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.
Yea, though he live twice a thousand years, yet hath he seen no good do not all go to one place?
Solomon doubles the longest life anyone could imagine. Then he asks what all those years were worth. If a man never had any good from them, how is he better off than a child who died before birth? And where do both of them end up?
The closing question expects only one answer. Rank on earth changes nothing about where a man ends up.
Whatever his position on earth, all go at last to one place. The rich, the poor, the wise, the fool, the righteous, the wicked all end up beside the child born dead, who never saw the sun. And death, which levels every rank, brings man down below himself, even to the level of the animals.
The man in this chapter has everything people chase — wealth, honour, children, years. Yet none of it reaches what is actually wrong with him.
Long life and many children, in a case like this, do not take away the sting. He is worse off than a child born dead. Desire that is never satisfied ruins everything. God, not man, knows what is good for him, and God reveals an inheritance that cannot perish.
Solomon's test is not how long the man lived. It is whether he ever enjoyed good. The answer here is no — so what is left for him at the end?
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 has not the fill it needs, that which satisfies. His life ends at last and then there is the one place — the region of the unknown, the Sheol, where they all go. And about that one place there is no light.
Try the sum yourself. Multiply the years, then add every advantage this world can supply. What does the total leave a person with?
Suppose a man lived a thousand years. Suppose he owned the wealth of the universe, and gathered into himself every honour and every dignity this world could give. Suppose he stood at the very highest point of power, famous everywhere for genius, intellect and moral worth. Suppose he had all that earth could yield or any mortal man could have. The heart would still want something. There would still be a painful void. There would still be the cry, "Oh! for an object."
Why does this book keep circling back to death? It looks at death from one angle only, and missing that angle will confuse a reader.
Solomon does not dwell on why death entered the world. He dwells on death being here, like a worm at the root of the tree of pleasure. It spoils pleasure and chills enjoyment. It cuts a man off just as he would sit down, after years of hard work, to enjoy the fruit of his labour... But now to man, feeling the consequences of the fall, death is the great spoiler that destroys all his hopes. What takes place after death is another matter: other scriptures set that forth. This book regards death from this side of the grave.
Days, vanity, shadow — that is how this book sums up a man's life. But that is not the last word on it.
What a contrast there is between this life of "days" and "vanity" and "shadow" and the eternal life 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, that life will have its perfect, unhindered growth and display in its proper heavenly home. But all was veiled then. Now Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
- The sum: Two thousand years without good still add up to nothing. More time was never the missing thing.
- The sting: Riches, honour and many children do not remove death's sting. Desire that is never satisfied ruins the whole account from the inside.
- The void: Give a man everything the world can yield, and the heart still wants something. The cry is for an object, not for more years.
- The leveller: One place receives them all — rich and poor, wise and fool. Death even brings man down to the level of the animals.
- The light: Ecclesiastes only looks at death from this side of the grave. What lies beyond it is another matter — and Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
Ecclesiastes 6 has been listing good things that leave their owners empty: wealth, long life, many children. Verse 7 states the plainest fact about work and then names the problem: all of it goes toward the mouth, and the mouth never stays full.
The verse describes a cycle, not a single failure. One writer traces how the same result meets the clever man and the foolish one alike.
In verse 7 he comes back again to the labour that man does. It is for the mouth, yet it does not satisfy — the appetite is not filled. The hunger returns, and man must labour to satisfy it and yet it is never filled. The fool and the wise have the same experience. The wise has no advantage over the fool... We may all sum it up in one short sentence. Man under the sun, whatever he does, cannot find satisfaction. All his labours, all his riches, all his seeking for good, all his achievements cannot satisfy him. They cannot give what the soul of man craves and needs... What man needs is not anything "under the sun" but that which is "from above the sun."
The word translated "appetite" covers more than the stomach. One writer lists the meanings it carries elsewhere in the Old Testament:
So its derived meanings are: "Appetite" Prov. 23:2, Ecc. 6:7. "Pleasure": Deut. 23:24, Ps. 105:22, Jer. 34:16. "Desire": Jer. 44:14, Micah 7:3, Hab. 2:5. "Mind," in the sense of will or intention, not of the understanding: 1 Sam. 2:35, 2 Kings 9:15.
So the emptiness here is not the stomach's alone. The word reaches into desire and will. Food goes to the mouth; what stays empty is bigger than the mouth.
Where the ESV reads "toil," the writers quoted here read "labour." The word is not neutral. One writer traces its root, then sets Christ's invitation against it.
