If a man beget a hundred [sons], and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, but his soul be not filled with good, and also he have no burial, I say an untimely birth is better than he.
A man can have everything people want — a huge family, a long life — and still end up worse off than a baby who never drew breath. So what is missing in such a life, and why is a stillborn child better off?
This verdict is harsh because of the angle the book takes. It reasons only from what a person can see and test.
This Book gives us the experience of man, and the reasonings of man, about everything that happens under the sun. Remember that, and the passages that look like unbelief cause no difficulty. Man's experience is bound to sound unbelieving. It admits its own ignorance, because beyond what can be seen, experience knows nothing. But the solution of all moral problems lies above and beyond what can be seen... There is no question, in this book, of grace or of redemption, but only of the experience of this present life, and of what God has said about it.
Verse 3 builds on a case the writer has just described.
The first evil the wise searcher sees as a discouraging contradiction is this: God gives a man riches, wealth and honour, so that he lacks nothing at all. But God does not give him the power to enjoy it; a stranger eats it instead. That rules out what he said in the closing verses of the previous chapter. The cherished desires of man have found no fulfilment. He has seen this evil, and we still see it too. Where then is "the good and fitting" of chapter 5:18? This is vanity, and an evil disease, he admits.
Three details fill out the picture: the hundred children, the great age, and the odd remark about burial.
Suppose a man fathers a hundred children and lives to a very ripe old age. He grows so old that it seems as if there is to be no burial for him at all. Yet his soul is not filled with good. What then? "I say that a stillborn child is better off than he... yet it finds rest rather than he." It is a sad, sorrowful picture, yet every word of it is true as to man's existence. With all his long life and all it brings, riches and power, his soul never gets the fill it needs, the thing that satisfies. His life ends at last, and then comes the one place — the region of the unknown, Sheol, where they all go. And about that one place there is no light... All is darkness! Far better off is the stillborn child.
Long life and a large family are the two blessings this verse piles up. William Kelly weighs them against what God offers.
A man may receive things from God as His gift. How sad then to see riches, possessions and honour, with no ability to enjoy them! Long life and many children, in such a case, do not take away the sting: he is worse off than a stillborn child. Endless craving ruins everything. It is useless to argue with Him who is mightier than he. God, not man, knows what is good for him, and God reveals an inheritance that cannot perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven; but until Christ died and rose, it was largely hidden.
The hinge of the verse is the line that his soul "is not satisfied with life's good things." The problem is not how much life a man gets. It is where he looks for good.
Man under the sun, whatever he does — all his labours, all his riches, all his seeking for good, all his achievements — cannot satisfy him. It cannot give what the soul of man craves and needs. The searcher, the wise man, the philosopher, the scientist — none of them can ever find it. What man needs is not anything "under the sun" but that which is "from above the sun."
The darkness in this verse is real, but it is not final. Christ has since brought into the open what the writer could not see.
What a contrast between this life of "days" and "vanity" and "shadow" and the eternal life now given in Christ to the believer! And what a bright hope — to be with Him Who is its source and fullness, where He is... But all this was veiled then. Now Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
- Given — God can give riches, wealth and honour, and still withhold the power to enjoy them. A stranger eats what the owner gathered.
- Ungiven — the missing thing is a satisfied soul. Length of life and number of children do not take away the sting.
- Grave — long years end where all end, in the one place. That is why the stillborn child, which never saw the sun, has rest.
- Gap — nothing under the sun can supply what the soul craves; the need is for what is above the sun.
- Gift — God knows what is good for man. He reveals an inheritance that cannot perish, and Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
For it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness;
Chapter 6 pictures a man with wealth, a hundred children and a long life, whose soul is never filled with good. The Preacher says a stillborn child is better off than he is, and verse 4 gives the reason.
The chapter opens with a man who has everything and cannot enjoy any of it. One writer traces that failure to its bitter end:
When things are received from God as His gift, how sad to see riches, possessions, honour, with no ability to enjoy them! Long life and many children, in such a case, do not remove the sting: he is worse off than a stillborn child. Insatiable desire ruins everything.
The verse is not weighing two lives by length. It weighs them by whether the soul was ever filled. On that scale, long life and many children change nothing:
Suppose a man has a hundred children and lives to a very ripe old age. He grows so old that it seems there will be no burial for him at all. Yet his soul is not filled with good — what then? … It is a sad, sorrowful picture, yet every word of it is true about man's existence. He has a long life and everything it brings, riches and power. Still his soul does not get the fill it needs, the thing that satisfies.
One writer explains where this book gets its answers:
The writer makes one thing clear about all his searching and describing of the things under the sun. He does not depend on divine revelation, on that which is above the sun. He reaches his results by the light nature gives. His resources are within himself. The phrase "I communed with my own heart," which occurs seven times in the book, confirms this.
