Ecclesiastes 6:3

Parents and children Death and loss Contentment

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

² 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.

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 For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

⁵ Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.

Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
KJV: 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.
WEB: 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 a stillborn child is better than he;
ASV: If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul be not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:
DARBY: If a man beget a hundred [sons], and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, but his soul be not filled with good, and also he have no burial, I say an untimely birth is better than he.
BLB: If a man begets a hundred and lives many years, and many are the days of his years, and his soul is not satisfied from this goodness, and also not is unto him a grave, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

ÅB: Om en mann får hundre barn og lever i mange år, så tallet på hans levedager blir stort, men hans sjel ikke mettes av det gode, og han heller ikke får noen jordeferd, da sier jeg: Et ufullbåret foster er bedre faren enn han.
OTB: Om en mann har hundre barn og lever mange år, uansett hvor lenge, men han ikke kan nyte sin rikdom og ikke får en skikkelig begravelse, da sier jeg at et dødfødt barn har det bedre enn han.
B1930: Om en mann får hundre barn og lever i mange år, så tallet på hans levedager blir stort, men hans sjel ikke mettes av det gode, og han heller ikke får nogen jordeferd, da sier jeg: Et ufullbåret foster er bedre faren enn han.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Job 3:16
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
Read in context
Ecclesiastes 4:3
Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
Read in context
2 Kings 9:35
And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.
Read in context
Jeremiah 22:19
He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Read in context
Genesis 47:9
And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
Read in context
Isaiah 14:19–20
But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
Read in context
Matthew 26:24
The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.
Read in context
Esther 5:11
And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.
Read in context