Ecclesiastes 6

Ecclesiastes 6:1-12 .

1. common--or else more literally,--"great upon man," falls heavily upon man.

2. for his soul--that is, his enjoyment.
God giveth him not power to eat--This distinguishes him from the "rich" man in Ecclesiastes 5:19 . "God hath given" distinguishes him also from the man who got his wealth by "oppression" ( Ecclesiastes 5:8 Ecclesiastes 5:10 ).
stranger--those not akin, nay, even hostile to him ( Jeremiah 51:51 , Lamentations 5:2 , Hosea 7:9 ). He seems to have it in his "power" to do as he will with his wealth, but an unseen power gives him up to his own avarice: God wills that he should toil for "a stranger" ( Ecclesiastes 2:26 ), who has found favor in God's sight.

3. Even if a man (of this character) have very many (equivalent to "a hundred," 2 Kings 10:1 ) children, and not have a "stranger" as his heir ( Ecclesiastes 6:2 ), and live long ("days of years" express the brevity of life at its best, Genesis 47:9 ), yet enjoy no real "good" in life, and lie unhonored, without "burial," at death ( 2 Kings 9:26 2 Kings 9:35 ), the embryo is better than he. In the East to be without burial is the greatest degradation. "Better the fruit that drops from the tree before it is ripe than that left to hang on till rotten" [HENRY].

4. he--rather "it," "the untimely birth." So "its," not "his name."
with vanity--to no purpose; a type of the driftless existence of him who makes riches the chief good.
darkness--of the abortive; a type of the unhonored death and dark future beyond the grave of the avaricious.

5. this--yet "it has more rest than" the toiling, gloomy miser.

6. If the miser's length of "life" be thought to raise him above the abortive, Solomon answers that long life, without enjoying real good, is but lengthened misery, and riches cannot exempt him from going whither "all go." He is fit neither for life, nor death, nor eternity.

7. man--rather, "the man," namely, the miser ( Ecclesiastes 6:3-6 ). For not all men labor for the mouth, that is, for selfish gratification.
appetite--Hebrew, "the soul." The insatiability of the desire prevents that which is the only end proposed in toils, namely, self-gratification; "the man" thus gets no "good" out of his wealth ( Ecclesiastes 6:3 ).

8. For--"However" [MAURER]. The "for" means (in contrast to the insatiability of the miser), For what else is the advantage which the wise man hath above the fool?"
What--advantage, that is, superiority, above him who knows not how to walk uprightly
hath the poor who knoweth to walk before the living?--that is, to use and enjoy life aright ( Ecclesiastes 5:18 Ecclesiastes 5:19 ), a cheerful, thankful, godly "walk" ( Psalms 116:9 ).

9. Answer to the question in Ecclesiastes 6:8 . This is the advantage:
Better is the sight of the eyes--the wise man's godly enjoyment of present seen blessings
than the (fool's) wandering--literally, walking ( Psalms 73:9 ), of the desire, that is, vague, insatiable desires for what he has not ( Ecclesiastes 6:7 , Hebrews 13:5 ).
this--restless wandering of desire, and not enjoying contentedly the present ( 1 Timothy 6:6 1 Timothy 6:8 ).