Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ecclesiastes 6:3
If a man beget a 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.
3. If a man beget an hundred children ] A case is put, the very opposite of that described in the preceding verse. Instead of being childless the rich man may have children, and children’s children; may live out all his days. What then? Unless his “soul be filled with good,” unless there is the capacity for enjoyment, life is not worth living. Still, as before, “it were good never to have been born.” We may probably trace an allusive reference to Artaxerxes Mnemon, who is reported to have had 115 children, and who died of grief at the age of 94, at the suicide of one of his sons, and the murder of another, both caused by a third son, Ochus, who succeeded him (Justin, x. 1).
and also that he have no burial ] The sequence of thought seems at first strange. Why should this be, from the writer’s standpoint, as the climax of sorrow? Why should he who had noted so keenly the vanities of life put seemingly so high a value on that which comes when life is over and done with? Some writers have felt this so strongly, that they have suggested the interpretation, “ even if there be no grave waiting for him,” i.e. even if he were to live for ever. The natural meaning is, however, tenable enough, and we have once more an echo of Greek teaching. Solon had taught that we are not to call any man happy before his death, and by implication, in his story of the sons of Tellus, had made the prospect of posthumous honour an element of happiness (Herod. i. 30). So, in like manner, it was the direst of woes for a man to know that he “should be buried with the burial of an ass” (Jer 22:19), or, in Homeric phrase, that his body should be “cast out to dogs and vultures.” How could any man, however rich and powerful, be sure that that fate might not be in store for him? On the assumption of the late date of the book, there may be a reference to the death of Artaxerxes Ochus, who was murdered by the eunuch Bagoas, and his body thrown to the cats. Possibly, Koheleth himself may have had some reason for an anxious doubt, whether the honours of sepulture would be his. If, as seems likely, he was a stranger in a strange land, alone and with no child to succeed him, perhaps with a name cast out as evil or heretical, there was small chance of his being laid to rest in the sepulchre of his fathers. See the “Ideal Biography,” Introduction, ch. iii.
an untimely birth is better than he ] The thought of ch. Ecc 4:3 is reproduced, but in a somewhat less generalized form. There, never to have been born, is asserted, after the manner of the Greek maxims quoted in the notes, to be better than existence of any kind. Here the assertion is limited to the comparison with the joyless pursuit of wealth. The “untimely birth” was the natural emblem of all abortive enterprise (Job 3:16; Psa 58:8).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
No burial – For a corpse to lie unburied was a circumstance in itself of special ignominy and dishonor (compare the marginal references).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Ecc 6:3-4
If a man live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, I say that an untimely birth is better than he.
The sorrows of old age
The wise Preacher supposes a man to have seen the utmost possible limit of human existence. And then he estimates the worth of the whole of this proud and protracted life, if it has passed without the acquisition of that object which the Word of God proposes for the attainment of man.
I. What is the great object of human life? It is that the soul may be filled with good. It was to gain this that each one has been placed in his period of earthly education. It is for this alone that Divine forbearance lengthens out to grey hairs the life of man who has not yet secured it, to give to men the full opportunity to be wise, and to think of the things which belong to their peace. How, then, shall this soul be filled with good? Is there anything within the limits of the gifts of this world, which can thus fill it? When he can sow grace in the furrows of his field, or fill his barns with glory, when he can plough up heaven from the earth, and extract God from perishing creatures, the world may fill his soul with good and furnish an adequate exchange for its loss. But who does not see the utter disproportion between the desires of the soul and all the fruits which earth produces? The sinner is descending where his earthly glory cannot descend after him, and where, for a soul unredeemed, all redemption ceaseth for ever.
II. The sorrows of the man who has lived long without attaining this great object of life, whose soul is not filled with good.
1. He has passed through a life, a reflection upon which gives him no comfort. Every hour rises up as the accuser of a guilty conscience. The remembrance of youth is a remembrance of convictions smothered, the Holy Spirit resisted, and a Saviours love despised. The thoughts upon manhood present the awful picture of the self-immolation of the sinners soul to the enemy of God and man upon the altar of worldly gain. All the resolutions and plans which were made for life have gone by unfulfilled. Every opportunity has been lost. Every mercy has been abused. Oh, what sorrow for the aged sinner does such a life produce!
2. He is pressing onward to a near eternity, for which he has no preparation. How truly is that old age which has no such provision for eternity, and to which hope comes not, that comes to all besides, an evil day, in which man finds no pleasure!
