Ecclesiastes / Chapter 6

Ecclesiastes 6

12 verses • Westminster Leningrad Codex

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

Chapter 6 is the darkest meditation on wealth in the book. Qohelet describes a man to whom God gives riches, possessions, and honor — everything he could desire — but God does not enable him to enjoy them. A stranger consumes them instead. This is vapor and a grievous affliction. Qohelet then pushes the thought to its extreme: even if a man fathers a hundred children and lives for two thousand years, if he has not experienced good, the stillborn child is better off. The chapter closes with a series of rhetorical questions about human limitation: who knows what is good, who can tell what will happen, and what advantage does the wise person have?

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

This chapter is the mirror image of 5:18-19. There, God gave both wealth and the ability to enjoy it; here, God gives wealth but withholds the ability to enjoy. The two passages together form one of Ecclesiastes' most disturbing theological claims: enjoyment is not a human achievement but a divine gift, and God sometimes withholds it without explanation. The man in verse 2 lacks nothing material, yet he cannot eat — the Hebrew lo yashlitennu ha-Elohim le-ekhol ('God does not enable him to eat') places the responsibility squarely on God. Qohelet does not explain why God would do this; he simply reports it. The stillborn comparison (vv. 3-5) is the most extreme version of the 'better not to be born' logic from 4:3.

Translation Friction

The claim that God gives wealth but withholds enjoyment raises acute theodicy questions. Qohelet does not resolve them. He does not say the man sinned, and he does not say God is unjust — he says it is hevel and choliy ra ('a grievous affliction'). The theological tension is left raw. Additionally, the comparison between a man with a hundred children and a stillborn pushes against the Hebrew Bible's overwhelming valuation of descendants (Genesis 12:2; Psalm 127:3-5). For Qohelet, offspring without enjoyment count for nothing.

Connections

The 'God does not enable him to enjoy' language inverts Deuteronomy's blessings-for-obedience framework (Deuteronomy 28:1-14), where God rewards faithfulness with material abundance and the enjoyment of it. Qohelet observes a world where the connection between obedience and enjoyment has broken. The stillborn image connects to Job 3:16 ('like a hidden stillborn, I would not exist'). The closing questions about human ignorance echo 3:11 ('no one can discover what God has done from beginning to end').

Ecclesiastes 6:1

יֵ֣שׁ רָעָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר רָאִ֖יתִי תַּ֣חַת הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁ וְרַבָּ֥ה הִ֖יא עַל־הָאָדָֽם׃

There is an evil I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity:

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

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The phrase rabbah hi al ha-adam ('it is great/heavy upon the human') indicates this is not a rare case but a widespread burden. Qohelet introduces a case study that reverses the positive enjoyment teaching of 5:18-19.
Ecclesiastes 6:2

אִ֣ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִתֶּן־ל֣וֹ הָאֱלֹהִ֡ים עֹ֠שֶׁר וּנְכָסִ֨ים וְכָב֜וֹד וְאֵינֶ֨נּוּ חָסֵ֥ר לְנַפְשׁ֣וֹ ׀ מִכֹּ֣ל אֲשֶׁר־יִתְאַוֶּ֗ה וְלֹֽא־יַשְׁלִיטֶ֤נּוּ הָאֱלֹהִים֙ לֶאֱכֹ֣ל מִמֶּ֔נּוּ כִּ֛י אִ֥ישׁ נׇכְרִ֖י יֹאכֲלֶ֑נּוּ זֶ֥ה הֶ֛בֶל וְחֳלִ֥י רָ֖ע הֽוּא׃

A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his appetite desires — yet God does not enable him to enjoy any of it, and a stranger consumes it instead. This is vapor and a grievous affliction.

KJV A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

חֳלִי רָע choliy ra
"grievous affliction" — evil sickness, painful disease, grievous affliction

A phrase unique to Ecclesiastes (also 5:12,15), describing conditions that are not merely unfortunate but pathological — deeply wrong in a way that causes suffering. Qohelet uses medical language to diagnose spiritual and social ills.

