Kohelet 6:3

3 If an ish beget a hundredfold, and live shanim rabbot, so that rav be the yamim of his shanim, and his nefesh be not filled with hatovah, and also that he have no kevurah (grave); I say, that a nefel (stillborn) is better than he.

Kohelet 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.

Kohelet 6:3 In-Context

1 There is a ra’ah which I have seen under the shemesh, and it is a great weight upon the adam;
2 An ish to whom HaElohim hath given osher (riches), nekhasim (possessions), and kavod (honor), so that he wanteth nothing for his nefesh of all that he desireth, yet HaElohim giveth him not shlitah (empowerment) to have enjoyment thereof, but an ish nochri (stranger) hath the enjoyment thereof; this is hevel, and it is a grievous ill.
3 If an ish beget a hundredfold, and live shanim rabbot, so that rav be the yamim of his shanim, and his nefesh be not filled with hatovah, and also that he have no kevurah (grave); I say, that a nefel (stillborn) is better than he.
4 For he cometh in with hevel, and departeth in choshech, and shmo shall be shrouded with choshech.
5 Moreover though he hath not seen the shemesh, nor known any thing, this hath more nakhat (rest, quietness) than the other.
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