Bible

Ecclesiastes 6 (AMP)

Topics in Book | Outline of Book | Facts About Book | Commentary | Parallel Verse

NET | ESV | KJV | ASV | RSV | Good News | CEV | Basic | MSG | Spanish | French

Previous Chapter | Browse | Next Chapter

¹ THERE IS an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavily upon men: ² A man to whom God has given riches, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he might desire, yet God does not give him the power or capacity to enjoy them , but a stranger consumes and enjoys them. This is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility); it is a sore affliction! ³ If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, but his life is not filled with good, and also he is given no burial , I say that an untimely birth is better off than he, ⁴ For comes in futility and goes into darkness, and in darkness his name is covered. ⁵ Moreover, he has not seen the sun nor had any knowledge, yet he has rest rather than he . ⁶ Even though he lives a thousand years twice over and yet has seen no good and experienced no enjoyment--do not all go to one place ? ⁷ All the labor of man is for his mouth , and yet his desire is not satisfied. ⁸ For what advantage has the wise man over the fool ? What advantage has the poor man who has learned how to walk before the living ? ⁹ Better is the sight of the eyes than the cravings of wandering desire. This is also vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility) and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it! ¹⁰ Whatever is, he has been named that long ago, and it is known that it is man ; nor can he contend with Him who is mightier than he . ¹¹ Seeing that there are many other things and words that increase the emptiness, falsity, vainglory, and futility , what profit and what outcome is there for man? ¹² For who knows what is good for man in his life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow ? For who can tell a man what will happen under the sun after he is gone?