The child, though neither seeing the sun nor knowing anything, has more rest than that man,
Parallel translations
- WEB Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other.
- KJV Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.
- NKJV Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man,
- NASB It has not even seen the sun nor does it know it; yet it is better off than that man.
- NLT and he would never have seen the sun or known of its existence. Yet he would have had more peace than in growing up to be an unhappy man.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, the stillborn child has more rest than the restless, joyless rich man. It matters because a life of toil without enjoyment can be more wearisome than no life at all.
Overview
The Preacher concludes the startling comparison: the stillborn, never having experienced the burdens of life, finds 'rest' the joyless man never knows. The point is the heavy futility of a life without God-given contentment. The very longing for true rest that this verse stirs finds its answer in Christ, who alone gives rest to the weary soul (Matthew 11:28-29).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Job 14:1“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
- Ps 58:8Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, like a woman’s stillborn child, may they never see the sun.
- Job 3:10–13For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.
- Ps 90:7–9For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 6:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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.