For he knoweth not that which shall be,.... Or that "it shall be" b; that he ever shall have the opportunity again he has lost, nor what is to come hereafter; what shall be on the morrow, or what shall befall him in the remaining part of his days; what troubles and sorrows he shall meet with, or what will be the case and circumstances of his family after his death;
for who can tell him when it shall be? or "how it shall be" c? how it will be with him or his; no one that pretends to judicial astrology, or to the art of divination, or any such devices, can tell him what is to come; future things are only certainly known by God; none but he can tell what will certainly come to pass; see Ecclesiastes 3:22; Jarchi interprets it of a man's not considering for what God will bring him to judgment, and that no man can tell him the vengeance and punishment that will be inflicted.
b מה שיהיה "quod futurum est", Pagninus, Montanus. c כאשר יהיה "quo modo", Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus, Rambachius, so Broughton.