Ecclesiastes 6

Ecclesiastes 6:2

Yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger cateth it.

Yet God hath not given him a free heart, to take comfort and benefit in the use of his riches; but rather hath given him up to

Ecclesiastes 6:3

If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, &c. 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.

Let a man live to never so fair and full an age, as long life is indeed a blessing of God; and let him be as full of children as of years, as children also are the gift of God; yet, if that man scant and abridge himself of all his due comforts here through his own miserableness, and after his death be debarred of an honest and comely sepulture, I say that an untimely birth is in a condition less ill than he.

Ecclesiastes 6:4

For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

For that abortive birth comes into the world without all noise or use, and passes away obscurely without notice; and, as it lived not to have a name, so the name and memory of it vanisheth into darkness and oblivion.

Ecclesiastes 6:5

This hath more rest than the other.

He hath been freed by so early a death from those vexations, which the old covetous man puts himself unto.

Ecclesiastes 6:6

Yea, though he have lived a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good; do not all go to one place?

Yea, though he have lived a thousand years twice told, yet, when it is past, what is he the better for that? Is he not now in the same state with the abortive? Do not both of them go alike unto dust?

Ecclesiastes 6:7

All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

Indeed, all the labour of man should be, and ordinarily is, for the preservation of his life; but the covetous man toils, he knows not for what; and though nature be content with a little, yet his appetite of having is never satisfied.

Ecclesiastes 6:8

For what hath the wise man more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living? q. d. But the same with the rich.

In respect of the outward maintenance of this life, what can the wise man have, which the fool may not? Both of them may and must live by meat: either of them may come to abound or want. What hath the rich, more than the poor man, that knows how to live? His superfluity is nothing to his life.

Ecclesiastes 6:9

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire.

It is far better, for a man to enjoy that present good which is before his eyes, than to dissuciate and rack his thoughts with an insatiable desire of what he hath not, or perhaps cannot have.

Ecclesiastes 6:10

That which hath been is named already, and it is known to be man: neither may be contend with him that is mightier than he.

There is a wise and infinite Providence of God, under which, eminently amongst the other creatures, man is; whom God hath noted and designed out with all his qualities and endowments, and hath determined to him all his conditions and events; neither can he think to struggle himself out, from the mighty and overruling power of his Creator.

Ecclesiastes 6:11

Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is a man the better?

As man is vanity, so are those things which he affecteth; where there are many things therefore, there must needs be an increase of vanity; what is a man the better therefore, for having more vanities besides his own?

Ecclesiastes 6:12

For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

We are commonly subject to mistakings in our opinions, concerning good things: we ofttimes take that for good and profitable, which is indeed harmful to us, either in the kind or quantity of it; and if in this fleeting and vanishing life we be thus ignorant, in present things, how much more in future? Who can tell a man what shall be after him?