3. He has experienced the vanity of the world, and has nothing which can supply its place. They are thus left without a single source of comfort; and while they are struggling thus with unconquerable despair, they feel that the man who has not an interest in the Saviour, and a sure acceptance in His redemption, has no hope, though he has gained, when God bakes away his soul. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)
Sorrows of old age without religion
Even with all the comforts and hopes of Christianity, old age is not a desirable condition of being. We naturally desire to live; we shrink instinctively from death–and yet many an aged one longs to lay down the oppressive burden of life before the appointed time. If this be true, with all the consolations and supports which true religion affords, how unutterably sad and sorrowful must old age be to the aged pilgrim who has no home in the skies to look forward to–no God and Saviour to light up the dark valley and welcome him to an eternity of bliss! But why are the sorrows of an irreligious old age so many and poignant?
1. A portion of them is natural and common alike to all. Nature will decay; the system wear out. The organs of the body and the faculties of the mind become impaired. We are out of touch with the life around us. Our children, our friends, our neighbours, are gone from us. We are solitary, desolate.
2. The retrospect of a godless life from the period of old age must necessarily be a painful one, at least one destitute of rational comfort and satisfaction. The day of activity, of passion, of recklessness, has gone by. With old age come reflection, introspection, seriousness, and the monitions of a coming judgment. O the bitterness of the retrospect of a life devoted to the world–a life without God and without a serious purpose!
3. If such the bitterness of the retrospect, what shall we say of the anticipation? Very few repent in old age. What a prospect! A misspent probation, a hopeless death, a lost eternity! (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. If a man beget a hundred children] If he have the most numerous family and the largest possessions, and is so much attached to his riches that he grudges himself a monument; an abortion in the eye of reason is to be preferred to such a man; himself is contemptible, and his life worthless. The abortion comes in with vanity – baulks expectation, departs in darkness – never opened its eyes upon the light, and its name is covered with darkness – it has no place in the family register, or in the chronicles of Israel. This, that hath neither seen the sun, nor known any thing is preferable to the miser who has his coffers and granaries well furnished, should he have lived a thousand years, and had a hundred children. He has seen – possessed, no good; and he and the abortion go to one place, equally unknown, and wholly forgotten.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
An hundred children, i.e. very many children, to whom he intends to leave his estate.
Live many years; which is the chief thing that he desires, and which giveth him opportunity of increasing his estate vastly.
The days; he saith days, because the years of mens life are but few.
Be not filled with good; hath not a contented mind and comfortable enjoyment of his estate whilst he lives. Have no burial; and if after his death he hath either none, or a mean and dishonourable burial, because his sordid and covetous carriage made him hateful and contemptible to all persons, his children and heirs not excepted, and he was by all sorts of men thought unworthy of any testimonies of honour, either in his life or after his death. Thus he describes a man who lives miserably, and dies ignominiously.
An untimely birth; which as it never enjoyed the comforts, so it never felt the calamities, of this life, which are far more considerable than its comforts, at least to a man that denied himself the comforts, and plunged himself into the toils and vexations, of this life.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Even if a man (of thischaracter) have very many (equivalent to “a hundred,” 2Ki10:1) children, and not have a “stranger” as his heir(Ec 6:2), and live long (“daysof years” express the brevity of life at its best,Ge 47:9), yet enjoy no real”good” in life, and lie unhonored, without “burial,”at death (2Ki 9:26; 2Ki 9:35),the embryo is better than he. In the East to be without burial is thegreatest degradation. “Better the fruit that drops from the treebefore it is ripe than that left to hang on till rotten”[HENRY].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If a man beget an hundred [children],…. Sons and daughters, a certain number for an uncertain. Some have had many children, and almost this number; Rehoboam had twenty eight sons and threescore daughters; and Ahab had seventy sons, how many daughters is not said,
2Ch 11:21; this was reckoned a great honour and happiness to have many children; happy was the man that had his quiver full of them,
Ps 127:3; such a case is here supposed;
and live many years, so that the days of his years be many; or “sufficient”, as Jarchi interprets it; he lives as long as life is desirable; lives to a good old age, to the full age of men, threescore years and ten; yea, supposing he was to live to be as old as Methuselah,
and his soul be not filled with good; does not enjoy the good things he has; has no pleasure nor satisfaction in the temporal good things of life, has not the comfort of them, and is always uneasy, because he has not more of them; and especially if his soul is not filled with spiritual good things, the grace of God, and righteousness of Christ;
And also [that] he have no burial; as Jezebel, Jehoiakim, and others; who is either destroyed by robbers and cutthroats, for the sake of his substance, and cast into a ditch or a river, or some place, where he is never found to be interred; or else, being of such a sordid disposition, he provides not for a decent burial, suitably to his circumstances, or forbids one; or, being despised and disesteemed by all men, his heirs and successors either neglect or refuse to give him one; see Jer 22:29;
