Ecclesiastes 6

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:

2 There is a man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he lacks nothing of all his soul desires, but God has not given him power to partake of it, and a stranger consumes it. This is emptiness, and it is a grievous affliction.

3 If a man becomes the father of a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, and his soul is not filled with good, and also he does not have a proper burial, I say that a still-born child is better off than he.

4 For it comes in with emptiness, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.

5 Moreover it has not seen the sun, or known anything. This one has more rest than the other;

6 Yea, even though he lives twice a thousand years, but has seen no good. Do not all go to one place?

6:1-6 Solomon has said it is good for men to find satisfaction and happiness in their work. But he well knows that many are never able to do this. The meaninglessness of life finds them out. Again he says that it is better for such people if they had never been born (Eccl 4:2-3).⚜

7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not satisfied.

8 For what has the wise more than the fool? What benefit does the poor have who knows how to walk before the living?

9 Better is what the eyes see than the wandering of the desire. This is also emptiness and chasing the wind.

6:7-9 Man continually tries to find satisfaction in the world, but never can. Both the rich and the poor, the wise and the foolish are victims of their desires.⚜

10 What has been is already named, and it is known what man is; no one can contend with him who is mightier than he.

11 Since there are many things that increase emptiness, what is man the better?

6:10-11 God knows all about man and everything else. He is the Almighty and no one can win an argument with Him. The more one multiplies words in his argument the more he says what is meaningless (compare Job 9:1-4; 38:1-2; 40:1-5; 42:1-6).⚜

12 For who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of his futile life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?

6:12 Solomon admits failure to find in the world what he set out to find (Eccl 2:3). The wisest man whoever lived (1 Kings 3:12) confesses his ignorance. See also Eccl 7:23-24; 8:17.⚜