Ecclesiastes 12:7
Ecclesiastes 12:77before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
— "then the dust returns to the earth just as it was, and the spirit returns to the true God who gave it" — is read by the Watchtower as proof that the "spirit" at death is merely an impersonal life-force or animating breath returning to God. There is no conscious self to receive; the person simply ceases to exist until resurrection.
describes what happens at death: dust to earth, spirit to God. The verse does not define spirit as impersonal, and the New Testament makes the category explicit. As Stephen was being stoned, he prayed "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (). He does not say "my breath returns to the atmosphere." He prays personally to Jesus to receive him — the same verb and construction Jesus himself used on the cross: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (). You do not ask someone to "receive" an impersonal force; you ask someone to receive you. Pair with — "truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise" — and the intermediate-state picture is of conscious reception by Christ. The Watchtower's soul-sleep reading of cannot hold both Stephen's prayer and Jesus's promise to the thief without distorting their plain sense.