens in this world.” While it is good to rearrange the clause, the use of a comparison in the second part of the verse, “as wrong as anything,” may not provide a suitable model.

Also the hearts of men are full of evil introduces several additional observations. It looks only at human beings, not at all living things. We can use any appropriate introductory conjunction: “What’s more,” “Furthermore,” “In addition.” New Jerusalem Bible catches some of the emotion when it translates “Not only that, ….”

The hearts of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts: the structure of this sentence is clear. We again have a chiastic structure describing human beings.

However, the meaning of the sentence is harder to determine. Does the term evil have the same meaning as it does when used at the beginning of this verse (“painful” or “distressing”), or is it being used to speak of moral evil? The majority of versions in English take the word to mean literally “evil” (Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Revised English Bible, Good News Translation, and Contemporary English Version). For example, New Jerusalem Bible says “The human heart … is full of wickedness; folly lurks in our hearts….” This idea coincides well with New Testament teachings (in Romans, for example) but is not typical of Qoheleth’s thinking. He acknowledges that there are very few righteous and wise people in this world (7.20), but he seems to always keep a fundamental distinction between “the good” and “the evil,” and between “the wise” and “the fools.” New Jerusalem Bible translates both instances of evil in this verse as “sad” and seems to capture the meaning of the text: “That is the sad thing about all that goes on under the sun … men’s hearts are full of sadness, and their minds of madness….”

Thus there are two possible interpretations of these lines: either people are troubled when they think about some of the terrible things that happen in life (they are “sad”), or people are basically evil. Translators will have to decide which interpretation to follow, though the first idea seems more in keeping with Qoheleth’s thinking. Translators have the option of putting one meaning in the text and adding a footnote with the other possible meaning.

Men here is literally “sons of men.” See 1.13 for comments.

And madness is in their hearts while they live: on madness see comments on 1.17; it does not mean mental illness. Our translation of madness will depend on how we translate evil. If we think it means “painful” or “sad,” we may want to combine the two words: “People are full of sadness and distress.”

Hearts appears twice here. New Jerusalem Bible and Revised English Bible retain “hearts” for the first clause and substitute “minds” in the second: “minds full of madness.” New American Bible does the opposite: “minds … filled with evil and madness in their hearts.” Good News Translation uses “minds” in both contexts. Another possibility is to use an inclusive “we,” referring to all human beings.

In their hearts has two possible meanings. One is that people have this natural tendency. The other is that they reflect on or think about this subject of madness or folly—it is always on their minds. If this phrase is parallel to the previous one, then the second sense is appropriate. So we suggest Qoheleth means they are concerned all the time about the foolish things people do in this world.

While they live refers to something happening throughout a person’s life, hence Good News Translation “as long as people live….” Another possible rendering is “all their lives.”

Some possible translations of this part of the verse are:

• People’s hearts are filled with pain. All their lives they think about foolish things.*

• People have to face the sad, crazy things that happen throughout their lives.

A possible footnote is:
*Another possible meaning is: All their lives people are evil and foolish.

And after that they go to the dead: textual variations suggest that “their latter end,” or “after them,” should replace the present Hebrew text, literally “after it.” These proposed changes are attempts to smooth out what is a rough transition between this clause and the previous one. However, if the Hebrew text is correct, then the suffix “it” may simply mean “after all this” pondering of the problem, or “in the end.”

They go to the dead translates the Hebrew clause “to the dead ones.” It means, of course, that they “join the dead,” or as Good News Translation puts it, “they die.” People struggle to comprehend the great issue of justice in a world where death comes to all without reference to moral conduct, wisdom, or anything else. Having worried over this problem, then they die. The underlying sense of this statement is that they die without having resolved the problem. This may be rendered “then in the end they join the dead” or “but after all this they die.”

The entire verse may be rendered:

• This is the terrible thing that happens in this world. Every living being shares the same fate, death. What’s more, people worry all their lives about this sad and distressing situation, and then they too 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 .