"6 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honour, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.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 satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.5 Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 6 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoyno good—do not all go to the one place?
7 All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. 8 For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.
10 Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. 11 The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? 12 For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?"
Ecclesiastes 6:1-12
This is really a very gloomy chapter which well illustrates the central theme of the book - 'vanity of vanities, all is vanity', but we should bear in mind the Preacher's central purpose, namely that he is meeting man 'under the sun' on his own ground, as he says, 'This is all there is to life'. The Preacher has said, 'Very well, I will accept your premise for the moment; let us see where it leads us'. And this is where it leads - the gloom and despair evident in these verses. The phrase 'common among men' in 1 is translated in the RSV as 'it lies heavy upon men', a graphic rendering and one which serves to emphasise the depths and pathos of the problem which he proceeds to describe in 2. We can read two possibilities into what he says here: we may think, for example, of a sick man with everything material that he could wish for, but no health to enjoy it, or even a man whose life is turning to ashes because of sorrow. Death lays its icy hand on kings, as the poet says. In this respect what we are confronted with is the mystery of life: a man who humanly speaking has everything to live for, and he is not allowed to live. This is a problem beyond human understanding. On the other hand, we may think of a man with a sick mind, corroded with discontentment, suffering from jaundice of the soul, never satisfied because he is out of joint with himself and out of sorts with God. In 3 and 4, the two major signs in the Hebrew economy of divine favour - children and length of days - are given a blunt challenge: if life is void of meaning, neither of these is a blessing, but a curse. An untimely birth or even non-existence is better than unending life that does not have an ultimate purpose to it. It is not length of days, but quality that counts; and a man can live to more purpose in 25 years than another may do in ninety.