Ecclesiastes - 6:4



4 for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Ecclesiastes 6:4.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
For he came in vain, and goeth to darkness, and his name shall be wholly forgotten.
For in vanity he came in, and in darkness he goeth, and in darkness his name is covered,
In wind it came and to the dark it will go, and with the dark will its name be covered.
For he arrives without a purpose and he continues on into darkness, and his name shall be wiped away, into oblivion.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

He his - Rather, it its. The untimely birth is spoken of.

For (d) he cometh with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
(d) Meaning, the untimely fruit whose life neither profited nor hurt any.

For he cometh in with vanity,.... The Targum adds, "into this world." Some understand this of the abortive, and render it, "though he cometh in with vanity" (x), yet is to be preferred to the covetous man: others interpret it of the covetous man himself; and scrape of both: or, however, they may be compared together in these instances; the abortive comes into the world in vain, for nothing, and answers no purpose, as can well be observed; and the same may be said of a covetous rich man; he walks in a vain show, and is altogether vanity, in his coming in, in his life, and going out;
and departeth in darkness; or, "into darkness" (y); goes out of the world without any notice taken of him; and goes down to the dark grave, where he lies in obscurity;
and his name shall be covered with darkness; the abortive has no name, and is never spoken of; and so the name and memory of such a man as is here described rot and perish: and in this respect the abortive has the preference to him; for though he is covered with darkness, yet no ill is ever spoken of him; whereas the name of the wicked covetous man is cursed.
(x) "quamvis venit", Drusius. (y) "in tenebrositatem", Montanus; "in tenebras", Tigurine version, Mercerus, so Broughton.

he--rather "it," "the untimely birth." So "its," not "his name."
with vanity--to no purpose; a type of the driftless existence of him who makes riches the chief good.
darkness--of the abortive; a type of the unhonored death and dark future beyond the grave of the avaricious.

The comparison of an untimely birth with such a man is in favour of the former: "For it cometh in nothingness and departeth in darkness; and with darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it hath not seen the sun, and hath not known: it is better with it than with that other." It has entered into existence, בּהבל, because it was a lifeless existence into which it entered when its independent life should have begun; and בּהשׁך, it departeth, for it is carried away in all quietness, without noise or ceremony, and "with darkness" its name is covered, for it receives no name and remains a nameless existence, and is forgotten as if it had never been. Not having entered into a living existence, it is also (gam) thus happy to have neither seen the sun nor known and named it, and thus it is spared the sight and the knowledge of all the vanities and evils, the deceptions and sorrows, that are under the sun. When we compare its fate with the long joyless life of that man, the conclusion is apparent: מ נחת, plus quietis est huic quam illi, which, with the generalization of the idea of rest (Job 3:13) in a wider sense, is = melius est huic quam illi (זה זה, as at Ecclesiastes 3:19). The generalization of the idea proceeds yet further in the Mishn. נוח לו, e.g.: "It is better (נוח לו לאדם) for a man that he throw himself into a lime-kiln than that (ואל), etc." From this usage Symm. renders מ נחת as obj. to ידע לא, and translates: οὐδὲ ἐπειράθη διαφορᾶς ἑτέρου πράγματος πρὸς ἓτερον ; and Jerome: neque cognovit distantiam boni et mali, - a rendering which is to be rejected, because thus the point of the comparison in which it terminates is broken, for 5b draws the facit. It is true that this contains a thought to which it is not easy to reconcile oneself. For supposing that life were not in itself, as over against non-existence, a good, there is yet scarcely any life that is absolutely joyless; and a man who has become the father of an hundred children, has, as it appears, sought the enjoyment of life principally in sexual love, and then also has found it richly. But also, if we consider his life less as relating to sense: his children, though not all, yet partly, will have been a joy to him; and has a family life, so lengthened and rich in blessings, only thorns, and no roses at all? And, moreover, how can anything be said of the rest of an untimely birth, which has been without motion and without life, as of a rest excelling the termination of the life of him who has lived long, since rest without a subjective reflection, a rest not felt, certainly does not fall under the point of view of more or less, good or evil? The saying of the author on no side bears the probe of exact thinking. In the main he designs to say: Better, certainly, is no life than a joyless life, and, moreover, one ending dishonourably. And this is only a speciality of the general clause, Ecclesiastes 4:2., that death is better than life, and not being born is better than both. The author misunderstands the fact that the earthly life has its chief end beyond itself; and his false eudaemonism, failing to penetrate to the inward fountain of true happiness, which is independent of the outward lot, makes exaggerated and ungrateful demands on the earthly life.

He - The abortive; of whom alone, that passage is true, hath not seen the sun, Ecclesiastes 6:5. Cometh - Into the world. In vain - To no purpose; without any comfort or benefit by it. Departeth - Without any observation or regard of men. His name - Shall be speedily and utterly forgotten.

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