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Read the Bible

New King James Version

Ecclesiastes 6:4

for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is 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

English Standard Version
For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For he commeth into vanitie and goeth into darkenesse: and his name shall be couered with darkenesse.
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.
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.
Amplified Bible
for the miscarriage comes in futility (in vain) and passes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity.
American Standard Version
for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;
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;
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.
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;
Berean Standard Bible
For he enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity.
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.
New Century Version
A baby born dead is useless. It returns to darkness without even a name.
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 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.
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.
New American Standard Bible
for a miscarriage comes in futility and goes into darkness; and its name is covered in darkness.
King James Version
For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For he commeth to naught, & spendeth his tyme in darknesse, and his name is forgotten.
Darby Translation
For it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and its name 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.
Young's Literal Translation
For in vanity he came in, and in darkness he goeth, and in darkness his name is covered,
World English Bible
for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
Revised Standard Version
For it comes into vanity and goes into darkness, and in darkness its name is covered;
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.
Bible in Basic English
In wind it came and to the dark it will go, and with the dark will its name be covered.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For he cometh to naught, & goeth his waye in to darcknes, and his name is forgotten.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
for it comes in futility and goes into obscurity; and its name is covered in obscurity.
Legacy Standard Bible
for that one comes in vanity and goes into darkness; and that one's name is covered in darkness.

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 has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction. 3 If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he-- 4 for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. 5 Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man, 6 even if he lives a thousand years twice--but has not seen goodness. 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 how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
Genesis 6:20
Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.
Genesis 6:21
And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them."
Genesis 6:22
Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
Genesis 11:4
And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
Numbers 13:33
33 There we saw the giants [fn] (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
Numbers 16:2
and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown.
Deuteronomy 3:11
For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the giants. [fn] Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead. (Is it not in Rabbah of the people of Ammon?) Nine cubits is its length and four cubits its width, according to the standard cubit.
1 Samuel 17:4
And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from 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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