Ecclesiastes 6:5

5 Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man,

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 begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he--
4 for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
5 Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man,
6 even if he lives a thousand years twice--but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one place?
7 All the labor of man is for his mouth, And yet the soul is not satisfied.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.