Ecclesiastes 6
6
Wealth Does Not Bring Happiness
1I have seen another thing in this life that is not fair and is very hard to understand. 2God gives some people great wealth, riches, and honor. They have everything they need and everything they could ever want. But then God does not let them enjoy those things. Some stranger comes and takes everything. This is a very bad and senseless thing.
3A man might live a long time and have 100 children. But if he is not satisfied with those good things, and if no one remembers him after his death, I say that a baby who dies at birth is better off than that man. 4It is senseless when a baby is born dead. The baby is quickly buried in a dark grave, without even a name. 5The baby never saw the sun and never knew anything. But the baby finds more rest than the man who never enjoyed what God gave him. 6He might live 2000 years. But if he does not enjoy life, then the baby who was born dead has found the easiest way to the same end.#6:6 then the baby … the same end Or “Isn’t it true that all go to the same place?”
7People work and work to feed themselves, but they are never satisfied. 8In the same way a wise person is no better than a fool is. It is better to be a poor person who knows how to accept life as it is. 9It is better to be happy with what you have than to always want more and more. Always wanting more and more is useless. It is like trying to catch the wind.#6:9 Or “Having what you can see is better than chasing after the things you want. This is also like trying to catch the wind.”
10-11You are only what you were created to be—a human, and it is useless to argue about it. People cannot argue with God about this because he is more powerful than they are, and a long argument will not change that fact.
12Who knows what is best for people during their short life on earth? Their life passes like a shadow. No one can tell them what will happen later.
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Ecclesiastes 6
6
Limited Worth of Enjoyment. 1There is another evil I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily upon humankind: 2#Eccl 2:18–19. There is one to whom God gives riches and property and honor, and who lacks nothing the heart could desire; yet God does not grant the power to partake of them, but a stranger devours them. This is vanity and a dire plague. 3Should one have a hundred children and live many years, no matter to what great age, still if one has not the full benefit of those goods, I proclaim that the child born dead, even if left unburied, is more fortunate.#Even a large family and exceptionally long life cannot compensate for the absence of good things and the joy which they bring. 4#Eccl 4:2–3; Jb 3:11, 16. Though it came in vain and goes into darkness and its name is enveloped in darkness, 5though it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet the dead child has more peace. 6Should such a one live twice a thousand years and not enjoy those goods, do not both go to the same place?#Same place: the grave; cf. 3:20; 12:7.
7All human toil is for the mouth,#The mouth: symbolic of human desires. yet the appetite is never satisfied. 8What profit have the wise compared to fools, or what profit have the lowly in knowing how to conduct themselves in life? 9“What the eyes see is better than what the desires wander after.”#Compare the English proverb, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” However, it could also mean, “The seeing of the eyes is better than the wandering of the desire,” with the emphasis on the actions of seeing and desiring. Seeing is a way of possessing whereas desire, by definition, can remain frustrated and unfulfilled. This also is vanity and a chase after wind.
II. QOHELETH’S CONCLUSIONS
10Whatever is, was long ago given its name, and human nature is known; mortals cannot contend in judgment with One who is stronger.#One who is stronger is, of course, God. The more vanity: contending with God is futile. 11For the more words, the more vanity; what profit is there for anyone? 12#Jb 8:9; 14:2; Ps 102:12. For who knows what is good for mortals in life, the limited days of their vain life, spent like a shadow? Because who can tell them what will come afterward under the sun?#Eccl 3:22; 8:7.
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