Ecclesiastes

Chapter 6

The Futility of Life

Ecclesiastes 6 returns to the tragedy of human life under the sun by describing a person who possesses riches, honor, longevity, and descendants yet is never able to enjoy them. The chapter then broadens into a meditation on appetite, limitation, and ignorance, concluding that restless desire and multiplied words cannot solve the mystery of what is truly good in a fleeting life.

This chapter sharpens Ecclesiastes' argument by showing that even the blessings people crave most do not secure satisfaction when enjoyment itself is withheld. It presses the reader toward humility by exposing the limits of appetite, status, and human reasoning before the brevity of life and the inscrutability of what comes after.

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Ecclesiastes 6

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vv. 1-12

The Futility of Life

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T¹here is another evil I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily 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. 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. ⁴For a stillborn child enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity. ⁵The child, though neither seeing the sun nor knowing anything, has more rest than that man, ⁶even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

⁷All a man’s labor is for his mouth, 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? ⁹Better what the eye can see than the wandering of desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

¹⁰Whatever exists was named long ago, and it is known what man is; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he. ¹¹For the more words, the more futility — and how does that profit anyone? 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?

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01vv. 1-12The Futility of LifeThe Teacher identifies a grievous evil in which a person receives wealth, honor, long life, and many children yet remains unable to enjoy any of it, leaving a stranger to benefit instead. He then reflects on the endless appetite that drives human labor, the inability of wisdom or eloquence to master life, and the ignorance that leaves no one able to say what is finally good for a shadow-like existence under the sun.