Ecclesiastes 6
What Happens in This Chapter
The Teacher describes a man whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, yet who is not allowed to enjoy them, so that a stranger enjoys them instead. He says a stillborn child, who never sees the sun, has more rest than a man who lives many years without enjoying his goods and receives no proper burial. He observes that all human labor goes to feed an appetite that is never satisfied, and asks what advantage the wise or the poor really have. The chapter ends with questions: no one can contend with one stronger than himself, no one knows what is good for a man in his brief life, and no one can say what will come after him.
There is an evil I have seen here on earth, and it lies heavy on people:
1There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:
"Under the sun" is this book's signature phrase, used about thirty times: it means life as it is actually lived and observed in this world, as opposed to anything beyond it. KJV's "it is common among men" renders a Hebrew phrase closer to "it is heavy upon mankind", the evil is both widespread and a weight people carry.
2God gives a man riches, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing he wants. But God does not let him enjoy any of it. Instead, a stranger enjoys it. This is empty, and it is a painful sickness.
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.
Three things to unpack in the older wording. "He wanteth nothing for his soul" means he lacks nothing he desires ("want" here is lack, not wish, and "soul" translates *nephesh*, a word covering appetite, desire and life rather than a spirit inside a body. "To eat thereof" is a standard Hebrew idiom for enjoying what you own, not just eating food. And the "stranger" is someone outside the man's household), not a son or heir, so what he built passes to a person with no family claim on it. "Vanity" (Hebrew *hebel*) is the book's central word: it means vapor or breath, something real but weightless and impossible to hold onto.
3A man may father a hundred children and live many years, so that his years add up to a long life. But if he is never satisfied with the good things he has, and if he is not even given a proper burial, then I say a baby born dead is better off than he is.
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.
Both halves of this picture would have registered strongly with the first hearers. A hundred children is deliberate exaggeration: a large family and a long life were the two clearest signs of a life that had gone well. To be left unburied, by contrast, was the deepest disgrace an Israelite could picture, the fate of executed criminals and defeated enemies. A "proper burial" meant being laid in the family tomb alongside one's ancestors.
4For that baby comes into the world for nothing and leaves in darkness, and darkness covers his name.
4For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
In Hebrew usage a person's "name" is their continuing presence in other people's memory, not merely what they were called. A stillborn child received no name and left no trace, so darkness covering the name means the child is remembered by no one.
5He never saw the sun and never knew anything. Yet he has more rest than that man does.
5Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
"He hath not seen the sun" is an idiom for never having been alive at all. The word behind "rest" means relief or repose, the same quiet the Hebrew scriptures attribute to the dead.
6Even if the man lives a thousand years twice over, he has still seen no good. Don't all people go to the same place in the end?
6Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
"One place" is the grave, Sheol in Hebrew, the shadowy common destination of everyone who dies in the older Israelite picture of death. The point of the question is that the destination is the same for all, whatever their lifespan.
7Everything a person works for goes into his mouth, and still his appetite is never filled.
7All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
The word rendered "appetite" is *nephesh*, the same word KJV translates "soul" in verses 2 and 3. It means throat, hunger, craving, life. The line turns on that double sense: work goes down the throat, and the craving behind the throat is never filled.
8So what does the wise man have that the fool does not? And what does the poor man gain by knowing how to conduct himself in front of others?
8For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
The second question is one of the most obscure sentences in the book. Literally it reads something like "what has the poor man who knows how to walk before the living?", knowing how to conduct himself, make his way, or hold his own among other people. Translators differ on the sense, and the plain rendering picks one plausible reading among several.
9It is better to enjoy what your eyes can see than to let your desires wander after more. This too is empty, like chasing the wind.
9Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
A proverb built on a contrast: "the sight of the eyes" is what is actually in front of you, "the wandering of the desire" is literally the roaming of the *nephesh*, appetite going out after what it does not have. Closest English equivalent in shape: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. KJV's "vexation of spirit" renders a Hebrew phrase most scholars now read as chasing or herding wind, the same word can be heard as "striving after" or "longing for."
10Whatever exists was already named long ago, and what a man is has already been known. He cannot argue his case against one who is stronger than he is.
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.
To name something, in Hebrew usage, is to fix what it is; "named already" means settled long ago, before the person came on the scene. The middle clause is compressed and disputed (literally "it is known what man is") and it plays on the resemblance between *adam* (man) and *adamah* (ground). The one "mightier than he" is left unnamed in the Hebrew; readers have almost always understood God, but the text does not say so.
11There are many things that only add to the emptiness. So how is a person any better off?
11Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
The Hebrew word here, *devarim*, means both "words" and "things." KJV took it as things; many modern translations take it as words, giving "the more words, the more emptiness." The line supports either reading.
12For who knows what is good for a person during his life, during the few days of his empty life, which he passes through like a shadow? And who can tell a person what will happen after he is gone here on earth?
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?
A shadow is the stock Hebrew image for what is fleeting and has no substance of its own. The closing question is genuinely ambiguous: "what shall be after him" can mean what will happen to the man after his death, or what will happen in the world once he is gone. The Hebrew allows both, and the writer may intend both.
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