Ecclesiastes 3:18-22

¹⁸ I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.”

¹⁹ For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity.

²⁰ All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.

²¹ Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?

²² So I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

tests (v.18) — God tests men to show them that, without Him, they are nothing more than animals.

Since the Fall (Genesis 3:19) man, like the beast, is on his journey from dust to dust. Man, who fancies himself to be like God, is in reality more like the beast. …

Many commentators portray [the] Preacher here as a confused figure who is uncertain of man’s destiny after death. Those interpreters who maintain that the author is expressing doubt here have the author contradicting himself, for in Ecclesiastes 12:7 he claims that the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. [It could be translated] “There are not many who take to heart as they ought to the fact that the spirit of man goeth upward, and that the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth.” — KJV Commentary, page 741.

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The Hebrews commonly believed that the spirit of an animal was different from that of a man. When the breath of life departed from an animal, it died, and its carcass was returned to the ground—that was the end of its existence. When the breath of life departed from man, his body also was returned to the ground, but his spirit returned to God from whence it came (Genesis 2:7). So, while this belief was commonly accepted, Solomon asked, “Does anyone really know for sure if this is what happens?” … Solomon himself [knew] for sure that man’s spirit returned to God as evidenced by Ecclesiastes 12:7, but he posed the question here as one looking at life “under the sun,” i.e., a life lived from a temporal, man-centered point of view. — Grace, page 1171.

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The question in verse 21 not only declares that man is wholly unable to discover what lies beyond death, but the form of the question implies that he does not wish to know. A similar question is: “Who hath believed our report?” (Isaiah 53:1). The answer is, no one: for none wished to believe it. 

The fact of death, and the darkness that lies beyond, impenetrable by man, turn into vanity and vexation of spirit all man’s efforts to make this world a satisfying portion. — Williams, page 441.

If, as most men profess to believe, there is nothing after death, than no matter what sort of spin they try to put on it, they are simply animals.