Ecclesiastes 6:5

5 Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.

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.
FOOTNOTES:

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

Ecclesiastes 6:5 In-Context

3 If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
4 For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
5 Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
6 Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
The King James Version is in the public domain.