Ecclesiastes 6:3
If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
KJV
Si genuerit quispiam centum liberos, et vixerit multos annos, et plures dies ætatis habuerit, et anima illius non utatur bonis substantiæ suæ, sepulturaque careat : de hoc ergo pronuntio quod melior illo sit abortivus.
Vulgate
ἐὰν γεννήσῃ ἀνὴρ ἑκατόν, καὶ ἔτη πολλὰ ζήσεται, καὶ πλῆθος ὅ τι ἔσονται ἡμέραι ἐτῶν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ οὐ πλησθήσεται ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγαθωσύνης, καί γε ταφὴ οὐκ ἐγένετο αὐτῷ, εἶπα Ἀγαθὸν ὑπὲρ αὐτὸν τὸ ἔκτρωμα·
LXX
If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul be not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:
ASV
אִם יוֹלִ֣יד אִ֣ישׁ מֵאָ֡ה וְ/שָׁנִים֩ רַבּ֨וֹת יִֽחְיֶ֜ה וְ/רַ֣ב שֶׁ/יִּהְי֣וּ יְמֵֽי שָׁנָ֗י/ו וְ/נַפְשׁ/וֹ֙ לֹא תִשְׂבַּ֣ע מִן הַ/טּוֹבָ֔ה וְ/גַם קְבוּרָ֖ה לֹא הָ֣יְתָה לּ֑/וֹ אָמַ֕רְתִּי ט֥וֹב מִמֶּ֖/נּוּ הַ/נָּֽפֶל
Hebrew
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In the original Hebrew
18 distinct Hebrew words appear in this verse.
Historic Christian voices
3 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.
Cross-references
- 2Kgs 9:35 — And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.
- Eccl 4:3 — Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
- Eccl 4:3 — Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
- Eccl 6:7 — All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
- Gen 15:15 — And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
- Gen 47:9 — And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the
- Isa 14:19 — But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under
- Jer 20:17 — Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
- Jer 22:19 — He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
- Job 3:10 — Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
- Job 3:16 — Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
- Job 3:16 — Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
- Ps 58:8 — As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.