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Read the Bible

King James Version

Ecclesiastes 6:4

For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

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.
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;
Easy-to-Read Version
It is senseless when a baby is born dead. The baby is quickly buried in a dark grave, without even a name.
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 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: 2 A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease. 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. 4 For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. 5 Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other. 6 Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

his name: Psalms 109:13

Reciprocal: Exodus 10:21 - darkness

Cross-References

Genesis 6:15
And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
Genesis 6:20
Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
Genesis 6:21
And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
Genesis 6:22
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
Genesis 11:4
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Numbers 13:33
And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
Numbers 16:2
And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:
Deuteronomy 3:11
For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.
1 Samuel 17:4
And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

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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