Ecclesiastes Chapter 6

¹ There’s a common tragedy I’ve seen under the sun: ² people that God has given wealth and honor so they have everything they could want, but he hasn’t given them a chance to enjoy them; a foreigner is enjoying them. That’s a pointless tragedy. ³ If a man fathers 100 children and lives for however many years, but isn’t satisfied with good things and doesn’t even get a proper burial, then I say,

“A miscarriage is better off ⁴ because it would have come in pointless and gone out in the dark. ⁵ A miscarriage never sees the sun or knows anything. ⁶ Even if someone lives 1,000 years twice and isn’t content, what’s the point? Everybody ends up in the same place.”

⁷ All our labor is for our mouth; yet our appetite isn’t satisfied. ⁸ What advantage do the wise have over the foolish? What advantage do the poor have that know how to conduct themselves with other people? ⁹ What the eyes see is better than what the soul wants. That’s pointless too, like chasing the wind. 

Eccl 6:1-9

¹⁰ God has already decided what’s going to happen, including what each of us will be. We can’t argue with him about it; he’s stronger than we are. ¹¹ The more we say the less it means; so what’s the point of talking? ¹² Who knows what’s good for us anyway during the few years of our pointless life? They’ll go by like a shadow, and who can tell us what will happen under the sun when they’re done?        

Eccl 6:10-12