Ecclesiastes 6:4-6

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Ecclesiastes 6:4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (“the stillborn child”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2. Ecclesiastes 6:4 tn The phrase “into the world” does not appear in Hebrew, but is added in the translation for clarity.
3. Ecclesiastes 6:4 sn The birth of the stillborn was in vain—it did it no good to be born.
4. Ecclesiastes 6:4 sn The name of the stillborn is forgotten.
5. Ecclesiastes 6:5 tn Heb “saw the sun.”
6. Ecclesiastes 6:5 tn The word “anything” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.
7. Ecclesiastes 6:5 sn The Hebrew term translated rest here refers to freedom from toil, anxiety, and misery—part of the miserable misfortune that the miserly man of wealth must endure.
8. Ecclesiastes 6:6 tn Heb “Do not all go to the same place?” The rhetorical question is an example of erotesis of positive affirmation, expecting a positive answer, e.g., Ps 56:13 [14] (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 947). It affirms the fact that both the miserly rich man who lives two thousand years, as well as the stillborn who never lived one day, both go to the same place—the grave. And if the miserly rich man never enjoyed the fruit of his labor during his life, his fate was no better than that of the stillborn who never had opportunity to enjoy any of the blessings of life. In a sense, it would have been better for the miserly rich man to have never lived than to have experienced the toil, anxiety, and misery of accumulating his wealth, but never enjoying any of the fruits of his labor.