Ecclesiasteschapter 6
12 verses · Solomon, by tradition · 10th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
God gives a man riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; but God does not allow him to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger will enjoy them. This is futile and a grievous affliction.
Introduction
Solomon, by tradition, Wisdom and poetry, Ecclesiastes Overview.
This short chapter belongs to the book of wisdom that tradition gives to Solomon, and it takes up the hardest case the Teacher has seen. It was heard by Israelites who measured a good life by riches, many children, long years and a proper burial. The chapter grants a man every one of those marks and then asks what they are worth without the power to enjoy them. Listen for the startling comparison at its centre and for the appetite that is fed each day and never filled. It ends on two questions the book is still working to answer.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who measured a good life by children, long years, and a proper burial
- What
- A reflection on a man who has wealth, children and long life and yet cannot enjoy them.
- Where
- The household and family tomb of a wealthy Israelite.
- When
- Late in the reign of Solomon, about 940 BC, on the traditional reading; many date the book's Hebrew to the Persian period, so the date is held with less certainty than the setting.
- Why
- To show that the gifts people count as blessing are empty without the enjoyment that God alone gives.
Historical context
The chapter names the three things everyone in that world wanted, riches, many children, and a long life, and then removes the one thing that made them count: "he hath no burial." To an ancient Israelite, being gathered to your fathers in the family tomb, with the bones of past generations in it, was the proper end of a life. Bodies were laid on rock shelves in a cave tomb and the bones later collected into a pit or box, so the family stayed together underground. Dying unburied, killed abroad, lost, or despised, was a horror.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
"An untimely birth is better than he" invokes the stillborn child, who "cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness." It is the bleakest comparison the writer can make, and he makes it against a man with a hundred children and a long life.
"All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled." The word is nephesh, the appetite or the throat, the thing that has to be fed again tomorrow no matter how well it was fed today. Everyone from the field labourer to the king was working for the same mouth.
"Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire." The Hebrew is closer to "the wandering of the appetite", better what is actually in front of you than the roaming want that never lands anywhere.
Significance
First hearers who could name every marker of a blessed life were being shown a man who scored full marks on all of them and was still, by the writer's judgment, worse off than a child who never drew breath.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The question that closes the chapter, "who knoweth what is good for man in this life?", is left open on purpose. The book is not finished answering it.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard aloud once a year, when the whole book is read at Sukkot on the Sabbath that falls in the festival week. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records that reading and sources it to Tractate Soferim 14:3; it printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for this book. The corpus ties no further custom to this chapter, and none is supplied here.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern, and the edition's own notes are never quoted as his.
The man with wealth he cannot enjoy Rashi reads two ways. The plain sense is first: "Its simple explanation, is its apparent meaning" (Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:2:1). The lack is contentment, for the man is not happy with his portion and strives to oppress and gather. The deeper lack is charity. God does not give him the power to give it, "but a stranger will take that money and perform charity and he will benefit from it" (Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:2:2).
A life of two thousand years would give such a man no advantage, "since he did not experience any pleasure" (Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:6:1). All a man's labour is for his mouth, so that he benefits "in this world and in the next" (Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:7:1). The appetite never filled Rashi reads first as a question about this life. A second explanation reads it "For the World to Come, for he did not perform good deeds in his lifetime" (Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:8:2).
The ninth verse draws two explanations, and Rashi sets them side by side. In the first, it would have been better for the man to look on his wealth and enjoy it (Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:9:1). In the second, the sight of the eyes is robbery and oppression, and the course of the soul is the question "where his soul will go when he dies" (Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:9:2).
What has already been named is a man's stature in his lifetime. It passed, and it was made known that he was a man and not a god, unable to strive with the angel of death (Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:10:1). The many things that increase vanity are the pastimes he filled his life with, "such as the games of the kings, [e.g.,] monkeys, elephants and lions" (Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:11:1). The chapter ends on the question of what a man should do in his short days "so that it will bring him goodness in the hereafter" (Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:12:1).
