Ecclesiastes 6
1 I have seen something [else here] on this earth that troubles people.
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it [is] common among men:
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.
A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat of it, but a stranger eateth it: this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease.
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.
If a man begetteth a hundred [children], and liveth many years, so that the days of his years are many, and his soul is not filled with good, and also [that] he hath no burial; I say, [that] an untimely birth [is] better 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 he cometh with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
5 It does not [live to] see the sun or know anything. But it finds more rest than rich people do [who are alive].
Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known [any thing]: this hath more rest than the other.
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].
Yes, though he liveth a thousand years twice [told], yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
7 People work hard to [earn enough money to buy] food to eat [MTY], but [often] they never get enough to eat.
All the labor of man [is] for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
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.
For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
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 [is] the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this [is] also vanity and vexation of spirit.
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.
That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it [is] man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier 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.
Seeing there are many things that increase vanity, what [is] man the better?
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 knoweth what [is] good for man in [this] life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
