Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Ecclesiastes 6:12

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Ecclesiastes 6:12. For who knoweth what is good for man in this life — Those things which we deem good are often evil. And those which we think evil are often good. So ignorant are we, that we run the greatest hazard in making a choice. It is better to leave ourselves and our concerns in the hands of the Lord, than to keep them in our own.

For who can tell a man what shall be after him — Futurity is with God. While he lives, man wishes to know what is before him. When he is about to die, he wishes to know what will be after him. All this is vanity; God, because he is merciful, will reveal neither.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Advice about money (5:8-6:12)

Greed for money is a common social evil and the cause of much suffering. Because of such greed, government officials exploit poor farmers. Each official makes sure he takes as much money as he can, so that after he has passed some of it on to those above him who protect him, he has enough left for himself. As for the farmers, besides losing their profits to corrupt officials, they must also give some of their harvest as a tax to the king (8-9).
Prosperity does not satisfy, because the more people have, the more they want. The rich may lie awake at night worrying about their money, while labourers sleep soundly (10-12). Another frustration for the rich is that they may lose all their money in an unsuccessful business deal. In the end they have nothing to pass on to their children in spite of a lifetime of hard work (13-17). Life is short, and people should use the possessions and the work God has given them to bring themselves enjoyment, not trouble. This is God’s will (18-20).
Two further examples illustrate the deceitfulness of riches. People may have wealth but not be able to enjoy it. Then, when they die, the benefits of their wealth are enjoyed by others, who may not even be relatives (6:1-3). Others may have everything that enables them to enjoy their wealth but they refuse to. They might live to a great age, but die in misery and are forgotten. A baby born dead, never having seen the world’s light, is better off than such people (4-6).
No matter how much people have, they are never satisfied. Why, then, do they waste time and effort trying to improve themselves? They would do better to find enjoyment in what they have than always to want something else (7-9). After all, they cannot change what God has determined. Neither can they argue with God. They do not know what is best for them in this short life, nor do they know what will happen after they die (10-12).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

SOLOMON'S CHARGE THAT LIFE ITSELF IS VAIN

"Whatsoever hath been, the name thereof was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him that is mightier than he. Seeing there are many things that increase vanity, what is man the better? For who knoweth what is good for man in his life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?"

The dark and pessimistic tone of these passages might be merely a presentation of what many evil men of his generation were saying, and that Solomon would renounce all of this pessimism in his glorious conclusion (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14); and, for Solomon's sake, we may pray that this is the true explanation of this constant parade of the words `vanity and a striving after the wind,' words which occur dozens of times in this book. However, in the light of Solomon's Gargantuan wickedness, we also fear that these passages reveal the secrets of his evil life.

The Anchor Bible entitled these last two verses thus:

MAN'S LIFE IS BOTH FATED AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE.The Anchor Bible Commentary (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1972), Vol. 18, p. 233.

As the words stand in our version, this writer finds the full meaning of this chapter somewhat illusive, in spite of the fact that the radical pessimism is clear enough. Barton supposed that, "Ecclesiastes 6:11 is a reference to a dispute between the Pharisees and Sadducees with reference to how far fate influenced the actions of men."International Critical Commentary, Vol. 18. p. 137. The same scholar affirmed that Ecclesiastes 6:12 should be understood as an assertion that, "No one knows what is good for man; because power, possessions, sensual enjoyment and wisdom have been shown to be vanity."Ibid. Scott interpreted all three verses as a declaration that, "Everything that is, is predetermined and foreknown. Man cannot alter his fate, or comprehend the meaning of his brief and fleeting life."The Anchor Bible Commentary, op. cit., p. 233. Samuel Cox's comment on Ecclesiastes 6:12 is that, "It is impossible for you to know what is good for you to have. That on which you set your heart may prove to be an evil rather than a good when at last you get it."The Expositor's Bible, Vol. 19, p. 192.

Kidner understood the meaning thus: "These verses remind us that we shall not alter the way in which we and our world were made. Those things are already named and known (Ecclesiastes 6:10); and that is only another way of saying that the Creation owes its being to the command of God; and that command includes the sentence passed upon Adam and his posterity after the Fall in Eden."The Bible Speaks Today, p. 62. There is utterly no use for man to spend his time complaining about the way things are in this present evil world. We are getting exactly what our progenitors ordered when they elected the devil to be the authority which they chose to obey.

God promised Adam and Eve that in the day they disobeyed God they would surely die. That "day" was the seventh day of Creation (a day that is still in progress. See Hebrews 4.); and not a mere 24-hour period; and man is totally insane if he thinks he shall escape that sentence. It shall yet be executed upon Adam and Eve in the person of their total posterity when the probation of the human race is ended. And at that time, all mankind shall perish, the sole exceptions being those who have been redeemed through the blood of Christ. Read it, Sir! That is what the Bible teaches.

One may inquire, `why does not God end it all at once'? To this it may be replied that, it has been God's purpose, from the beginning, to redeem a certain number from the Adamic creation unto eternal life and glory. That will be accomplished in God's appointed time; and then the end will come, but not before then.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

After him - i. e., On earth, in his own present sphere of action, after his departure hence (compare Ecclesiastes 2:19; Ecclesiastes 3:22).

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 6

Now there is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it's common among men: A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he wants nothing for his soul of all that he desires ( Ecclesiastes 6:1-2 ),

The guy doesn't want anything for his soul. Everything he desires he has.

yet God gives him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eats it: this is vanity, and an evil disease ( Ecclesiastes 6:2 ).

The guy who has everything but can't partake of it.

If a man begets a hundred children, and he lives many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he has no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he ( Ecclesiastes 6:3 ).

