Ecclesiastes 6:12
For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow? For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
A Conservative Version
In The King James Version
In Context
11Since there are many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
Cross References
Job 8:9(for we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow).
Job 14:21His sons come to honor, and he does not know it, and they are brought low, but he does not perceive it of them.
Psalms 16:5LORD is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintain my lot.
Psalms 39:5Behold, thou have made my days [as] handbreadths, and my life-time is as nothing before thee. Surely every man at his best condition is altogether vanity. Selah.
Psalms 89:47O remember how short my time is, for what vanity thou have created all the sons of men!
Psalms 102:11My days are like a shadow that declines, and I am withered like grass.
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 6:12
The Insatiableness of Desire. 11 Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better? 12 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? Here, 1. Solomon lays down his conclusion which he had undertaken to prove, as that which was fully confirmed by the foregoing discourse: There be many things that increase vanity; the life of man is vain, at the best, and there are… Read the whole commentary →