Ecclesiastes 6
1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men:
I have seen something [else here] on this earth that troubles people.
2 a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but a foreigner eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
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 If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:
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 for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
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 Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other.
It does not [live to] see the sun or know anything. But it finds more rest than rich people do [who are alive].
6 Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, do not all go to one place?
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 All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
People work hard to [earn enough money to buy] food to eat [MTY], but [often] they never get enough to eat.
8 For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?
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 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after 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 Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.
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 there are many words that create vanity. What does that profit man?
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 For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
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].
