Ecclesiastes 6

Modern

Literal

The Futility of Life

¹There is another evil I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily upon mankind:

¹There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it is great upon mankind:

²God gives a man riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; but God does not allow him to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger will enjoy them. This is futile and a grievous affliction.

²A man for whom God has given to him riches and wealth and honor, and he has no lack for his soul from all that; he desires and God does not give him power to eat from it; instead a foreign man eats it. This is vapor, and it is a sickening evil.

³A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

³If a man begets a hundred and lives many years, and many are the days of his years, and his soul is not satisfied from this goodness, and also not is unto him a grave, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

⁴For a stillborn child enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity.

⁴For in vapor he comes, and in darkness he goes, and in darkness his name is covered.

⁵The child, though neither seeing the sun nor knowing anything, has more rest than that man,

⁵Even he has not seen the sun and has not known it, more rest is unto this one than this one.

⁶even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

⁶And though he might live a thousand years twice over, and has not seen goodness, are not all are going to one place?

⁷All a man’s labor is for his mouth,

yet his appetite is never satisfied.^a

⁷All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet the soul is not filled.

⁸What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool? What gain comes to the poor man who knows how to conduct himself before others?

⁸Indeed, what advantage is for the wise one over the fool? What is to the poor one knowing how to walk before the living?

⁹Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

⁹Better is a sight of the eyes than the wandering of the soul; this also is vapor and a striving after the wind.

¹⁰Whatever exists was named long ago, and it is known what man is; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he.

¹⁰That which has come to be, already its name has been called; and it is known that he is man, and he is not able to contend with one stronger than he.

¹¹For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone?

¹¹For there are many words, multiplying vapor—what advantage is for man?

¹²For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?

¹²For who knows what is good for man in life all the days of the life of his vapor, and he makes them like a shadow? For who can declare to man what will come to be after him under the sun?