The word is "labour," or "travail." It gives us the first part of the name "Amalek" — amal. It is not work: man in Eden was to work; but toil, the drudgery of work, most of all the toil that a heart turned away from God drives a man to. "All the labour of man is for the mouth, but the soul is not filled." And from this the grace of God in Christ would draw us off: "Come to Me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
One writer gathers the chapter's examples, names the cause, then points past it.
No resources satisfy their owner; they only fall to others. So the labourer's lot is often better. Riches hurt instead of comfort, and they do not last. A man goes out as he came in, naked. Where is the profit of such labour? Even when a man receives these things from God as His gift, how sad to see riches, possessions and honour joined with no power to enjoy them! Long life and many children, in such a case, do not take away the sting: he is worse off than a child born dead. Insatiable desire ruins all... God, not man, knows what is good for him, and God reveals an inheritance that cannot perish, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven.
The verse looks at what goes into the mouth. One writer agrees the line is true, then turns the mouth around and looks at what comes out.
The mouth both takes in and gives out. It is the avenue to the stomach and the outlet for the heart. The wise man has said: "All the labour of man is for his mouth" (Ecc. 6:7). In this he spoke truly. The Pharisees of our Lord's time were fussier about what goes into the mouth than about what comes out of it. That is why they argued with the Lord in Matthew 15, because His disciples ate bread with unwashed hands. In His reply He said: "It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person."
Hunger drives a life. The question is where it points. One writer turns the verse into a personal test:
How much need have we of Christ day by day? How much hunger and thirst have we after Him? These are very strong terms, as they are evidently also the terms of Scripture. All the labour of man is for the mouth. Hunger and thirst are controlling things. Yet the Lord says, "Do not labour for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life." Do we indeed by comparison not labour for the one as we labour for the other? And which one is it — in calm, sober reality — that we labour for?
- Cause. All man's work goes to the mouth, and the mouth empties again; the hunger returns, so the labour must too.
- Depth. The word rendered "appetite" also covers desire and will, so what stays empty is deeper than the body.
- Verdict. The wise man gains nothing over the fool here — no amount of achievement gives the soul what it craves.
- Diagnosis. This is toil, not the work given in Eden; and "insatiable desire ruins all."
- Answer. What man needs is not anything under the sun. Christ calls the weary to Himself, and to food that endures to eternal life.
For what advantage hath the wise above the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
This verse ends a chapter about a man who has everything and enjoys nothing. It asks two questions and answers neither: what does the wise man gain over the fool, and what does the poor man gain by knowing how to live before others?
The book records a search kept inside the limits of this life. The man making it sets aside what God has revealed and reports only what he can see.
The word Koheleth may be translated "preacher," "debater," "assembler," or "one of an Assembly." Whichever it is, the whole tone of the teaching proves that the wisdom speaking here is wisdom from under the sun — natural wisdom. The wisest of men sets out to observe and test life under the sun. He wants to find out for all men what all his searching comes to, and then he reports it to an assembly of his fellows. He is not supposed to know any wisdom revealed by God. He is not supposed to have heard of a righteousness of faith, of God's mercy, or of forgiveness of sins.
The verse follows a line about man's toil going into his mouth. One writer reads the wise man, the fool and the poor man as three cases of the same failure.
In verse 7 he comes back again to the labour that man does. It is for the mouth, yet it does not satisfy — the appetite is not filled. The hunger returns, and man must labour again, and still it is never filled. The fool and the wise have the same experience. The wise has no advantage over the fool. The poor man with food in sight is far better off than the rich, whose desires wander, seeking what will gratify them... Whatever man under the sun does, nothing satisfies him — not his labours, not his riches, not his search for good, not his achievements. None of it gives what the soul of man craves and needs.
The man who asks whether wisdom pays is the man God called the wisest of all.
God called Job the best of men, and Job preaches repentance. God called Solomon the wisest of men, and Solomon preaches vanity. Yes, the vanity of wisdom, if it is only human, more than all. The beast has no regrets and no sad expectations. He finds his place in a world of change, enjoys the present, and never thinks of the future. But man, if he does not know, expects and dreads. He cannot carry his everyday burden and lie down in quiet. Death levels all; and what lies beyond death?
Another writer traces the misery of the chapter back to its root, and names the One who knows what is good for man.
The first of all rights is that God should have His. Everything is wrong when men leave God out, and that is the very root of the misery in man and in the world... A man may receive things from God as His gift. How sad then to see riches, possessions and honour, with no power 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... God, not man, knows what is good for him, and God reveals an inheritance incorruptible.
The answer lies outside the book. One writer sets this life of shadow against the life now given in Christ.
