Ecclesiastes 6
6
1I have seen something else wrong here on earth that causes serious problems for people. 2God gives great wealth, riches, and honor to some people; they have everything they want. But God does not let them enjoy such things; a stranger enjoys them instead. This is useless and very wrong. 3A man might have a hundred children and live a long time, but what good is it if he can’t enjoy the good God gives him or have a proper burial? I say a baby born dead is better off than he is. 4A baby born dead is useless. It returns to darkness without even a name. 5That baby never saw the sun and never knew anything, but it finds more rest than that man. 6Even if he lives two thousand years, he doesn’t enjoy the good God gives him. Everyone is going to the same place.
7People work just to feed themselves,
but they never seem to get enough to eat.
8In this way a wise person
is no better off than a fool.
Then, too, it does a poor person little good
to know how to get along in life.
9It is better to see what you have
than to want more.
Wanting more is useless—
like chasing the wind.
Who Can Understand God’s Plan?
10Whatever happens was planned long ago.
Everyone knows what people are like.
No one can argue with God,
who is stronger than anyone.
11The more you say,
the more useless it is.
What good does it do?
12People have only a few useless days of life on the earth; their short life passes like a shadow. Who knows what is best for them while they live? Who can tell them what the future will bring?
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Ecclesiastes 6
6
Futility of Living Without God
1There is a misery that I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy upon humanity.
2God gives a man riches, wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing that his heart desires, yet God does not enable him to eat from it—instead a foreigner will eat it. This is fruitless—an agonizing illness.
3Even if a man should father a hundred children and live many years, however many the days of his years may be, yet his soul is never satisfied with his prosperity and he does not have a proper burial, then I say that it is better for the stillborn than him.
4Even though it comes in futility and departs into darkness, though its name is shrouded in darkness,
5though it has never seen or experienced the sun, it has more rest than the other.
6Even if the other man were to live a thousand years twice and never enjoy good things—do not all go to the same place?
7All a man’s labor is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.
8So what advantage has the wise over the fool? What does the pauper gain by knowing how to walk before the living?
9Better is what the eyes see than the pursuit of the soul’s desires. This too is fleeting and striving after wind.
10Whatever exists has already been named, and it has been made known what humanity is. But man cannot contend with the One who is mightier than he.
11When there are many words, futility increases! How does that benefit anyone?
12For who knows what is good for one during his life—during the few days of his fleeting life—that pass like a shadow? For who can tell a person what happens after him under the sun?
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