Ecclésiaste 6
1 Il y a un mal que j’ai vu sous le soleil, et qui est fréquent parmi les hommes:
I have seen something [else here] on this earth that troubles people.
2 il y a tel homme à qui Dieu donne de la richesse, et des biens, et de l’honneur, et il ne manque rien à son âme de tout ce qu’il désire; et Dieu ne lui a pas donné le pouvoir d’en manger, car un étranger s’en repaît. Cela est une vanité et un mal douloureux.
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 Si un homme engendre 100 [fils], et qu’il vive beaucoup d’années, et que les jours de ses années soient en grand nombre, et que son âme ne soit pas rassasiée de bien, et aussi qu’il n’ait pas de sépulture, je dis que mieux vaut un avorton que lui;
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 car celui-ci vient dans la vanité, et il s’en va dans les ténèbres, et son nom est couvert de ténèbres;
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 et aussi il n’a pas vu et n’a pas connu le soleil: celui-ci a plus de repos que celui-là.
It does not [live to] see the sun or know anything. But it finds more rest than rich people do [who are alive].
6 Et s’il vivait deux fois 1 000 ans, il n’aura pas vu le bonheur: tous ne vont-ils pas en un même lieu?
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 Tout le travail de l’homme est pour sa bouche, et cependant son désir n’est pas satisfait.
People work hard to [earn enough money to buy] food to eat [MTY], but [often] they never get enough to eat.
8 Car quel avantage le sage a-t-il sur le sot? Quel [avantage] a l’affligé qui sait marcher devant les vivants?
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 Mieux vaut la vue des yeux que le mouvement du désir. Cela aussi est vanité et poursuite du vent.
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 Ce qui existe a déjà été appelé de son nom; et on sait ce qu’est l’homme, et qu’il ne peut contester avec celui qui est plus fort que lui.
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 Car il y a beaucoup de choses qui multiplient la vanité: quel avantage en a l’homme?
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 Car qui sait ce qui est bon pour l’homme dans la vie, tous les jours de la vie de sa vanité, qu’il passe comme une ombre? Et qui déclarera à l’homme ce qui sera après lui sous le soleil?
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].
