A Commentary in Simple English on Ecclesiastes

Chapter 6 Riches

You may feel by now that the Teacher is very sad. Chapter 6 is perhaps even sadder than the first five chapters. Do not give up! It will be different when you get through to Chapter 7. The thought of the rich and poor was there in Chapter 5. It is still with us in Chapter 6.

Verses 1-6 Riches are not enough

(Verse 1) Here is something else that the Teacher has seen. Indeed he says that it is common. It is not unusual. There is another man. He is rather like the man we looked at in 5:19. God has given him riches. He has honour too. That was an ‘extra’. But God gave the man in 5:19 the power to enjoy his riches. God does not give the man in verse 2 this gift. This man has everything that he wants. Yet he is not the master of it. He does not enjoy it. In the end, someone else comes along and he does enjoy it all. This, says the Teacher, is empty of meaning. It is ‘a bad sickness’, an ‘evil disease’ in human life.

Now many of the Jews thought that if a man had wealth, that was a sign of God’s favour to him. The Teacher can see that in life, things do not work out quite like that. This is the ‘bad disease’. We cannot look at human life and see how it fits in with the mind and will of God. That is what the wise man would like to do, but he cannot.

So in verse 3, the Teacher compares a child that is born dead with yet another man. This man has many children. He may live a long time. He does not enjoy the good things he has. When he dies, no one gives him any honours. The child that is born dead is better off, the Teacher says. (Verse 4) Its birth is empty of meaning. No one even gives the dead baby a name. (Verse 5) It has more rest than the wealthy man. (Verse 6) Then the Teacher adds: ‘Let us suppose that the same man lives longer by far than any other man lives. At last, he will die’. He does not enjoy his riches.

Verses 7-9 The poor man

Verses 7 and 9 sound like wise proverbs. Verse 8 is what the Teacher adds to them. We have to think about rich and poor, wise and silly here.

Verse 7 is probably about the poor man who works all the time. What he earns or what he grows is hardly enough to keep him alive. Verse 8 brings in the thought that you do not have to be rich to be wise. Here is the wise, poor man. His wisdom shows up because he knows how to behave when he is with other people. Yet he does not gain anything by this. He is still poor. In verse 9 ‘what the eye sees’ is the things which you really do have. You can enjoy them. They may not be very good. Still, they are better than the things you only dream about. You cannot use them or enjoy them. Better a joy close at hand than things that we want but cannot have. So verse 9 ends as the Teacher says again: ‘This is all empty. It is like a man who tries to chase the wind.’

Verses 10-12 All men rich or poor

Perhaps these verses show that the Teacher is ready to move on to new thoughts. The Jews thought that these verses were the middle of the book. They are still sad. The word ‘God’ is not here. The Teacher has hidden God in these three verses. If we can find God here, the darkness and sadness will not be so bad.

So in verse 10, it is God who has given a name to all things. God made them by His word. God spoke, and all things were made (Isa 40:26). Right back in Genesis 1:5, God begins to give names to things. Adam had a small share in the work (Gen 2:19). He gave names to the animals, which God had made. There are limits to human life. All that science finds out is still within the limit of what God has made. We just give names to God’s wonderful works. In the same way, there is a limit to what we can know about men. Now the Teacher speaks about the way in which men behave. We know what man is. God is stronger than we are. So men cannot argue with God (Jer 12:1; Job 40:1-8). God must work with us in His grace.

Verse 11 is a wise saying and it is very true. In verse 12, there are two questions. ‘Who knows what is good for man’ is the first. The answer is either: ‘Nobody’ or ‘God alone’. If we think again about 5:18-20, we can see that God was there. Now, the Teacher says nothing about Him. The second question is: ‘Who can tell a man what happens in the world after he has died?’ Now if death is really the end, then even God cannot do this. But life comes from God. And if God gives to us life beyond death, then God can answer this question. He will if it is right for us to know.

So the Teacher says that life is short. It is weak, like a shadow. It seems to mean nothing. It is empty, so we want God to fill it. Yet where there is a shadow, there is a light behind it. Our lives are like a shadow because God is light. He shines on us.

In Chapter 7, the Teacher will give us some answers to his first question: ‘What is good for man?’