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If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:
Verse Takeaways
1
Blessings Without Joy
Commentators agree that the verse's central tragedy is not a lack of blessings, but the inability to enjoy them. A person can have a large family and a long life—two highly desired things—yet, as Matthew Henry notes, be so consumed by 'covetousness or evil dispositions' that their soul is never 'filled with good.' This lack of satisfaction renders all their apparent successes meaningless.
See 3 Verse Takeaways
Book Overview
Ecclesiastes
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4
18th Century
Presbyterian
No burial - For a corpse to lie unburied was a circumstance in itself of special ignominy and dishonor (compare the marginal references).
19th Century
Anglican
That a man should be so occupied in the pursuit of riches as never to take any enjoyment from them is a common enough experience; but that the same…
17th Century
Reformed Baptist
If a man beget an hundred [children] Sons and daughters, a certain number for an uncertain. Some have had many child…
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A man often possesses everything he needs for outward enjoyment; yet the Lord may so leave him to covetousness or evil dispositions that he makes n…
