Ecclesiastes 6
1 I have seen something [else here] on this earth that troubles people.
There is another evil I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily upon mankind:
2 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.
God gives a man riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; but God does not allow him to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger will enjoy them. This is futile and a grievous affliction.
3 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.
A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
4 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.
For a stillborn child enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity.
5 It does not [live to] see the sun or know anything. But it finds more rest than rich people do [who are alive].
The child, though neither seeing the sun nor knowing anything, has more rest than that man,
6 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].
even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?
7 People work hard to [earn enough money to buy] food to eat [MTY], but [often] they never get enough to eat.
All a man’s labor is for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.
8 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.
What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool? What gain comes to the poor man who knows how to conduct himself before others?
9 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.
Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
10 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.
Whatever exists was named long ago, and what happens to a man is foreknown; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he.
11 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.
For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone?
12 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].
For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?
