Ecclesiastes 6 explained: Having Everything, Enjoying Nothing

Wealth without enjoyment (vv. 1-2)

The Teacher sees people given riches, possessions and honor who never get to enjoy them, and a stranger outside the family ends up with it all. Older readers pictured a stingy miser here, but the text only says God does not grant the ability to enjoy, and leaves the reason open.

Better never born (vv. 3-6)

A hundred children and a long life were the highest blessings of the time, and being left unburied was a deep disgrace. The Teacher bluntly says a baby born dead is better off than such a man, since it at least has rest, and everyone ends up in the same place anyway.

The hunger that never ends (vv. 7-9)

People work to fill their mouths, yet the wanting never stops, and even the wise or the poor who know how to live well seem no better off, though verse 8 is hard to translate. Enjoying what is actually in front of you beats endless craving, yet even this, he says, is like chasing wind.

Already settled (vv. 10-11)

Everything has already been named and its nature known, and humans cannot argue with one stronger than themselves, most likely meaning God. The Hebrew word in verse 11 can mean either words or things, so it may say that more talk or more of anything only adds emptiness, and either way no one is better off.

Who can know? (v. 12)

Life passes like a shadow, and no one can say what is truly good in it or what will happen after we are gone. Many readers see this question as a turning point, with the following chapters trying to answer it.

Key verse: Ecclesiastes 6:2

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the inability to enjoy in this chapter is mainly a moral failure such as greed, or a hard mystery the Teacher simply observes without explaining.

Something to think about

What do you think makes some people able to enjoy what they have while others with far more never can?