Ecclesiastes 12:14
For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Study Note
Study Note
The ultimate eschatological warning — 'for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil' — provides the comprehensive ground for the preceding injunction to fear God and keep commandments. The phrase 'every secret thing' (kol ne'lam) extends divine judgment beyond publicly visible actions to the hidden motivations, private transactions, and concealed thoughts that human courts cannot access. The book's wisdom, which had documented the vanity of all human achievement, concludes not with nihilism but with moral accountability: the same God who controls life's brevity also evaluates its quality. Matthew 12:36 ('every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account') and Romans 2:16 ('God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ') develop the same theology of comprehensive eschatological accountability.
Other Translations
For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
For every work doth God bring into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether good or bad.'
God will be judge of every work, with every secret thing, good or evil.
Cross References
Before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, …
I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for …
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and …
Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be …
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the …
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he …
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon …
For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, …