‘For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hatred, man does not know it. Everything is before them. All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean and to the unclean, to him who sacrifices and to him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner. And he who swears as he who fears oaths.'
As a wise man he ‘laid to his heart' (decided firmly in his heart), for the purposes of exploring it further, that the righteous and the wise, together with their doings, are in the hand of God. But what holds them there, whether it be love or hate, man cannot tell, for it cannot be discovered by examining God's behaviour towards them. He treats all alike. For although everything is before men, they see that all things come alike to all.
This is not to deny that the righteous know that God loves them, only that it cannot be told by His behaviour towards them on earth. He would seemingly treat them in just the same way if he hated them, for He behaves the same towards the wicked. This conclusion comes from looking at their general experiences of life. What happens to the wicked happens to the good, and vice versa.
This is confirmed by the fact that identical things happen to the righteous and the wicked, to the good, the clean and the unclean, to the one who sacrifices and to the one who does not sacrifice. All are seemingly treated the same by God. Thus neither morality nor religious observance make any difference to their treatment.