The corpus carries eight further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Six stand at Ibn Ezra on Ecclesiastes 6:1:1, 6:4:1, 6:5:1, 6:6:1, 6:10:1 and 6:11:1, and two at Metzudat David on Ecclesiastes 6:4:1 and 6:5:1, cited by ref alone.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Kohelet Rabbah and Midrash Lekach Tov on Ecclesiastes stand together under every verse but the sixth: at 6:1:1, 6:2:1, 6:3:1, 6:4:1, 6:5:1, 6:7:1, 6:8:1, 6:9:1, 6:10:1, 6:11:1 and 6:12:1, with Kohelet Rabbah alone at 6:6:1. Other passages of Kohelet Rabbah stand beside them, at 3:2:2 under the third verse, 1:7:5 under the seventh and 1:2:1 under the twelfth.
The wider sources carry the rest. On the first verse, the evil that weighs on men, the corpus holds Aggadat Bereshit 1:4. On the second it holds Jerusalem Talmud Horayot 3:5:12 and Midrash Shmuel 1:5. On the third, the man who begets a hundred children, it holds Bereshit Rabbah 6:5 and Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 2:6:9. On the fourth, the one who comes in vanity, it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai, Additions 10:1 with Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Emor 7:6 and Midrash Tanchuma, Emor 5:1. On the seventh, all the labour of man for his mouth, it holds Aggadat Bereshit 3:1, Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 19:23:5 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Kedoshim 13:1. On the ninth it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 8:1 and Ein Yaakov, Yoma 8:2. On the tenth, what has been already named, it holds Midrash Tanchuma at Ki Tisa 12:1 and Pekudei 3:6. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ecclesiastes 6:1:1 to 6:12:2, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Ecclesiastes 6:1:1, 6:4:1, 6:5:1, 6:6:1, 6:10:1 and 6:11:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Ecclesiastes 6:4:1 and 6:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ecclesiastes/6.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this book and printing parashot total 0, haftarah uses total 0, and the festival reading at Sukkot on the Sabbath that falls in the festival week, sourced there to Tractate Soferim 14:3.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Riches Given, and No Power to Eat Thereof
Ecclesiastes 6:1-2
There is another evil I have seen under the sun: The Teacher names an evil: God gives a man riches, wealth, and honor, yet God does not allow him to enjoy them. The refrain at 5:19 joins wealth and the power to enjoy it, and here the two are split. The Teacher calls it futile and a grievous affliction.
Ecclesiastes 6:1
“As it is with the blood in the natural body, so it is with the wealth of the body politic, if, instead of circulating, it stagnates, it will be of ill consequence.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
God gives a man riches: Clarke observes that God gives riches and also gives the power to enjoy them, and a man may have the first without the second. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the stranger as someone outside his family, even hostile to him. Ambrose adds the torment of guarding such wealth.
Ecclesiastes 6:2
A man to whom God hath given riches - A man may possess much earthly goods, and yet enjoy nothing of them. Possession and fruition are not necessarily joined together; and this is also among the vanities of life. It is worthy of remark, that it belongs to God as much to give the power to enjoy as it does to give the earthly blessings. A wise heathen saw this: - Di tibi divitias dederant, artemque fruendi. Hor. Ep. lib. i., ep. 4, ver. 7. “The gods had given thee riches, and the art to enjoy them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ecclesiastes 6:2
“What good is there for a person in this life? He lives in darkness and cannot be satisfied in his desires. And if he is sated with riches, he loses the enjoyment of his rest, because he is forced to guard the possessions he has acquired through his wretched greed. Thus he possesses them in greater wretchedness, seeing that they can do him no good. For what is more wretched than to be tormented with guarding them and derive no advantage from their abundance?”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Death as a Good 2:4patristic
Ecclesiastes 6:3-6
A man may father a hundred children: The case grows harsher: a man may father a hundred children, yet if he is unsatisfied and unburied, a stillborn child is better than he. The stillborn enters in futility and departs in darkness, yet has more rest than that man, though he lived a thousand years twice over.