Read that way, the verse reports a search with nowhere else to look. It gives the conclusion of a man limited to earth, not a word from above the sun.
The child in this verse never saw the sun. Death brings the long-lived man to the same place:
What a trouble death is — an unwelcome visitor no one can keep out of his house. It comes unasked, at a time man thinks is wrong, and strips its victim of everything. … Whatever his position on earth, all finally go to one place. The rich, the poor, the wise, the fool, the righteous and the wicked all end up at last with the untimely birth, which has never seen the sun. And death, the great leveller of all ranks, brings man down below himself, even to the level of the beasts.
Another writer describes that one place:
His life ends at last, and then there is the one place — the region of the unknown, Sheol, where they all go. And about that one place there is no light. It is existence felt after death, but of what kind? All is darkness! Far better off is the untimely birth.
Darkness runs through the whole verse: the going out, the covered name. One writer sets that against what Christ has brought:
What a contrast this life of "days" and "vanity" and "shadow" is with life eternal! That life is now given in Christ to the believer, with the bright hope of being with Him who is its source and fullness. But all this was hidden then. Now Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
The book asks who knows what is good for man. One writer gives the answer the natural man cannot reach:
Who knows? Not the natural man. But the question man cannot answer, God has graciously, blessedly and eternally answered in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. With Peter we too cry out, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
- Vanity — the man has riches, children and years, yet cannot enjoy any of them. The emptiness is in his soul, not his circumstances.
- Darkness — the child arrives with nothing, leaves in the dark, and its name is never remembered. Even so, it is called better off.
- Under the sun — the writer reasons only from what earth can show him. He leans on no revelation, so the picture ends in despair.
- One place — death levels every rank. Rich and poor, wise and fool all arrive where the untimely birth already is.
- Above the sun — God has answered in His Son the question the book cannot answer. Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
moreover it hath not seen nor known the sun this hath rest rather than the other.
Solomon has just weighed a rich man — honour, a hundred children, long years, and a soul never filled — against a child who died before birth. Verse 5 is the strangest part of that comparison: the child never saw daylight, yet the verdict goes in its favour.
Look at the man on the other side of the scales.
It is a sad, sorrowful picture, yet every word of it is true about man's existence. He has a long life and all it brings, riches and power. Still his soul does not have the fill it needs, the thing that satisfies. His life ends at last, and then there is the one place — the region of the unknown, where they all go. And about that one place there is no light. Existence goes on after death and is felt — but of what kind? All is darkness! Better, far better off, is the child born dead.
What makes the man worse off is not that he lacked things, but that having them changed nothing inside him.
When a man receives things from God as His gift, how sad to see riches, possessions and honour with no ability to enjoy them! Long life and many children, in such a case, do not remove the sting: he is worse off than a child born dead. Insatiable desire ruins everything.
The verse gives the child rest. The man spent his long years looking for that rest in this world.
As long as anyone's heart is seeking rest, satisfaction, or happiness in this world, it will surely be disappointed. The heart of man is too large for this world to fill. Its abilities are too vast for everything under the heavens to satisfy.
One commentator answers this verdict by pointing to God's purpose in the book. Writing on a different puzzle in Ecclesiastes, he states the rule that governs verses like this one:
The difficulty here, like so many others, seems to come from misunderstanding God's purpose in the book. What is under the sun — not the revelation of what is above and beyond it — is what is being discussed. So here it is simply the result of human experience, which knows nothing at all about what comes after death. The solution to every moral perplexity is found only in the unseen — in the Word of God, not in the world that now is.
Death erases the distance between the stillborn child and the wealthy old man. Every rank ends at the same address.
Whatever his position on earth, in the end all go to one place. The rich, the poor, the wise, the fool, the righteous, the wicked all end up there with the child born dead, who has never seen the sun. And death, the great leveller of all ranks, reduces man to a level below himself.
The chapter leaves man in the dark. One commentator sets that darkness against what Christ has since brought to light:
What a contrast this life of "days" and "vanity" and "shadow" is with life eternal! That life is now given in Christ to the believer. With it comes the bright hope of being with Him who is its source and fullness. There, where He is, we shall have its perfect, unhindered growth and display in its proper heavenly sphere. But all was veiled then. Now Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
- Sight. The child never saw the sun; the rich man saw everything the world could show him, and his soul was still not filled.
- Rest. The rest praised here is only freedom from the chase — nothing under the sun can fill a heart this large.
- Sting. Long life and many children do not remove the sting; endless desire ruins the whole of it.
- Level. Death is the great leveller: rich and poor, wise and foolish all arrive at one place, alongside the child who never lived.
- Light. The book stops in the dark. Christ has brought life eternal to light — the answer the search under the sun never found.