Ecclesiastes 9:12 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

When it falleth suddenly upon them— By sudden accidents. The third proof, in support of the third proposition, is taken from those wrong judgments which are known to be such only by the event; but which must have appeared very probable before. These are brought under two heads. I. In Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 it is highly probable that the end will be attained by using such means as are the best adapted to it. Yet experience testifies that this is not always the case: success generally depends upon a certain concourse of circumstances, which it is not in the power of man to procure, or upon seizing an opportunity, which he is so far from knowing, that, like the fishes and birds, he is apt to mistake that for a favourable one which proves most dangerous to him. Thus he often runs to his utter destruction, at the very time when he imagines himself in a successful and most infallible pursuit of happiness.