Parallel Bible results for "ecclesiastes 6"

Ecclesiastes 6

The Message Bible MSG

1 I looked long and hard at what goes on around here, and let me tell you, things are bad. And people feel it.

2 There are people, for instance, on whom God showers everything - money, property, reputation - all they ever wanted or dreamed of. And then God doesn't let them enjoy it. Some stranger comes along and has all the fun. It's more of what I'm calling smoke. A bad business.

3 Say a couple have scores of children and live a long, long life but never enjoy themselves - even though they end up with a big funeral! I'd say that a stillborn baby gets the better deal.

4 It gets its start in a mist and ends up in the dark - unnamed.

5 It sees nothing and knows nothing, but is better off by far than anyone living.

6 Even if someone lived a thousand years - make it two thousand! - but didn't enjoy anything, what's the point? Doesn't everyone end up in the same place?

7 We work to feed our appetites; Meanwhile our souls go hungry.

8 So what advantage has a sage over a fool, or over some poor wretch who barely gets by?

9 Just grab whatever you can while you can; don't assume something better might turn up by and by. All it amounts to anyway is smoke. And spitting into the wind.

10 Whatever happens, happens. Its destiny is fixed. You can't argue with fate.

11 The more words that are spoken, the more smoke there is in the air. And who is any better off?

12 And who knows what's best for us as we live out our meager smoke-and-shadow lives? And who can tell any of us the next chapter of our lives?

World English Bible WEB

1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men:

2 a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but an alien eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

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 filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:

4 for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.

5 Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other.

6 Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, don't all go to one place?

7 All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

8 For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?

9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

10 Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.

11 For there are many words that create vanity. What does that profit man?

12 For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?