Ecclesiastes 6:3

A man could have one hundred children, and grow old, but it wouldn't matter how long his life was if he couldn't enjoy it and at the end receive a decent burial. I would say that a stillborn child would be better off than him.

Free Bible Version

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

2God gives wealth, possessions, and honor to someone. They have everything they want. But God doesn't let them enjoy what they have. Instead somebody else does! This is hard to fathom, and is truly evil.

4The way a stillborn child comes into the world and then leaves is painfully hard to understand—arriving and departing in darkness—and who he would have been is never known.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 6

Cross References

Genesis 47:9“I have been wandering for 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My life has been short and difficult—I have not lived as long as my forefathers who also wandered from place to place.”

2 Kings 9:35They went out to bury her but all they found were her skull, her feet, and her hands.

1 Chronicles 28:5From all my sons (for the Lord gave me many) the Lord has chosen Solomon my child to sit on the throne and to rule over the Lord's kingdom Israel.

Esther 5:11Haman went into great detail about how much money and possessions he had, and how many children, and how the king had made him so important by promoting him above all the other nobles and officials.

Esther 9:14The king ordered this to be done. A decree was issued in Susa, and they impaled the bodies of Haman's ten sons.

Job 3:16Why wasn't I a miscarriage, buried in secret, a baby who never saw the light?

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 6:2-7

The Miseries of Covetousness. 1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: 2 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. 3 If a man beget a 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… Read the whole commentary →

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