Wealth Without Enjoyment
Study note
The Teacher describes a common and painful situation. God gives someone riches, wealth, and honor, but that person never gets to enjoy any of it. A stranger ends up using it all instead. The Teacher says that even a stillborn child is better off than someone who lives a long life without ever experiencing true happiness.
1 I have observed another painful thing in this world, and it weighs heavily on everyone. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:
2 God might give someone wealth, possessions, and respect so that they lack nothing they could wish for. But then God does not give them the ability to enjoy any of it, and a stranger ends up benefiting instead. This is meaningless and deeply hurtful. A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
3 Think of a man who has a hundred children and lives to be very old. But he never gets to enjoy the good things of life. He does not even get a proper burial. Then a child who was never born is better off than he is. 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 That unborn child arrives without purpose and leaves in darkness. Its very name is forgotten in the shadows. For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
5 Even though it never saw daylight or knew a single thing, it has more peace than a man who lived but never enjoyed life. Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
6 Even if someone lived for two thousand years but never enjoyed a single day, what is the point? Everyone goes to the same destination in the end. Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
No One Can Be Satisfied
Study note
The Teacher observes that all human labor is done to fill the stomach, but the appetite is never satisfied. Being wise does not give you any advantage in this struggle. Life passes quickly like a shadow, and no one can tell you what will happen after you are gone. More words do not lead to more meaning.
7 People spend all their energy working just to feed themselves. Yet their hunger never feels fully met. All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
8 What real advantage does a wise person have over a fool in the end? What does a poor person gain by knowing how to navigate the world? For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
9 Being content with what is before you is better than always craving something more. Endless wanting is just as meaningless as chasing the wind. Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
10 Everything that exists has already been named and its nature is known. No human being can argue with the one who is mightier than they are. That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.
11 Piling up more and more words does not make anything clearer. So what is the benefit of all that talking? Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?
12 Who knows what is best for a person during the short, fleeting days of life that pass like a shadow? And who can predict what will happen on earth after they are gone? For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?