Ecclesiastes Chapter 6
Showing all 12 verses for Ecclesiastes Chapter 6.
The People's Bible is written by people, for the people. Each verse below shows:
"There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: "
"I've observed another wrong in this world, and it's a common one among people."
I notice the same common tragedy you might recognise in your own life or in people around you - having plenty but no peace to enjoy it. Bring that ache to me; it's exactly the kind of emptiness I want to fill.
"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. "
"Picture a man God has given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he lacks nothing he could possibly want - yet God doesn't give him the ability to actually enjoy any of it; instead, a stranger ends up benefiting from it. This is meaningless, and it's a bitter sickness."
Having everything means nothing if your heart can't rest and enjoy it - don't chase possessions while neglecting the peace that lets you actually receive them as gifts. Ask me for a heart that can enjoy what it's given, not just accumulate it.
"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. "
"Even if a man fathers a hundred children and lives to a great old age, but his life is never truly satisfied with good things, and he doesn't even get a proper burial - I say a baby born dead is better off than he is."
I don't measure a good life by how many years you live or how large your family is - I care whether your soul actually knows peace and gladness along the way. Don't chase the external markers of a "full" life while your heart stays empty; ask me to fill what quantity never can.
"For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. "
"That unborn child arrives and leaves in obscurity, without ever being named or remembered."
I don't want you to reach the end of a long life having merely existed without ever truly living - fullness of years means little without fullness of heart. Let me give you a life marked by genuine joy and meaning, not just length.
"Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other. "
"That child never saw the sunlight or experienced anything at all - and yet it has more peace than the miserable, long-lived man."
I don't want you settling for mere survival or endurance dressed up as living - real rest, the kind I offer, is better than restless years without peace. Come to me for the rest your soul actually needs, rather than accumulating years without it.
"Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place? "
"Even if that miserable man lived two thousand years, but never experienced any real good, what's the difference? Don't we all end up in the same place anyway?"
However many years you're given, I care about whether you actually lived them with an open, grateful heart - since we're all headed to the same place eventually, don't waste the time you have chasing length instead of depth. Ask for eyes to see the good that's already in front of you.
"All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. "
"All human effort is aimed at feeding oneself, and yet appetite is never fully satisfied."
I know your appetite always comes back, whatever you feed it - food, success, approval, none of it fills you for good. Come to me instead for the bread that truly satisfies, the kind that doesn't leave you hungry again an hour later.
"For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living? "
"So what real advantage does the wise person have over the fool? And what does a poor person gain just from knowing how to conduct himself among others?"
Wisdom and social skill matter, but they were never meant to be your ticket out of life's uncertainties or your source of security. Ground your confidence in your relationship with me, not in outsmarting or out-manoeuvring the limits everyone faces.
"Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit. "
"It's better to be content with what's actually in front of you than to keep chasing after what you merely wish for - though even that has its own kind of meaninglessness."
Practice gratitude for what's actually in front of you rather than always reaching for what you don't have - contentment isn't giving up, it's choosing to actually see and receive the good that's already yours. I want your eyes open to today's gifts, not fixed on tomorrow's wish list.
"That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he. "
"Whatever exists has already been named and determined - it's already known that it's only human, and no one can argue with the one who is mightier than they are."
You don't have to win every argument with life, or with me, to find peace - some things about being human are simply fixed, and wisdom means accepting that rather than fighting it endlessly. Trust that the one who is greater than you has your good in mind.
"Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better? "
"Since there are so many things that just add to life's meaninglessness, what real advantage does anyone actually gain?"
I don't ask you to pretend that everything you chase actually adds up to something - much of it doesn't, and I'd rather you see that clearly than live in denial. Let that honest disappointment turn you towards what actually does last: love, faith, and life lived with me.
"For who knoweth what is 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? "
"Really, who actually knows what's good for a person during their brief, fleeting life - lived out like a passing shadow? And who can tell anyone what will happen after they're gone?"
I don't ask you to have all the answers about your future or to control what happens after you're gone - I ask you to trust me with what you can't know, and to live faithfully, humbly and gladly in the shadow-brief time you do have. That trust, not certainty, is what real peace is built on.