Ecclesiastes 6
About EcclesiastesWritten by AI
Ecclesiastes is wisdom of a different kind: an honest look at life "under the sun", where so much seems fleeting and unfair. The speaker is called the Teacher, a son of David and king in Jerusalem. Jewish and Christian tradition has long taken this to be Solomon. Many scholars think a later writer used Solomon's voice, and faithful readers hold both views.
The book opens with its famous refrain, “Everything is futile!” The word means a breath or vapor: brief, hard to grasp. The Teacher tests pleasure, work, wealth and wisdom, and finds none of them gives lasting meaning on its own.
Watch for two threads that run through the gloom. Again and again he says to enjoy food, work and love as gifts from God's hand. And the book ends by pointing beyond itself: fear God and keep His commandments, because God will bring every deed to judgment.
Before you read Ecclesiastes 6Written by AI
A short, somber chapter. The Teacher describes a person who has wealth, honor and many children, yet is never able to enjoy any of it. He asks what advantage anyone really has, since no one knows what is good for a life or what will come after it.
The Futility of Life
There is another evil I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily upon mankind: God 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.
A 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. For a stillborn child enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity. The child, though neither seeing the sun nor knowing anything, has more rest than that man, even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?
All a man’s labor is for his mouth,
yet his appetite is never satisfied.
What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool? What gain comes to the poor man who knows how to conduct himself before others? Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
Whatever exists was named long ago, and it is known what man is; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he. For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone? For 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?