I say [that] an untimely birth [is] better than he; an abortive is to be preferred unto him; it would have been better for him if he had never been born, or had been in such a case.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“If a man begat an hundred, and lived many years, and the amount of the days of his years was great, and his soul satisfied not itself in good, and also he had no grave, then I say: Better than he is the untimely birth.” The accentuation of 3 a is like that of 2 a. The disjunctives follow the Athnach, as at 2Ki 23:13, only that there Telisha Gedhola stands for Pazer . Hitzig finds difficulty with the clause … , and regards it as a marginal gloss to 5 a, taken up into the text at a wrong place. But just the unexpected form and the accidental nature, more than the inward necessity of this feature in the figure, leads us to conclude that the author here connects together historical facts, as conjecturally noted above, into one fanciful picture. is obviously to be supplemented by ( ) ; the Targ. and Midrash make this man to be Cain, Ahab, Haman, and show at least in this that they extend down into the time of the Persian kingdom a spark of historical intelligence. interchanges with , Ecc 11:8, as at Neh 11:30. In order to designate the long life emphatically, the author expresses the years particularly in days: “and if it is much which (Heiligst.: multum est quod ) the days of his years amount to;” cf. , in Gen 5. With venaphsho there follows the reverse side of this long life with many children: (1) his soul satisfies not itself, i.e., has no self-satisfying enjoyment of the good ( min, as at Psa 104:13, etc.), i.e., of all the good things which he possesses, – in a word, he is not happy in his life; and (2) an honourable burial is not granted to him, but , Jer 22:19, which is the contrary of a burial such as becomes a man (the body of Artaxerxes Ochus was thrown to the cats); whereupon Elster rightly remarks that in an honourable burial and an honourable remembrance, good fortune, albeit shaded with sadness, might be seen. But when now, to one so rich in children and so long-lived, neither enjoyment of his good fortune nor even this shaded glory of an honourable burial is allowed, the author cannot otherwise judge than that the untimely birth is better than he. In this section regarding the uncertainty of riches, we have already, Ecc 5:14, fallen on a reminiscence from the Book of Job; it is so much the more probable that here also Job 3:16 has an influence on the formation of the thought. is the foetus which comes lifeless from the mother’s womb.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(3) That a man should be so occupied in the pursuit of riches as never to take any enjoyment from them is a common experience enough; but that the same man should have no sepulchre to preserve his name after him need not necessarily happen, so that one is tempted to think that the Preacher has some actual occurrence in his mind.
Untimely birth.See references. We have just had another reminiscence of the Book of Job. (See Ecc. 5:15.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. The real difficulty of this verse has arisen from a singular reluctance to give its simplest sense to the phrase, he have no burial, which, in Hebrew and English, naturally means, though he live forever. The instance is connected with that of the preceding verse. An unsatisfied soul completely neutralizes, and makes “stale, flat, and unprofitable,” all worldly good, so that even length of possession adds nothing to its enjoyment. An abortion, perishing in embryo, has a better fate.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 6:3. If a man beget Though a man should beget an hundred children, and live many years; nay, though he should be a senator, on account of the days of his years; if should not enjoy his prosperity, nor even get a burying-place for himself, I concluded an abortive is better than he. Solomon’s meaning, probably, is, that the man he speaks of, though not only a long-liver, but likewise a man of eminence on account of his age; a chief, a judge, or a senator, shall nevertheless be accounted miserable, if that be all the advantage that he gets from his long stay in this world. The word , keburah, which we render burial, occurs in thirteen places of Scripture beside the present, and in every one of them means a burying-place, and not the action of burying; nor does the notion of burial agree with the context: For Solomon speaks of a man who is alive yet; since he shall depart in darkness, (see the next verse;) and whose misfortune, of consequence, cannot be aggravated by his not being buried. To what purpose then is a burying-place mentioned? I answer, that it was customary for people in easy circumstances to provide a burying-place for themselves and their family: Therefore, as the Arabic and Chaldee have well expressed it, it must be a proof of a man’s dying in narrow circumstances, and not having enjoyed his fortune long, if ever he had any, that he has not provided such a place, a house of burial. See 2Ki 23:6 and Desvoeux.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
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 anything: this hath more rest than the other. (6) Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
The Preacher here proves, that prosperity, without grace, though lengthened to the greatest period, still only tends to swell the vanity and vexation of it, as the years are lengthened. And what a melancholy thought is it, that the continuance of those carnal powers, for the gratification of the flesh, only serve to lead the heart further from God, rather than bring the heart to God. Reader! nothing short of grace can accomplish this; and therefore, it must undeniably follow, that without grace, nothing can constitute happiness.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ecc 6:3 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.
