'Happens' in the Bible

The wise man can see where he is going, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also realized that the same fate happens to them both.

So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?” And I said to myself that this is also futile.

So I loathed life because what happens on earth seems awful to me; for all the benefits of wisdom are futile -- like chasing the wind.

I said to myself, “This happens concerning people, so that God may test them and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.”

For what happens to people also happens to animals a single event happens to them: just as someone dies, so does the other. In fact, they all breathe the same way, so that a human being has no superiority over an animal. All of this is pointless.

Whatever has happened was foreordained, and what happens to a person was also foreknown. It is useless for him to argue with God about his fate because God is more powerful than he is.

While applying my mind to everything that happens in this world, I have seen all this: Sometimes one person dominates other people to their harm.

Here is a pointless thing that happens on earth: A righteous man receives what happens to the wicked, and a wicked man receives what happens to the righteous. I concluded that this, too, is pointless.

I saw all of it as the activity of God. Frankly, a human being cannot understand what happens on earth, because however hard a man works to discover it, he will not find out. Despite what he thinks he knows, he will not be able to figure it out.

Everyone shares the same fate -- the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the ceremonially clean and unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. What happens to the good person, also happens to the sinner; what happens to those who make vows, also happens to those who are afraid to make vows.

There is a tragedy that infects everything that happens on earth: a common event happens to everyone. In fact, the hearts of human beings are full of evil. Madness remains in their hearts while they live, and afterwards they join the dead.

Furthermore, their love, their hate, and their envy have been long lost. Never again will they have a part in what happens on earth.