Christianity
Ecclesiastes 6Wealth Without Enjoyment
Summary
Ecclesiastes 6 describes a grievous evil: a person to whom God gives riches, wealth and honor, but not the power to enjoy them, so a stranger consumes it. Even a man with a hundred children and a very long life is worse off than a stillborn child if his soul is not filled with good. All human labor is for the mouth, yet the appetite is never satisfied. The chapter closes asking who knows what is good for a person in a fleeting life that passes like a shadow.
Key verse
“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?”
Ecclesiastes 6:12
Themes
- Unfulfilled Desire
- Wealth and Satisfaction
- Shadow of Life
- Uncertainty
Text
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:
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.
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.
For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
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.
Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
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?
Text: King James Version (1611/1769), public domain.
Across traditions
Buddhism
Dhammapada 334 to 359: CravingThe Dhammapada's chapter on craving describes desire growing like a creeper and never satisfied. Ecclesiastes 6:7 makes the same observation that the appetite is never filled, though it does not prescribe the Buddhist path of uprooting craving.
Christianity
Matthew 16: Gain the Whole WorldJesus asks what a man is profited if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul (16:26), a question close to the Preacher's concern with wealth that cannot satisfy the soul.
Questions about Ecclesiastes 6
Why does Ecclesiastes 6 say a stillborn child is better off?
Ecclesiastes 6:3 to 5 uses this shocking comparison to stress that a long, prosperous life without contentment is empty. It is a statement about unhappiness, not a judgment on the value of children.
What does all the labour of man is for his mouth mean?
Ecclesiastes 6:7 observes that people work to satisfy their needs and desires, yet the appetite is never permanently filled.