a person to whom God has (A)given riches, wealth, and honor, so that his soul (B)lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God has not given him the opportunity to [a]enjoy these things, but a foreigner [b]enjoys them. This is futility and a severe affliction. If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many [c]they may be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper (C)burial, then I say, “Better (D)the miscarriage than he, for a miscarriage comes in futility and goes into darkness; and its name is covered in darkness.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 6:2 Lit eat from it
  2. Ecclesiastes 6:2 Lit eats it
  3. Ecclesiastes 6:3 Lit the days of his years

God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them,(A) and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.(B)

A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn(C) child is better off than he.(D) It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded.

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