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Easy-to-Read Version

Ecclesiastes 6:4

It is senseless when a baby is born dead. The baby is quickly buried in a dark grave, without even a name.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Thompson Chain Reference - Memory-Oblivion;   Oblivion;   Wicked, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Darkness;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Birth;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for September 8;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For he comes in futility and he goes in darkness, and his name is shrouded in darkness.
Hebrew Names Version
for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
King James Version
For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
English Standard Version
For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.
New American Standard Bible
for a miscarriage comes in futility and goes into darkness; and its name is covered in darkness.
New Century Version
A baby born dead is useless. It returns to darkness without even a name.
Amplified Bible
for the miscarriage comes in futility (in vain) and passes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity.
World English Bible
for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For he commeth into vanitie and goeth into darkenesse: and his name shall be couered with darkenesse.
Legacy Standard Bible
for that one comes in vanity and goes into darkness; and that one's name is covered in darkness.
Berean Standard Bible
For he enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity.
Contemporary English Version
That child will never live to see the sun or to have a name, and it will go straight to the world of darkness. But it will still find more rest than you,
Complete Jewish Bible
For the arrival of a stillborn baby is a futile thing, and its departure is in darkness; its name is [forgotten,] covered in darkness;
Darby Translation
For it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness;
George Lamsa Translation
For he comes in with vanity, and shall go into darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
Good News Translation
It does that baby no good to be born; it disappears into darkness, where it is forgotten.
Lexham English Bible
For he comes into vanity and departs into darkness, and his name is shrouded in darkness.
Literal Translation
For he comes in with vanity, and goes out in darkness; his name shall be covered in darkness.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For he cometh to naught, & goeth his waye in to darcknes, and his name is forgotten.
American Standard Version
for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;
Bible in Basic English
In wind it came and to the dark it will go, and with the dark will its name be covered.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;
King James Version (1611)
For he commeth in with vanitie, and departeth in darkenesse, and his name shall be couered with darkenesse.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For he commeth to naught, & spendeth his tyme in darknesse, and his name is forgotten.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For he came in vanity, and departs in darkness, and his name shall be covered in darkness.
English Revised Version
for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For he cometh in veyn, and goith to derknessis; and his name schal be don a wei bi foryetyng.
Update Bible Version
for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;
Webster's Bible Translation
For he cometh with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
New English Translation
Though the stillborn child came into the world for no reason and departed into darkness, though its name is shrouded in darkness,
New King James Version
for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
New Living Translation
His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn't even have had a name,
New Life Bible
For this child comes for nothing and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.
New Revised Standard
For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, in vain, it came in, and, in darkness, it departeth, - and, with darkness, its name, is covered:
Douay-Rheims Bible
For he came in vain, and goeth to darkness, and his name shall be wholly forgotten.
Revised Standard Version
For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered;
Young's Literal Translation
For in vanity he came in, and in darkness he goeth, and in darkness his name is covered,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity.

Contextual Overview

1 I have seen another thing in this life that is not fair and is very hard to understand. 2 God gives some people great wealth, riches, and honor. They have everything they need and everything they could ever want. But then God does not let them enjoy those things. Some stranger comes and takes everything. This is a very bad and senseless thing. 3 A man might live a long time and have 100 children. But if he is not satisfied with those good things, and if no one remembers him after his death, I say that a baby who dies at birth is better off than that man. 4 It is senseless when a baby is born dead. The baby is quickly buried in a dark grave, without even a name. 5 The baby never saw the sun and never knew anything. But the baby finds more rest than the man who never enjoyed what God gave him. 6 He might live 2000 years. But if he does not enjoy life, then the baby who was born dead has found the easiest way to the same end.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

his name: Psalms 109:13

Reciprocal: Exodus 10:21 - darkness

Cross-References

Genesis 6:15
"This is the size I want you to make the boat: 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.
Genesis 6:20
Two of every kind of bird, animal, and creeping thing will come to you so that you might keep them alive.
Genesis 6:21
Also bring every kind of food into the boat, for you and for the animals."
Genesis 6:22
Noah did everything God commanded him.
Genesis 11:4
Then the people said, "Let's build ourselves a city and a tower that will reach to the sky. Then we will be famous. This will keep us together so that we will not be scattered all over the earth."
Numbers 13:33
We saw the giant Nephilim people there! (The descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim.) We felt like little grasshoppers. Yes, we were like grasshoppers to them!"
Numbers 16:2
These four men gathered 250 other men from Israel together and came against Moses. They were leaders who had been chosen by the people. All the people knew them.
Deuteronomy 3:11
(Og was the king of Bashan. He was one of the few Rephaites still alive. His bed was made from iron, and it was over 13 feet long and 6 feet wide. The bed is still in the city of Rabbah, where the Ammonites live.)
1 Samuel 17:4
The Philistines had a champion fighter named Goliath, who was from Gath. He was over 9 feet tall. Goliath came out of the Philistine camp.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For he cometh in with vanity,.... The Targum adds, "into this world." Some understand this of the abortive, and render it, "though he cometh in with vanity" x, yet is to be preferred to the covetous man: others interpret it of the covetous man himself; and scrape of both: or, however, they may be compared together in these instances; the abortive comes into the world in vain, for nothing, and answers no purpose, as can well be observed; and the same may be said of a covetous rich man; he walks in a vain show, and is altogether vanity, in his coming in, in his life, and going out;

and departeth in darkness; or, "into darkness" y; goes out of the world without any notice taken of him; and goes down to the dark grave, where he lies in obscurity;

and his name shall be covered with darkness; the abortive has no name, and is never spoken of; and so the name and memory of such a man as is here described rot and perish: and in this respect the abortive has the preference to him; for though he is covered with darkness, yet no ill is ever spoken of him; whereas the name of the wicked covetous man is cursed.

x כי בא "quamvis venit", Drusius. y בחשך "in tenebrositatem", Montanus; "in tenebras", Tigurine version, Mercerus, so Broughton.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He ... his - Rather, it ... its. The untimely birth is spoken of.


 
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