Translator Notes

  1. The theological weight of this verse falls on God as the agent who both gives and withholds. Qohelet offers no explanation for why God would give wealth but block enjoyment. The choliy ra ('evil sickness, grievous disease') language treats this condition as a kind of pathology — it is not just unfortunate, it is affliction.
Ecclesiastes 6:3

אִם־יוֹלִ֣יד אִ֣ישׁ מֵאָ֡ה וְשָׁנִ֣ים רַבּ֣וֹת יִֽהְיֶ֡ה וְרַ֣ב ׀ שֶׁיִּהְי֣וּ יְמֵֽי־שָׁנָ֗יו וְנַפְשׁוֹ֙ לֹא־תִשְׂבַּ֣ע מִן־הַטּוֹבָ֔ה וְגַם־קְבוּרָ֖ה לֹא־הָ֣יְתָה לּ֑וֹ אָמַ֕רְתִּי ט֥וֹב מִמֶּ֖נּוּ הַנָּֽפֶל׃

If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years — however many the days of his years may be — but his appetite is not satisfied with good things, and he does not even receive a proper burial, I say the stillborn child is better off than he.

KJV If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The hyperbole (a hundred children, many years) emphasizes that quantity of life and descendants cannot compensate for the absence of satisfaction (lo tisba min ha-tovah, 'his appetite is not filled with good'). The added detail of no burial (qevurah lo haytah lo) is the final indignity — in Israelite culture, lack of proper burial was a curse (Jeremiah 22:19). The nefel ('stillborn, miscarriage') is declared tov mimmennu ('better than he').
Ecclesiastes 6:4

כִּי־בַהֶ֥בֶל בָּ֖א וּבַחֹ֣שֶׁךְ יֵלֵ֑ךְ וּבַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ שְׁמ֥וֹ יְכֻסֶּֽה׃

For the stillborn arrives in vapor and departs in darkness, and its name is covered in darkness.

KJV For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The stillborn's existence is characterized by hevel ('vapor') and choshekh ('darkness'). It comes and goes without light, without name, without memory. Yet even this shadowed non-existence is preferable to a long life without satisfaction.
Ecclesiastes 6:5

גַּם־שֶׁ֥מֶשׁ לֹא־רָאָ֖ה וְלֹ֣א יָדָ֑ע נַ֥חַת לָזֶ֖ה מִזֶּֽה׃

It has never seen the sun or known anything, yet it has more rest than that man.

KJV Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The word nachat ('rest, tranquility') is the key comparison. The stillborn, though it never saw the sun (shemesh) and never knew (yada) anything, possesses what the wealthy, long-lived, unsatisfied man does not: rest. The absence of experience is, in this case, an advantage over the presence of unrelieved frustration.
Ecclesiastes 6:6

וְאִלּ֣וּ חָיָ֗ה אֶ֤לֶף שָׁנִים֙ פַּעֲמַ֔יִם וְטוֹבָ֖ה לֹ֣א רָאָ֑ה הֲלֹ֛א אֶל־מָק֥וֹם אֶחָ֖ד הַכֹּ֥ל הוֹלֵֽךְ׃

Even if he lived a thousand years twice over but never experienced good — do not all go to the same place?

KJV Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The hypothetical extends to absurd longevity: two thousand years. Even at that scale, life without tovah ('good, goodness, enjoyment') is worthless. The rhetorical question ('do not all go to the same place?') refers to death and echoes 3:20 — all return to dust. Length of life cannot solve the problem of quality of life.
Ecclesiastes 6:7

כׇּל־עֲמַ֥ל הָאָדָ֖ם לְפִ֑יהוּ וְגַם־הַנֶּ֖פֶשׁ לֹ֥א תִמָּלֵֽא׃

All of a person's toil is for his mouth, yet his appetite is never filled.

