Here is a tragedy I have observed under the sun,(A) and it weighs heavily on humanity:[a] God gives a person riches, wealth, and honor(B) so that he lacks nothing of all he desires for himself,(C) but God does not allow him to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger will enjoy them. This is futile and a sickening tragedy. A man may father a hundred children and live many years. No matter how long he lives,[b] if he is not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial,(D) I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.(E) For he comes in futility and he goes in darkness, and his name is shrouded in darkness. Though a stillborn child does not see the sun and is not conscious, it has more rest than he. And if a person lives a thousand years twice, but does not experience happiness, do not both go to the same place?

All of a person’s labor is for his stomach,[c](F)
yet the appetite is never satisfied.

What advantage then does the wise person have over the fool?(G) What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others? Better what the eyes see than wandering desire.(H) This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.[d](I)

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Footnotes

  1. 6:1 Or it is common among men
  2. 6:3 Lit how many years
  3. 6:7 Lit mouth
  4. 6:9 Or a feeding on wind, or an affliction of spirit

(A)There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man (B)to whom (C)God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he (D)lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God (E)does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity;[a] it is a grievous evil. If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that (F)the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's (G)good things, and he also has no (H)burial, I say that (I)a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not (J)seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds (K)rest rather than he. Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy[b] no good—do not all go to the one place?

(L)All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.[c] For what advantage has the wise man (M)over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Better (N)is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is (O)vanity and a striving after wind.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 6:2 The Hebrew term hebel can refer to a “vapor” or “mere breath”; also verses 4, 9, 11 (see note on 1:2)
  2. Ecclesiastes 6:6 Or see
  3. Ecclesiastes 6:7 Hebrew filled