Ecclesiastes 6:3
“In the East to be without burial is the greatest degradation. "Better the fruit that drops from the tree before it is ripe than that left to hang on till rotten" [HENRY].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Ecclesiastes 6:3
“The soul is not filled, so the word is. When God gave Israel their request he sent leanness into their souls, Ps. cvi. He was a fool who, when his barns were full, said, Soul, take thine ease.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
a stillborn child enters in futility: Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the pronouns as it and its, referring to the stillborn. The child comes to no purpose and leaves no name. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take its darkness as a type of the unhonored death of the man who makes riches his chief good.
Ecclesiastes 6:4
For he cometh in with vanity,.... The Targum adds, "into this world."
1 more voice on this verse
Ecclesiastes 6:4
“He - The abortive; of whom alone, that passage is true, hath not seen the sun, ver. 5. In vain - To no purpose; without any comfort or benefit by it. Departeth - Without any observation or regard of men.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
has more rest than that man: Gill observes that the stillborn child never saw the sun and so never missed its comfort. Henry counts its knowing nothing a real loss, the lack of man's greatest pleasure and honor. Barnes gives the rest to the child over the rich man.
a thousand years twice over: Gill notes that two thousand years is more than twice Methuselah's age, a supposition beyond any real life. Long life without enjoyment is lengthened misery, in the words of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown. Henry names the common place as the grave.
Ecclesiastes 6:6
“He that lives a thousand years goes to the same place with the child that does not live an hour, ch. iii. The grave is the place we shall all meet in. Whatever differences there may be in men's condition in this world, they must all die, are all under the same sentence, and, to outward appearance, their deaths are alike.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Ecclesiastes 6:6
“If the miser's length of "life" be thought to raise him above the abortive, Solomon answers that long life, without enjoying real good, is but lengthened misery, and riches cannot exempt him from going whither "all go." He is fit neither for life, nor death, nor eternity.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ecclesiastes 6:6
“Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told,.... Or two thousand years, which no man ever did, nor even one thousand years; Methuselah, the oldest man, did not live so long as that; this is than twice the age of the oldest man: there is one sort of the Ethiopians, who are said (a) to live almost half space of time longer than usual, called from thence Macrobii; which Pliny (b) makes to be one hundred and forty years, which is just double the common term of life. This here is only a supposition.”
Who Knoweth What Is Good for Man in His Vain Days?
Ecclesiastes 6:7-9
All a man’s labor is for his mouth: The chapter turns to the common case: All a man’s labor is for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied. The question What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool levels rank. The proverb sets what the eye can see above the wandering of desire.
Ecclesiastes 6:7
“Connect these verses with Ecc 6:2-3: “All labor is undertaken with a view to some profit, but as a rule the people who labor are never satisfied. What advantage then has he who labors if (being rich) he is wise, or if being poor he knows how to conduct himself properly; what advantage have such laborers above a fool? (None, so far as they are without contentment, for) a thing present before the eyes is preferable to a future which exists only in the desire.” Ecc 6:8 What - literally, what profit (as in Ecc 1:3).”
the wise man over the fool?: Clarke answers from the body's needs: wise man and fool alike must eat to live, and both come to death. Wesley reads the poor man as skilled and industrious. Henry names his gain: he knows how to live content and is honored among others.
Ecclesiastes 6:8
“For what hath the wise more than the fool? - They must both labor for the same end. Both depend upon the labor of themselves or others for the necessaries of life. Both must eat and drink in order to live; and the rich man can no more eat two meals at a time, than he can comfortably wear two changes of raiment. The necessaries of life are the same to both, and their condition in life is nearly similar; liable to the same diseases, dissolution, and death.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ecclesiastes 6:8
“Why, he is better beloved and more respected among his neighbours, and has a better interest than many a rich man that is griping and haughty. Why he has as much of the comfort of this life, has food and raiment, and is therewith content, and so is as truly rich as he that has abundance.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Better what the eye can see: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read what the eye can see as blessings already present, and the wandering as the reach after what a man lacks. Clarke gives the Hebrew behind wandering as the traveling of the soul. Henry adds that even a desire fulfilled disappoints.
