Ecclesiastes 6
1 I have observed another evil here on earth, and it has a great impact on humanity.
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavy on men.
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 might give riches, wealth, and honor to a man so that he lacks nothing that he desires for himself, but then God gives him no ability to enjoy it. Instead, someone else uses his things. This is vapor, an evil affliction.
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.
If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but if his heart is not satisfied with good and he is not buried, then I say that a baby that is born dead is better off than he is.
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.
Even such a baby is born in futility and passes away in darkness, and its name remains hidden.
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.
Although this child does not see the sun or know anything, it has rest even though that man did not.
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 a man should live for two thousand years but does not learn to enjoy good things, he goes to the same place as everyone else.
7 Everyone works so they can live, but they're never satisfied.
All a man's work is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.
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?
Indeed, what advantage has the wise person over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have even if he knows how to act in front of other people?
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 be satisfied with what the eyes see than to desire what a wandering appetite craves, which is also vapor and an attempt to shepherd 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.
Whatever has existed has already been given its name, and what mankind is like has already been known. So it has become useless to dispute with the one who is the mighty judge of all.
11 For the more words you use, the harder it is to make sense. So what's the point?
The more words that are spoken, the more futility increases, so what advantage is that to a man?
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?
For who knows what is good for man in his life during his futile, numbered days through which he passes like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come under the sun after he passes?
