Ecclesiastes 3:21

I have been thinking about the meanings of Ecclesiastes 3:21 for several days. To understand what the writer wanted to relay in the verse, I think I need to consider previous and following verses together.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity.

Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Ecc 3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

Ecc 3:22 Wherefore I perceive that [there is] nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that [is] his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

Here the writer is saying that the sons of men and beasts are pretty much the same and their fates are not much different. So when the writer says "Who knoweth" in verse 21, I think the writer was questionining the common belief that the destinations of the spirit of man and the spirit of the beast are different as he said in verse 20 that the man and the beast are of the dust.

Another thing to ponder is whether the beast possesses the spirit as the man does. The same Hebrew word "ruwach" was translated as spirit for both the man and for the beast. The concordance on the word is found at the Blue Letter Bible web site.

What I cannot conclude at this time is whether the writer was saying that the animal possessed the same spirit as the man as the same word ruwach is used in many verses in the Bible to talk about the spirit of the man.