Ecclesiastes 9:12
For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
Man does not know his appointed time and is overtaken without warning in a harmful season, caught as helplessly as fish taken in a harmful net and birds caught in a trap. The verse belongs among the proofs that the dead are unconscious, since men do not know when their time will come and may be caught by death suddenly. It comforts mourning for a young mother who died after great suffering from lingering illness, showing she has fallen asleep to rest in the blessed hope of a resurrection to a life free from pain, though a husband and little children are left to return to a lonely home. It is illustrated by a sudden accidental death that overtook a person who had left home in good health, showing how unexpected danger and death can be. It applies at a funeral to an unexpected death from cerebral hemorrhage, showing how sudden misfortune and death overtake people.
Ruin can seize people suddenly and the saloon is such a trap, since drinking can progress from beer to stronger liquor and on to drunkenness and destruction, so intoxicating drink must be avoided from the start because escape after being caught may be difficult. No one can know beforehand when God-given work will be finished or when life will end, so rest can come suddenly even when life seems only just begun, and what looks like defeat may be victory because a person may have reached the full limit of work and power without knowing it. Covetous people are held fast by their greed as surely as fish are held by a net when sudden trouble catches people. Their own grasping avarice keeps them from enjoying life and holds them as surely as a net holds fish, while they remain unable to escape the second death.