Ecclesiastes 6 Footnotes

6:4-5 In vv. 1-6, Ecclesiastes says that a wealthy man who never learns to enjoy life is no better off than a “stillborn child.” The description of the stillborn child is bleak: The child will have no experiences, no identity, and no place in the world. This was a rhetorical comparison to make the point that a life without joy is futile; the promise of the unborn child’s life is frustrated by his premature death in the same way that an outwardly successful man might never come to experience the benefits of living. This is not a teaching about the nature of life in the womb or a statement that abortion is morally insignificant because the fetus has no personhood. To the contrary, it is the futility of a stillbirth—in which the child at least has “more rest”—that exposes the equal absurdity of the man who has received life’s benefits but “aborts” his enjoyment of them.