← Back to Ecclesiastes

टीका वर्तमान में केवल अंग्रेज़ी में उपलब्ध है। हिन्दी अनुवाद प्रगति पर है।

Wisdom · Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 6 — A Common Evil Among Men

Summary

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men. 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. If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years... and his soul be not filled with good... I say, that an untimely birth is better than he. What hath the wise more than the fool? All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. That which hath been is named already.

Key verse

“All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.”

— Ecclesiastes 6:7

Outline
  1. v.1-6 Wealth without enjoyment
  2. v.7-12 Appetite unfilled; man's ignorance
Verse-by-verse
2 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.

A diagnosis of unsatisfying abundance. To have everything and not enjoy it is a misery the poor cannot imagine.

God giveth him not power to eat thereof. The capacity to enjoy is itself a gift. Without it, the resources gather dust.

Cross-references Ecclesiastes 5:19 · Luke 12:20 · Job 27:16-17 · Psalm 39:6
7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

The body works to feed itself, and the appetite resets. The cycle suggests something larger is wrong.

The verse points beyond the mouth. The soul's deeper hunger is not satisfied by anything that fits in it.

Cross-references John 4:13-14 · John 6:35 · Matthew 4:4 · Isaiah 55:1-2
Key doctrines
Wealth Without the Power to Enjoy It
Ecclesiastes 6:2 · Ecclesiastes 5:19
The Unfilled Appetite of Man
Ecclesiastes 6:7 · John 4:13-14 · John 6:35
Application

Verse 7's unfilled appetite is a signpost. If everything you put in your mouth still leaves you hungry, the hunger is for something the mouth cannot reach. Look upward.

Christ in this chapter

Christ is the bread of life (John 6:35). The chapter's diagnosis of the unfilled appetite finds its cure in Him who satisfies the deepest hunger.