Ecclesiastes 6

¹³There is a grievous evil I have seen under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,

¹⁹Furthermore, God has given riches and wealth to every man, and He has enabled him to enjoy them, to accept his lot, and to rejoice in his labor. This is a gift from God.

¹⁴from such men, O Lord, by Your hand—from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.

⁷From their prosperity proceeds iniquity; the imaginations of their hearts run wild.

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

¹³Moreover, I will give you what you did not request—both riches and honor—so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal.

⁹Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is upon them.

¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.

¹⁶Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?

³But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

³⁵But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing but her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands.

¹⁹He will be buried like a donkey, dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.

⁹“My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”

¹⁹But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot.

²⁰You will not join them in burial, since you have destroyed your land and slaughtered your own people. The offspring of the wicked will never again be mentioned.

¹³May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.

⁷For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.

⁸You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

¹“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.

⁸Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, like a woman’s stillborn child, may they never see the sun.

¹⁰For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.

¹¹Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?

²⁰All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

²⁷Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,

²³Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

²¹saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

⁷Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

²⁰No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days, or an old man fail to live out his years. For the youth will die at a hundred years, and he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

²⁷Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

²⁶A worker’s appetite works for him because his hunger drives him onward.

⁶Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain.

⁷For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it.

²⁵Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

¹⁰He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile.

¹⁹Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

¹Better a poor man who walks with integrity than a fool whose lips are perverse.

¹⁴The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.

¹⁵So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?” And I said to myself that this too is futile.

⁹I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

²I will ponder the way that is blameless—when will You come to me? I will walk in my house with integrity of heart.

¹¹When good things increase, so do those who consume them; what then is the profit to the owner, except to behold them with his eyes?

¹⁷Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.

¹⁴I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

⁷If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has followed my eyes, or if impurity has stuck to my hands,

⁹Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

⁴I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

¹¹Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

²“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”

³²For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.

⁹Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

¹⁰Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to his mother, ‘What have you brought forth?’”

²“Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who argues with God give an answer.”

¹⁹One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?”

²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

¹⁷And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

¹⁸Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

¹⁵What exists has already been, and what will be has already been, for God will call to account what has passed.

¹⁶There is no limit to all the people who were before them. Yet the successor will not be celebrated by those who come even later. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

⁷For as many dreams bring futility, so do many words. Therefore, fear God.

¹Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; he multiplies lies and violence; he makes a covenant with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.

³I sought to cheer my body with wine and to embrace folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

⁴I expanded my pursuits. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.

¹Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.

²So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.

¹⁷So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.

¹⁸For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and as knowledge grows, grief increases.

¹⁴You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

²Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

²²I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?

⁴Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.

²⁴“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

⁵You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

⁶Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.