Ecclesiastes 6:3

3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that 1the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's 2good things, and he also has no 3burial, I say that 4a stillborn child is better off than he.

Ecclesiastes 6:3 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 6:3

If a man beget an hundred [children]
Sons and daughters, a certain number for an uncertain. Some have had many children, and almost this number; Rehoboam had twenty eight sons and threescore daughters; and Ahab had seventy sons, how many daughters is not said, ( 2 Chronicles 11:21 ) ( 2 Kings 10:1 ) ; this was reckoned a great honour and happiness to have many children; happy was the man that had his quiver full of them, ( Psalms 127:3 ) ; such a case is here supposed; and live many years, so that the days of his years be many;
or "sufficient", as Jarchi interprets it; he lives as long as life is desirable; lives to a good old age, to the full age of men, threescore years and ten; yea, supposing he was to live to be as old as Methuselah, and his soul be not filled with good;
does not enjoy the good things he has; has no pleasure nor satisfaction in the temporal good things of life, has not the comfort of them, and is always uneasy, because he has not more of them; and especially if his soul is not filled with spiritual good things, the grace of God, and righteousness of Christ; And also [that] he have no burial;
as Jezebel, Jehoiakim, and others; who is either destroyed by robbers and cutthroats, for the sake of his substance, and cast into a ditch or a river, or some place, where he is never found to be interred; or else, being of such a sordid disposition, he provides not for a decent burial, suitably to his circumstances, or forbids one; or, being despised and disesteemed by all men, his heirs and successors either neglect or refuse to give him one; see ( Jeremiah 22:29 ) ; I say [that] an untimely birth [is] better than he;
an abortive is to be preferred unto him; it would have been better for him if he had never been born, or had been in such a case.

Ecclesiastes 6:3 In-Context

1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind:
2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.
3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.
5 Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he.

Cross References 4

  • 1. Genesis 47:8, 9
  • 2. [ver. 6]
  • 3. Isaiah 14:20; Jeremiah 8:2; Jeremiah 22:19; [2 Kings 9:35]
  • 4. Ecclesiastes 4:3; Job 3:16
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.