Ecclesiastes 6:9
"Better is what the eyes see than what is imagined. That, too, is futility and a vexation of the spirit." Symmachus interpreted this clearly, he says: "it is better to make provision, than to walk about as it pleases you". That is, it is better to do all things according to what you know to be right in your mind, which is the eye of the soul, than to follow the desire of your heart. For this is to wander in spirit, just as Ezekiel says: "he who walks by the desire of his heart" [Ezek. 11, 21.].
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ecclesiastespatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Ecclesiastes 6:9
“Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire - This is translated by the Vulgate, as a sort of adage: Melius est videre quod cupias, quam desiderare quod nescias, “It is better to see what one desires than to covet what one knows not.” It is better to enjoy the present than to feed one’s self with vain desires of the future. What we translate the wandering of desire, מהלך נפש mehaloch nephesh, is the travelling of the soul. What is this? Does it simply mean desire?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ecclesiastes 6:9
“This wandering of the desire is vanity and vexation of spirit. It is vanity at the best; if what is desired, be obtained, it proves not what we promised ourselves from it, but commonly the wandering desire is crossed and disappointed, and then it turns to vexation of spirit.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ecclesiastes 6:10-12
Whatever exists was named long ago: More words bring more futility, and the Teacher asks who knows what is good for a man, whose life passes like a shadow. The last question, Who can tell a man what will come after him, states the need the better-than proverbs of chapter 7 take up.
Ecclesiastes 6:10
“That which hath been--man's various circumstances is named already--not only has existed, Ec 1:9; 3:15, but has received its just name, "vanity," long ago, and it is known that it--vanity is man--Hebrew, "Adam," equivalent to man "of red dust," as his Creator appropriately named him from his frailty. neither may he contend, &c.-- (Ro 9:20).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Ecclesiastes 6:10
“That which hath been is named already - The Hebrew of this verse might be translated, “Who is he who is? His name has been already called. And it is known that he is Adam; and that he cannot contend in judgment with him who is stronger than he.” “What is more excellent than man; yet can he not, in the lawe, get the victory of him that is mightier than he.” - Coverdale. Adam is his name; and it at once points out, 1. His dignity; he was made in the image of God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Bonaventure reads the clause as many words, the talk of disputation that yields little truth. Gill and Wesley read many things, naming wisdom, wealth, pleasure and power as pursuits that add to futility. Barnes renders the close as what profits man.
Ecclesiastes 6:11
“Things - Namely, the various circumstances detailed in the foregoing chapters, from the Preacher’s personal experience, and his observation of other people, ending with the comprehensive declaration in Ecc 6:10 to the effect that vanity is an essential part of the constitution of creation as it now exists, and was foreknown. What is man the better? - Rather, what is profitable to man?”
1 more voice on this verse
Ecclesiastes 6:11
"Seeing" that man cannot escape from the "vanity," which by God's "mighty" will is inherent in earthly things, and cannot call in question God's wisdom in these dispensations (equivalent to "contend," &c.), what is man the better--of these vain things as regards the chief good?
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
who knows what is good: Wesley reads the question as uncertainty whether a high or low, rich or poor life is good for a man. Clarke answers that the future belongs to God. Barnes places what will come after him on earth under the sun, in the place a man leaves at death.
Ecclesiastes 6:12
“For who knoweth what is good for man in this life - Those things which we deem good are often evil. And those which we think evil are often good. So ignorant are we, that we run the greatest hazard in making a choice. It is better to leave ourselves and our concerns in the hands of the Lord, than to keep them in our own. For who can tell a man what shall be after him - Futurity is with God. While he lives, man wishes to know what is before him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, DEATH AS A GOOD 2:4; Bonaventure, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 6; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes; Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.