Ecclesiastes 9:12

The Message

No one can predict misfortune. Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds in a trap, So men and women are caught By accidents evil and sudden.

Cross References

Proverbs 29:6

Evil people fall into their own traps; good people run the other way, glad to escape.

Ecclesiastes 3:19

Humans and animals come to the same end—humans die, animals die. We all breathe the same air. So there’s really no advantage in being human. None. Everything’s smoke. We all end up in the same place—we all came from dust, we all end up as dust. Nobody knows for sure that the human spirit rises to heaven or that the animal spirit sinks into the earth. So I made up my mind that there’s nothing better for us men and women than to have a good time in whatever we do—that’s our lot. Who knows if there’s anything else to life?

Ecclesiastes 8:11

Because the sentence against evil deeds is so long in coming, people in general think they can get by with murder.

Ecclesiastes 8:8

No one can control the wind or lock it in a box. No one has any say-so regarding the day of death. No one can stop a battle in its tracks. No one who does evil can be saved by evil.

Ecclesiastes 9:13

One day as I was observing how wisdom fares on this earth, I saw something that made me sit up and take notice. There was a small town with only a few people in it. A strong king came and mounted an attack, building trenches and attack posts around it. There was a poor but wise man in that town whose wisdom saved the town, but he was promptly forgotten. (He was only a poor man, after all.)

Ezekiel 32:3

“‘God, the Master, says: “‘I’m going to throw my net over you —many nations will get in on this operation— and haul you out with my dragnet. I’ll dump you on the ground out in an open field And bring in all the crows and vultures for a sumptuous carrion lunch. I’ll invite wild animals from all over the world to gorge on your guts. I’ll scatter hunks of your meat in the mountains and strew your bones in the valleys. The country, right up to the mountains, will be drenched with your blood, your blood filling every ditch and channel. When I blot you out, I’ll pull the curtain on the skies and shut out the stars. I’ll throw a cloud across the sun and turn off the moonlight. I’ll turn out every light in the sky above you and put your land in the dark. Decree of God, the Master. I’ll shake up everyone worldwide when I take you off captive to strange and far-off countries. I’ll shock people with you. Kings will take one look and shudder. I’ll shake my sword and they’ll shake in their boots. On the day you crash, they’ll tremble, thinking, “That could be me!”

Luke 12:20

“Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?’

Luke 12:39

“You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be lazy and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.”

2 Peter 2:12

These people are nothing but brute beasts, born in the wild, predators on the prowl. In the very act of bringing down others with their ignorant blasphemies, they themselves will be brought down, losers in the end. Their evil will boomerang on them. They’re so despicable and addicted to pleasure that they indulge in wild parties, carousing in broad daylight. They’re obsessed with adultery, compulsive in sin, seducing every vulnerable soul they come upon. Their specialty is greed, and they’re experts at it. Dead souls!