Ecclésiaste 6
1 Il est 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 a donné des richesses, des biens, et de la gloire, et qui ne manque pour son âme de rien de ce qu’il désire, mais que Dieu ne laisse pas maître d’en jouir, car c’est un étranger qui en jouira. C’est là une vanité et un mal grave.
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 Quand un homme aurait cent fils, vivrait un grand nombre d’années, et que les jours de ses années se multiplieraient, si son âme ne s’est point rassasiée de bonheur, et si de plus il n’a point de sépulture, je dis qu’un avorton est plus heureux 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 il est venu en vain, il s’en va dans les ténèbres, et son nom reste 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 il n’a point vu, il n’a point connu le soleil; il a plus de repos que cet homme.
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 quand celui-ci vivrait deux fois mille ans, sans jouir du bonheur, tout ne va-t-il pas dans 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 ses désirs ne sont jamais satisfaits.
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 l’insensé? Quel avantage a le malheureux qui sait se conduire en présence des 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 Ce que les yeux voient est préférable à l’agitation des désirs: c’est encore là une vanité et la 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 par son nom; et l’on sait que celui qui est homme ne peut contester avec un 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 S’il y a beaucoup de choses, il y a beaucoup de vanités: quel avantage en revient-il à 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, pendant le nombre des jours de sa vie de vanité, qu’il passe comme une ombre? Et qui peut dire 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].
