Ecclesiastes
Chapter 6
The Preacher describes a man who has money, property, and honor but never gets to enjoy any of it, because someone else ends up with it all. He says a baby born dead is better off than a man who lives a long time and never finds any good in his life, since both end up in the same place. He closes with questions: no one knows what is really good for a person during a short, shadow-like life, and no one can say what will happen after that person is gone.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:
1I have seen something wrong here under the sun, and it happens to many people.
2A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
2God gives a man money, property, and honor, so he lacks nothing he wants. But God does not let him enjoy any of it. A stranger enjoys it instead. This is empty, and it is a painful sickness.
In 1611, "wealth" and "riches" were not the same. "Riches" meant money, and "wealth" meant property and goods. "He wanteth nothing" means he lacks nothing.
3If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
3A man might have a hundred children and live many, many years. But if he never finds any good in his life, and if no one even buries him, then I say a baby born dead is better off than he is.
"An untimely birth" means a baby that died before it was born. Not being buried was seen as a shameful ending for a person's life.
4For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
4That baby arrives with nothing, leaves in darkness, and its name is never known.
5Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
5It never saw the sun and never knew anything. Still, it has more rest than that man does.
6Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
6Even if the man lived two thousand years but never enjoyed any good, what then? Don't all people end up in the same place?
"A thousand years twice told" means a thousand years counted twice, so two thousand years.
7All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
7A person works hard just to feed himself, and still he is never satisfied.
8For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
8So what does the wise man really gain over the fool? And what does a poor man gain by knowing how to behave around others?
9Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
9It is better to enjoy what you can see than to keep wanting more. This too is empty, like chasing the wind.
"Vexation of spirit" is a picture of grabbing at wind: you can chase it, but you never hold it.
10That 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.
10Whatever exists was named long ago, and what a person is has long been known. No one can argue with the One who is stronger than he is.
11Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
11The more words there are, the more empty talk there is. So how does that help anyone?
12For 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?
12Who knows what is really good for a person in this short life, which passes like a shadow? And who can tell a man what will happen after he is gone?
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