View Ecclesiastes 6 in the note window.
The vanity of riches without use, ver. 1 - 6.
They are unsatisfactory, ver. 7 - 10.
It is folly to think of happiness in the things of this world,
ver. 11, 12.
2: Riches - All sorts of riches. To eat - Because God gives him up
to a base and covetous mind.
3: With good - He hath not a contented mind and comfortable enjoyment
of his estate. Is better - Which as it never enjoyed the comforts, so it
never felt the calamities of life.
4: He - The abortive; of whom alone, that passage is true,
hath not seen the sun, ver.(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.
5: More rest - Because he is free from all those encumbrances and
vexations to which the covetuous man is long exposed.
6: Tho' he live - Wherein he seems to have a privilege above an
untimely birth. Seen - He hath enjoyed no comfort in it, and therefore
long life is rather a curse, than a blessing to him. All - Whether
their lives be long or short. Go - To the grave.
7: Is - For meat. And yet - Men are insatiable in their desires,
and restless in their endeavours after more, and never say, they
have enough.
8: More - In these matters. Both are subject to the same calamities,
and partakers of the same comforts of this life. The poor - More than the
poor that doth not know this. He means such a poor man as is ingenious
and industrious; fit for service and business.
9: The fight - The comfortable enjoyment of what a man hath.
Than - Restless desires of what a man hath not.
This - Wandering of the desire.
10: Is named - This is added as a further instance of the vanity of
all things in this life. That which hath been (man, who is the chief of
all visible beings) is named already, by God, who, presently after his
creation, gave him the following name, to signify what his nature and
condition was. Man - A mortal and miserable creature, as his very name
signifies, which God gave him for this very end, that he might be always
sensible of his vain and miserable estate in this world. With him - With
almighty God, with whom men are apt to contend upon every slight occasion,
and against whom they are ready to murmur for this vanity, and mortality,
and misery.
11: Seeing - This seems to be added as a conclusion from all the
foregoing chapters; seeing not only man is a vain creature in himself,
but there are also many other things, which instead of
diminishing, do but increase this vanity, as wisdom, pleasure, power,
wealth; seeing even the good things of this life bring so much toil,
and cares, and fears, with them. The better - By all that he can either
desire or enjoy here?
12: Who knoweth - No man certainly knows what is better for him here,
whether to be high or low, rich or poor. Vain life - Life itself is a vain
and uncertain thing, and therefore all things which depend on it must be
so too. While - While it abides, hath nothing solid, or substantial in it,
and which speedily passes away, and leaves no sign behind it. For - And as
no man can be happy with these things while he lives, so he can have no
content in leaving them to others, because he knows not either who shall
possess them, or how the future owners will use or abuse them.
