Eclesiastes 6

¹ There is an euill, which I sawe vnder the sunne, and it is much among men:

² A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he lacketh nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yetHe shows that it is the plague of God when the rich man does not have a liberal heart to use his riches.God giveth him not power to eat of it, but a stranger eateth it: this [is] vanity, and it [is] an evil disease.

³ If a man begetteth an hundred [children], and liveth many years, so that the days of his years are many, and his soul is notIf he can never have enough.filled with good, and also [that] he hath noAs we see often that the covetous man either falls into crimes that deserve death, or is murdered or drowned or hangs himself or such like and so lacks the honour of burial, which is the last office of humanity.burial; I say, [that] an untimely birth [is] better than he.

⁴ ForMeaning, the untimely fruit whose life neither profited nor hurt any.he cometh with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

⁵ Also he hath not seene ye sunne, nor knowen it: therefore this hath more rest then the other.

⁶ And if he had liued a thousand yeeres twise tolde, and had seene no good, shall not all goe to one place?

⁷ All the labour of man [is] for his mouth, and yet theHis desire and affection.appetite is not filled.

⁸ For what hath the wise man more then the foole? what hath the poore that knoweth how to walke before the liuing?

⁹ Better [is] theTo be content with that which God has given is better than to follow the desires that can never be satisfied.sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this [is] also vanity and vexation of spirit.

¹⁰ That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it [is] man: neither may he contend with him that isMeaning, God who will make him feel that he is mortal.mightier than he.

¹¹ {cf2 (7:1)} Svrely there be many things that increase vanitie: and what auaileth it man?

¹² For who knoweth what [is]There is no state in which man can live to have perfect quietness in this life.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?