Ecclesiastes 6
1 I have observed another evil here on earth, and it has a great impact on humanity.
I have seen something [else here] on this earth that troubles people.
2 God gives wealth, possessions, and honor to someone. They have everything they want. But God doesn't let them enjoy what they have. Instead somebody else does! This is hard to fathom, and is truly evil.
God enables some people to get a lot of money and possessions and to be honored; they have everything [LIT] that they want. But God [sometimes] does not allow them to continue to enjoy those things. Someone else gets them and enjoys them. That seems senseless and unfair.
3 A man could have one hundred children, and grow old, but it wouldn't matter how long his life was if he couldn't enjoy it and at the end receive a decent burial. I would say that a stillborn child would be better off than him.
Someone might have 100 children and live for many years. But if he is not able to enjoy the things that he has acquired, and if he is not buried [properly after he dies], [I say that] a child that is dead when it is born is more fortunate.
4 The way a stillborn child comes into the world and then leaves is painfully hard to understand—arriving and departing in darkness—and who he would have been is never known.
That dead baby’s birth is meaningless; it does not even have a name. It goes directly to the place where there is only darkness.
5 He never saw the light of day or knew what it was like to live. Yet the child finds rest, and not this man.
It does not [live to] see the sun or know anything. But it finds more rest than rich people do [who are alive].
6 Even if this man were to live a thousand years twice over he still wouldn't be happy. Don't we all end up in the same place—the grave?
Even if people could live for 2,000 years, if they do not enjoy the things that God gives to them, [it would have been better for them never to have been born]. [All people who live a long time] certainly [RHQ] all go to the same place— [to the grave].
7 Everyone works so they can live, but they're never satisfied.
People work hard to [earn enough money to buy] food to eat [MTY], but [often] they never get enough to eat.
8 So then, what real advantage do wise people have over those who are fools? And do poor people really gain anything in knowing how to behave in front of others?
So it seems that [RHQ] wise people do not receive more lasting benefits than foolish people do. And it seems that [RHQ] poor people do not benefit from knowing how to conduct their lives.
9 Be happy with what you have instead of running after what you don't! But this is also hard to do, like running after the wind.
It is better to enjoy the things that we already have [MTY] than to constantly want more things; continually wanting more things is [senseless], [like] the wind.
10 Everything that exists has already been described. Everyone knows what people are like, and that you can't win an argument with a superior.
All the things that exist [on the earth] have been given names. And everyone knows what people are like, [so] it is useless to argue with someone (OR, with God) who is stronger than we are.
11 For the more words you use, the harder it is to make sense. So what's the point?
The more [that we] talk, the more [often we say things that are] senseless, so it certainly does not [RHQ] benefit us to talk a lot.
12 Who knows what's best for us and our lives? During our short lives that pass like shadows we have many unanswered questions. And who can tell us what will happen when we're gone?
We live for only a short time; we disappear like [SIM] a shadow disappears [in the sunlight]. No one [RHQ] knows what is best for us while we are alive, and no one [RHQ] knows what will happen to us after we die [EUP].