Ver. 3. If a man beget an hundred children. ] As Ahab did half a hundred, after that God had threatened to cut off all his house, as it were in contempt of the divine threatening. And as Proculus Caesar got twenty maids with child in fifteen days’ space, as Pliny a reports. Erasmus b mentioneth a maid of Eubcea, called Combe, that being married to a husband, brought him a hundred children. Like enough it might be luctuosa faecunditas, as Jerome c saith of Laeta, who buried many children.
And live many years.
And his soul be not filled with good.
And also that he have no burial.
“ Nudus pascit aves, iacet en qui possidet orbem,
Exiguae telluris inops. ” –
And a similar story about our William the Conqueror, and various other greedy engrossers of the world’s good. See here the poisonful and pernicious nature of niggardliness and covetousness, that turns long life and large issue, those sweetest blessings of God, into bitter curses. And with it take notice of the just hand of God upon covetous old men, that they should want comely burial; which is usually one of their greatest cares, as Plutarch observeth. For giving the reason why old men, that are going out of the world, should be so earnestly bent upon the world, he saith, it is out of fear that they shall not have
I say that an untimely birth.
a Lib. vii.
b Erasm. in Chilia.
c Jerome, Epist. 7.
d Parr.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
filled = satisfied.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Ecc 6:3-6
Ecc 6:3-6
THE TRAGEDY OF THE GREAT MAN DENIED A BURIAL
“If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say that an untimely birth is better than he: for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered in darkness; moreover it hath not seen the sun nor known it; this hath rest rather than the other: yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet enjoy no good, do not all go to one place?”
“If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years” (Ecc 6:3). For a man with 700 wives and 300 concubines, this was by no means an impossibility. As a matter of fact, Gideon fathered 70 sons (Jdg 8:30).
“His soul be not filled with good … and … he have no burial” (Ecc 6:4). It is a tragic fact of life that, “In spite of family, longevity and fame, life may so miscarry as to incur life-long dissatisfaction and an unmourned death.”
In the light of ancient concern regarding one’s proper burial, it would appear here that a man’s not being properly buried was considered as the ultimate disaster that could befall a human being. Christians, of course, reject this viewpoint out of hand. Some of the early Christians were fed to the lions in the Coliseum; but God’s people remembered the words of Jesus: “Fear not them that kill the body, but after that have no more that they can do” (Luk 12:4).
The pyramids of Egypt and the elaborate historical sepulchres of the wealthy and the great stand as mute and terrible monuments to the materialistic blindness of mankind that regarded the body as actually all that there was to a human being. In the ultimate resurrection of the dead, the inspired apostle tells us quite forcefully in his vision of the Resurrection that, “The sea gave up the dead that were in it” (Rev 20:13). The bodies of such as were drowned in the sea would have been totally consumed.
The last verses of this paragraph affirm that a still-born fetus is better than a man who was denied an honorable burial.
“This hath rest rather than the other” (Ecc 6:5). Let men contemplate what is stated here. If a man should live 2,000 years, he still would find that the earth is no place to rest.
Ecc 6:3 Our attention has been drawn to riches, possessions and prominence in the community. Perhaps, one may reason, a large family and long life will surely bring personal joy. But, no, the Preacher reasons that though one fathers a hundred children and lives for two thousand years (Ecc 6:6) this will not change the picture. It would certainly add to his list of blessings which God permits him to have, but the additional blessings are not of such a nature that they in themselves will produce the joy.
The failure to have a proper burial was a disgrace (Isa 14:19-20). The tragedy of the rich man is compounded as he has everything his heart desires except the means of enjoyment, and now at the end of his useless and hollow life he has no burial. To leave a body upon the ground to be devoured by animals or fowls of the air was reserved for the enemies of Israel or the despicable members of their society. (Cf. 1Sa 17:46; Jer 22:18-19) It is not noted as to the reason why the rich man does not have a burial, but circumstances of life led to this unfortunate conclusion. To face such a reality is indeed a heavy burden especially in light of the unlimited wealth the rich man possessed, to say nothing of the fact that he was honored in his community.
Once again the qualifying mark of such a man is the fact that his soul was not satisfied with good things. He has placed his values on things of this earth rather than being content with each days activities. The sorrow and bitterness of such a wasted life is intensified in the following analogy. He compares such a wasted life with a stillborn baby and concludes that miscarriage is better!
