Ecclesiastes 6:5

5 Though it has never seen the sun or known anything, the baby finds more rest than the rich person.

Ecclesiastes 6:5 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 6:5

Moreover, he hath not seen the sun
This must be spoken of the abortive, and seems to confirm the sense of the former text, as belonging to it; and whereas it has never seen the light of the sun, nor enjoyed the pleasure and comfort of it, it is no ways distressing to it to be without it. The Targum is,

``the light of the law he seeth not; and knoweth not between good and evil, to judge between this world and that to come:''

so the Vulgate Latin version, "neither knows the difference of good and evil"; nor known [anything];
not the sun, nor anything else: or "experienced" ^F26 and "felt" the heat of the sun, and its comfortable influences; which a man may, who is blind, and has never seen it, but an abortive has not; and indeed has known no man, nor any creature nor thing in this world, and therefore it is no concern to it to be without them; and besides, has never had any knowledge or experience of the troubles of lifts, which every living man is liable to. Wherefore this is certain, this hath more rest than the other;
that is, the abortive than the covetous man; having never been distressed with the troubles of life, and now not affected with the sense of loss.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 (edy alw) "ueque expertus est", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Rambachius, so Broughton.

Ecclesiastes 6:5 In-Context

3 Suppose a rich person wasn't satisfied with good things [while he was alive] and didn't even get an honorable burial [after he died]. Suppose he had a hundred children and lived for many years. No matter how long he would have lived, it [still] would have been better for him to have been born dead.

4 A stillborn baby arrives in a pointless birth and goes out into the darkness. The darkness then hides its name.

5 Though it has never seen the sun or known anything, the baby finds more rest than the rich person.

6 Even if the rich person lives two thousand years without experiencing anything good--don't we all go to the same place?

7 Everything that people work so hard for goes into their mouths, but their appetite is never satisfied.