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Ecclesiastes 6

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Riches without enjoyment

1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon men: 2 a man to whom Elohim gives riches, wealth and honor, so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet Elohim does not empower him to eat of it, but a stranger eats it. This is vanity and an evil sickness. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with good, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he. 4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. 5 Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known anything; this one has more rest than the other. 6 Even if the other lives a thousand years twice over, yet has seen no good, do not all go to one place?

Desire that is never filled

7 All the toil of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. 8 For what more has the wise man than the fool? What more has the poor man who knows how to walk before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

10 Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is; and he cannot contend with one who is mightier than he. 11 For there are many words that increase vanity; what more is there for man? 12 For who knows what is good for man in life, during the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?

Notes

  • 6:2 The words repeat 5:19 almost exactly, with one difference: there Elohim "empowered him to eat of it," here He does not. Riches and honor were Solomon's gift too (1 Kings 3:13), but the Preacher sees that possessions and the power to enjoy them are two gifts, not one.
  • 6:5 Many children and long life were the great blessings of the age (compare Genesis 25:8), and to lie unburied was a deep disgrace (2 Kings 9:10). Yet without a soul satisfied with good, the Preacher says, a stillborn child is better off, as Job also said in his grief: "like a stillborn child hidden away… like infants who never saw the light" (Job 3:16).
  • 6:10 "Has already been named": what each thing is was set long ago, and man is no more than man (compare 1:9; 3:15). "One who is mightier than he" names no one. Many understand Elohim, with whom man cannot argue his case (compare Job 9:32); others think of any stronger power, such as death. The TRB keeps the open wording of the Hebrew.
  • 6:12 Many readers see here the hinge of the book. Its two questions are taken up in what follows: "what is good," in the "better than" sayings of chapter 7, and "what will be after him," which no one under the sun can tell, until the end of the book points to the fear of Elohim and His judgment (12:13-14). "His vain life" is literally "the life of his hevel" (see the note at 1:2), a life as brief as breath, passing "like a shadow" (1 Chronicles 29:15; Job 14:2).

Ecclesiastes 5 · Ecclesiastes 7

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