Ecc 6:4-5 The baby born prematurely or born dead is said to be better off than the rich man. This is a strange conclusion because the child has no name, is not honored in the community, knows nothing, and never experiences one day of life. It is nameless, unrecorded, unburied and unremembered! Yet, such an untimely birth is more to be desired than the long life of the rich man under consideration. The key appears in the marginal reading of verse five in the NASV. Here it reads, more rest has this one than that. The idea of rest is the reason why the one is desired above the other. It has previously been noted that when a rich man places his ultimate values on riches that he is restless at night and is unduly concerned for his riches during his waking hours. In other words, he has been robbed of rest. The stillborn does not experience the perpetual restlessness of the rich. Certainly one must agree that the description of the stillborn is depressing and undesirable. Yet, whatever the plight of the untimely birth, it is better than the misery of a covetous man! Rest may suggest freedom from suffering. The entire picture leads one to the conclusion that such rich men in any society are to be objects of pity rather than envy.
Ecc 6:6 There are three significant points in this verse: (1) Regardless of how long one may live, even if it is twice as long as the longest life recorded, it would not change the circumstances nor would one come to different conclusions, (2) the reason being that the man who is under consideration did not enjoy good things. This is the equivalent of verses two and three which teach that God did not permit him to enjoy life. (3) Both the stillborn and the rich man will return to dust and, in the grave as it were, there will be no remembrance of previous things. It is on the basis of these arguments that the conclusion is drawn that an untimely birth is better than living in the midst of plenty and yet failing to divorce oneself from an avaricious spirit.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
a man: Gen 33:5, 1Sa 2:20, 1Sa 2:21, 2Ki 10:1, 1Ch 28:5, 2Ch 11:21, Est 5:11, Psa 127:4, Psa 127:5, Pro 17:6
so: Ecc 5:17-19, Gen 47:9
and also: 2Ki 9:35, Est 7:10, Est 9:14, Est 9:15, Isa 14:19, Isa 14:20, Jer 22:19, Jer 36:30
that an: Ecc 4:3, Job 3:16, Psa 58:8, Mat 26:24
Reciprocal: Gen 15:15 – buried Gen 23:4 – burying place Gen 23:19 – General Gen 50:5 – bury me 2Ki 9:37 – the carcase Job 3:10 – it shut not Job 3:13 – then had I been at rest Ecc 6:6 – yet Ecc 6:7 – appetite Isa 14:18 – all of Jer 8:2 – they shall be Jer 20:17 – he slew Hos 9:11 – from the birth Rev 11:9 – and shall not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Ecc 6:3-6. If a man beget a hundred children Very many, to whom he intends to leave his estate; and live many years Which is the chief thing that he desires, and which gives him opportunity of increasing his estate vastly; and his soul be not filled with good If he have not a contented mind, and a comfortable enjoyment of his estate; and also have no burial And if, after his death, he have either none, or a mean and dishonourable burial, because his sordid and covetous conduct made him hateful and contemptible to all persons, his children and heirs not excepted, so that he was by all sorts of men thought unworthy of any testimonies of honour, either in his life, or after his death: I say, an untimely birth is better than he Which, as it never enjoyed the comforts, so it never felt the calamities of life. For, or rather, although, he The abortive; of whom alone that clause, He hath not seen the sun, (Ecc 6:5,) is true; cometh in with vanity Cometh into the world to no purpose, without any comfort or benefit by it, which is also, in a great measure, the case with the covetous person here mentioned; and departeth in darkness Dieth in obscurity, without any observation or regard of men; and his name shall be covered with darkness Shall be speedily and utterly forgotten. Moreover he hath not known any thing Hath had no knowledge, sense, or experience of any thing, whether good or evil; this, namely, the untimely birth, hath more rest than the other Because it is free from all those incumbrances and vexations to which the covetous man is long exposed. Yea, though he live a thousand years Wherein he seems to have a privilege above an untimely birth; yet hath he seen no good He hath enjoyed little or no comfort in it, and, therefore, long life is rather a curse than a blessing to him. Do not all Whether born before their time or in due time, whether their lives be long or short; go to one place To the grave! And so, after a little time, all are alike, as to this life, of which only he here speaks: and as to the other life, the condition of the covetous man, if he die impenitent, and therefore unpardoned and unrenewed, is infinitely worse than that of an untimely birth.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6:3 If a man begetteth an hundred [children], and liveth many years, so that the days of his years are many, and his soul is not {b} filled with good, and also [that] he hath no {c} burial; I say, [that] an untimely birth [is] better than he.
(b) If he can never have enough.
(c) As 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.