Ecclesiastes 6:3

Even a man with many children and long life, if he cannot enjoy his good and lacks a proper burial, is worse off than a stillborn child. It matters because length of life and abundance mean nothing without the capacity for joy.

Cross-references · 21

• Job 3:16Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?
• Jer 22:19He will be buried like a donkey, dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.
• 2 Kgs 9:35But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing but her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands.
• Eccl 4:3But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.
• Gen 47:9“My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”
• Isa 14:19–20But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot.
• Jer 8:2They will be exposed to the sun and moon, and to all the host of heaven which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up or buried, but will become like dung lying on the ground.
• Esth 7:10So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.
• Prov 17:6Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of a son is his father.
• Jer 36:30Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his body will be thrown out and exposed to heat by day and frost by night.
• Gen 33:5When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?” Jacob answered, “These are the children God has graciously given your servant.”
• Esth 9:14–15So the king commanded that this be done. An edict was issued in Susa, and they hanged the ten sons of Haman.
• Matt 26:24The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed. It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
• Esth 5:11Haman recounted to them his glorious wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored and promoted him over the other officials and servants.
• 2 Chr 11:21Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.
• 1 Sam 2:20–21And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the LORD give you children by this woman in place of the one she dedicated to the LORD.” Then they would go home.
• 2 Kgs 10:1Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders, and to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, saying:
• Ps 127:4–5Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are children born in one’s youth.
• 1 Chr 28:5And of all my sons—for the LORD has given me many sons—He has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.
• Ps 58:8Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, like a woman’s stillborn child, may they never see the sun.
• Eccl 5:17–19Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness, with much sorrow, sickness, and anger.

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.