What a contrast this life of "days" and "vanity" and "shadow" is with life eternal! That life is given now in Christ to the believer. With it comes the bright hope of being with Him who is its source and fullness, where He is. There we shall have its perfect, unhindered growth and display in its proper heavenly home. But all this was veiled then. Now Christ has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
Another writer finds a way out inside the book itself. He sets it beside the way out of condemnation.
In this book I see one way, and one only, by which we escape both the state of universal vanity and the sense of it. We are left with no other way... Faith in Jesus, says the apostle, is the one and only way out of condemnation. Living to Jesus, says the Book of Ecclesiastes, is the one and only way out of vanity.
- Natural wisdom. A man asks this question under the sun, reporting only what he can observe. Revealed truth, mercy and forgiveness are not in his view.
- Wisdom fails. Under the sun the wise man has no advantage over the fool: appetite returns, and death levels both.
- Desire ruins. Wanting without limit spoils even what God gives, and the trouble starts where men leave God out.
- God knows. Above the sun, God knows what is good for man; man cannot find it out. He reveals an inheritance that cannot perish.
- Christ answers. Above the sun, eternal life in Christ replaces the shadow, and living to Him is the one way out of vanity.
Better is the seeing of the eyes than the wandering of the desire this also is vanity and pursuit of the wind.
The Preacher has piled up the bitter facts of chapter 6: wealth a man cannot enjoy, and labour that never fills the appetite. Then comes his verdict. What the eye already has beats a desire that roams. Even that better option he calls vanity, a striving after wind.
One writer reads verses 7–9 together and names the two men being compared:
In verse 7 he comes back again to the labour that man does. It is for the mouth, yet it does not satisfy — the appetite is not filled. The hunger returns, and man must labour to satisfy it, and yet it is never filled. The fool and the wise have the same experience. The wise has no advantage over the fool. The poor man who has something to eat in sight is far better off than the rich man, whose desires wander, seeking what gratifies. Vanity and vexation of spirit!
Where these quotes say "vexation of spirit," the ESV reads "a striving after wind."
A desire that wanders never lands. It moves from object to object, and each one hands back the same result:
Man naturally craves something. He thirsts for what he does not have, and has an aching emptiness in his heart, which he tries in vain to satisfy. As the mind develops and tastes and leanings form, you can see people picking out objects to interest their minds and meet their wishes. But wherever they turn, and whatever they have, their experience is that everything under the sun is vanity and vexation of spirit. Still, if one object brings its sorrowful disappointment, they chase another. The fear is that many fritter away life with no better experience than running from one thing to another in this evil world, looking for rest and finding none.
The trouble is not the size of a man's estate but the size of his craving:
Where is the profit of such labour? When things are received from God as His gift, how sad to see riches, possessions, honour, with no capacity to enjoy them! … Insatiable desire ruins all. God, not man, knows what is good for him, and God reveals an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven.
The Preacher does not offer the smaller portion as a cure. He calls it better, then calls it vanity too:
As long as anyone's heart is looking for rest, satisfaction, or happiness in this world, it will be disappointed. … The heart of man is too large for this world to fill. Its capacities are too vast for everything under the heavens to satisfy… But suppose a man reached every object he desired and had it all — what would be gained? Only a deeper sense that all is vanity — that earthly good has no power to fill up the aching emptiness within.
The Preacher's problem is not private guilt but a broken world he has no power to repair:
He sees what is crooked, discerns what is missing, but cannot put things straight, nor supply what is lacking… And remember, this is not the experience of the sinner reaping the fruit of what he has sown. It is the experience of one of the old creation (though a sinner himself) feeling the ruin and disorder sin has brought on the earth.
Elsewhere the book says the eye is never satisfied with seeing. One writer sets that against Christ:
Not only so, but even for the senses of widest range and easiest to please, the eye is not satisfied, nor the ear filled. The result is weariness and disappointment, not happiness. What a difference when one beholds the Son and believes on Him! For He is the Bread of life, and the believer feeding on Him never hungers nor ever thirsts again.
- Wander. Roving desire is the disease of the chapter: "insatiable desire ruins all." It ruins the rich man too.
- Within sight. What the eye already has beats what desire is still chasing. The poor man with food in sight outdoes the rich man whose desires wander.
- Still wind. Even that better position gets the verdict "vanity." The fault is not the size of the portion but the size of the heart — too large for this world to fill.
- Named, not mended. The Preacher sees what is crooked and admits he cannot straighten it. The diagnosis is real. The cure is not in his hands.
- Above the sun. What man needs is not found under the sun. The eye that is never satisfied with seeing finds rest in beholding the Son, the Bread of life.