KJV All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The observation is biological and metaphorical at once: all work exists to feed the mouth (le-fihu), yet the nefesh ('appetite, soul, desire') is never satisfied (lo timmale, 'is not filled'). The gap between effort (amal) and satisfaction (male) is permanent. Toil feeds the body but cannot satisfy the deeper hunger.
Ecclesiastes 6:8

כִּ֛י מַה־יּוֹתֵ֥ר לֶחָכָ֖ם מִן־הַכְּסִ֑יל מַה־לֶּעָנִ֣י יוֹדֵ֔עַ לַהֲלֹ֖ךְ נֶ֥גֶד הַחַיִּֽים׃

For what advantage does the wise person have over the fool? What advantage does the poor person have who knows how to conduct himself before the living?

KJV For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. Two rhetorical questions, both expecting the answer 'none — at least with respect to satisfying the appetite.' The phrase yodea la-halokh neged ha-chayyim ('knows how to walk before the living') describes the poor person with social skill — even he, despite knowing how to navigate society, gains no advantage in the struggle against insatiable desire.
Ecclesiastes 6:9

ט֛וֹב מַרְאֵ֥ה עֵינַ֖יִם מֵהֲלׇךְ־נָ֑פֶשׁ גַּם־זֶ֥ה הֶ֖בֶל וּרְע֥וּת רֽוּחַ׃

Better what the eyes can see than the wandering of desire. This too is vapor and chasing after wind.

KJV Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The proverb counsels contentment with what is present (mar'eh einayim, 'the sight of the eyes' — what you can actually see) rather than the restless roaming of appetite (halokh nefesh, 'the walking of the soul/desire'). But even this contentment is declared hevel — Qohelet cannot let even good advice escape the vapor verdict.
Ecclesiastes 6:10

מַה־שֶּׁהָיָ֗ה כְּבָר֙ נִקְרָ֣א שְׁמ֔וֹ וְנוֹדָ֖ע אֲשֶׁר־ה֣וּא אָדָ֑ם וְלֹא־יוּכַ֣ל לָדִ֔ין עִ֥ם שֶׁתַּקִּ֖יף מִמֶּֽנּוּ׃

Whatever exists has already been named, and what a human being is has been determined. He cannot contend with the one who is stronger than he.

KJV That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The 'already named' (kevar niqra shemo) echoes the creation narrative where God names things into existence (Genesis 1) and Adam names the animals (Genesis 2:19-20). What a person is (adam) has been determined — the boundaries are fixed. The 'one stronger' (she-taqqif mimmennu) is God. Humans cannot argue their way out of their limitations.
Ecclesiastes 6:11

כִּ֤י יֵשׁ־דְּבָרִים֙ הַרְבֵּ֔ה מַרְבִּ֖ים הָ֑בֶל מַה־יֹּתֵ֖ר לָאָדָֽם׃

For the more words there are, the more vapor there is. What advantage is that to a person?

KJV Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The word devarim means both 'words' and 'things.' The ambiguity is likely intentional: both excessive speech and excessive activity produce more hevel without producing more benefit. The question 'what advantage to a person?' (mah yoter la-adam) echoes the yitron question from 1:3 once more.
Ecclesiastes 6:12

כִּ֣י מִֽי־יוֹדֵ֞עַ מַה־טּ֤וֹב לָֽאָדָם֙ בַּֽחַיִּ֔ים מִסְפַּ֥ר יְמֵי־חַיֵּ֥י הֶבְל֖וֹ וְיַעֲשֵׂ֣ם כַּצֵּ֑ל אֲשֶׁר֙ מִֽי־יַגִּ֣יד לָאָדָ֔ם מַה־יִּהְיֶ֥ה אַחֲרָ֖יו תַּ֥חַת הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃

For who knows what is good for a person during the few days of his vaporous life, which he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell anyone what will happen after him under the sun?

KJV For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The chapter closes with two questions that define the limits of human knowledge. The first — 'who knows what is good?' — challenges the assumption that we can identify our own best interest. The second — 'who can tell what will happen after?' — challenges the assumption that we can plan for the future. The phrase yeme chayyei hevlo ('the days of his vaporous life') makes hevel a modifier of life itself — life is vapor-like in its duration and substance. The shadow comparison (ka-tsel, 'like a shadow') adds a second image of insubstantiality.
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