Ecclesiastes 9:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

There is a final state awaiting everyone—those who are righteous and those who are unrighteous, virtuous and immoral, pure and impure, devoted and indifferent. Both the pious and the transgressor, both the one who makes oaths and the one who refrains from them, share in this. This phenomenon, which is neither inherently good nor evil but deemed by the wise of this world as a mean, perplexes some simple thinkers who question its nature. Consequently, they assume that divine judgment is nonexistent, although a clear separation will eventually occur. In this life, however, all things are intertwined.

I once believed that all people ought to be regarded as deserving of the same fate. If someone is wise, diligently commits to acts of righteousness, turns away from unrighteousness, and carefully avoids hostility towards others, which is agreeable to God, I thought their efforts might be in vain. It appeared to me that there was no distinction between the righteous and the wicked, the good and the evil, the pure and the impure, or in the act of offering a sacrificial gift to God versus not making any offering at all. When the unrighteous and the virtuous, as well as those who take oaths and those who completely renounce them, rush toward the same end, a troubling thought took root in my mind: that all meet the same fate in the end. However, I now recognize that these are thoughts of the foolishness of mankind, mere illusions and lies.

It is profoundly troubling that in our world, both the righteous and the wicked face the same ultimate destiny, which leads the latter to a sense of arrogance (9: 1-3). Mortality strikes all, signaling the end of existence for everyone (4-6), thereby affirming the principle of enjoying the gifts of God in life and in material blessings. So, relish your days and the resources you hold while they are yours, without undue concern, for if misfortune is destined for you, it will surely come, and if it is not, you cannot predict it or know the duration of your time here (7-10).