The guy is better off if he was, if he was really aborted, rather than to live and have a hundred children and to live a long life.

For he comes in with vanity, and he departs in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other. Even though he lives to be a thousand years twice [or two thousand years old], yet he has seen no good: do not all go to one place? All of the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet his appetite is not filled ( Ecclesiastes 6:4-7 ).

All you do, all your labor just to feed yourself, but yet you're always hungry. All of the labor of a man for his mouth, yet he's not full.

For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this also though is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which hath been is named already ( Ecclesiastes 6:8-10 ),

Nothing new.

and it is known that it is man: now neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he ( Ecclesiastes 6:10 ).

Yet we find so many men seeking to contend with God. The prophet said, "Woe unto him who strives with his Maker!" ( Isaiah 45:9 ) And yet people are striving with God. Our striving with God usually results from a tragic experience in life where we do not understand why God allowed a certain tragedy or grief to befall our lives. And because I cannot understand why God allowed this to happen, I become bitter against God.

There are a lot of people today who are fighting with God. They're angry with God. They're bitter against God. It's because their lives have not worked out to their desire. It's because God hasn't given to them all that they want or all that they feel. Or that God has allowed something to happen to them which seems to be tragic.

Now somehow I think that God should only allow good things to happen to me. Somehow I feel that God ought to keep me healthy all the time. Never sick. I believe that God ought to make me a very prosperous person. I believe that God ought to make me very beautiful. And if I am flawed in any of these areas, then I blame God. "God, why did You make me so ugly? God, why did You allow this to happen to me? God, why?" And I am blaming God and finding fault with God because He hasn't followed what I feel to be the ideal pattern for my life. So a man contends with God.

But, verse Ecclesiastes 6:12 :

Who really knows what is good for man in this life ( Ecclesiastes 6:12 ),

Who really knows whether it's better that you be rich or poor? You really know what's best for you? Now you think it would be best for you to be rich. But is that so? If you are rich, will that take your heart and mind away from God? Will it cause you to trust in your riches? Will it diminish your trust in Him and your love for Him? Will you be drawn away by the divers lusts that they that are rich fall into? Will your heart be turned from God to your possessions? Who knows? Do you know what riches would do for you? And yet you're striving with God. You're contending with God because you're not rich. Because you have these financial woes.

But God may know. I don't know. Maybe God has to keep me poor so that I'll continue to trust in Him. I'll continue to rely upon Him day by day for my provisions. Who knows what is good for man? Is it better for me that I be healthy or I be sick? Evidently for Paul the apostle it was better that he be sick. When he asked God to remove his infirmity, God said, "Hey, Paul, My grace is sufficient for you. My strength will be made perfect in your weakness." So Paul said, "I glory in my weakness, that the power of God might be revealed in me" ( 2 Corinthians 12:9 ).

Is it better for me that I be weak so that I have to trust in God; that I don't have the reliance in myself, but I've learned to just trust in God completely, and thus I know the strength of God? Or is it better that I feel strong and self-sufficient and then get wiped out because I'm really very weak when it comes to my flesh and things of my flesh?

What is better for me? Who really knows? I don't know my own heart. It's deceitful and desperately wicked. God knows. God knows what is best for me. That is why it is so wrong for me to contend with God when He doesn't do for me what I think He ought to be doing. When He doesn't give to me those things that I feel I need and desire. And so I begin to contend with God, because, "God, You know how I desire a little Porsche. It's not fair, God, that You don't give it to me. Oh, I think that would be so good for me." And God knows that it would wipe me out. It would swell me up in pride. It would make me think that I was really something. That goes cornering and everything else, to show and probably get in a fatal accident trying to show off in the thing, you know. And God knows what's best for me. "But I would desire this, God," and oh, I'm angry with God. I'm contending with God because He doesn't do for me the little goodies that I want Him to do.

But He knows what's best for me. I don't. I don't. Who knows what is good for man in this life?

all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow? ( Ecclesiastes 6:12 )

Life is short. Days measured by days. Life apart from Christ is empty. Life apart from Christ lacks real meaning or substance. It's a shadow. All of the days of his vain shadow.

and who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun? ( Ecclesiastes 6:12 )

Who knows what's going to be after you? Who knows what's going to follow? Who knows what tomorrow is going to bring? Who knows what the future holds? Who knows what the result of it is going to be in your life? Only God knows. Therefore, rather than contending with God I need to submit myself to God who knows all things.

And rather than fighting and contending because He's not doing things my way, I need to just submit and yield my life into His hand, into His wisdom, for He knows what is best for me. And even the sorrow or the tragedy that I might be experiencing today God is using for my good. Even the sickness or the suffering that I might be experiencing now God is working His eternal purpose through it.

The day will come when I will bless God for this hardship rather than cursing Him as I am prone to do when things don't go right. The day comes when you bless God and thank God for the disappointments because you see how God was working out a plan that you couldn't understand. Best that I just yield. And here is my life, God, as You see fit. You know what's best. Work in me Your perfect plan.

Shall we pray.

Father, we thank You that we have Thy Word as a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, and may we walk in its light, Lord. That we might be instructed in the ways of righteousness and truth. And that we might come into Thy fullness. Lord, hide now Thy Word in our hearts. As we see life under the sun, the emptiness of it, the futility of it, may we seek to experience life in the Son, that eternity that You have put into our heart. May we find its fulfillment in Jesus Christ as we drink of the water of life. In His name we pray. Amen. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

A. God’s Sovereign Foreordination of All Things 6:10-12

In Ecclesiastes 6:10-12, Solomon returned to his theme of the immutability and inscrutability of divine providence (i.e., why God allows things to happen as they do; cf. Ecclesiastes 1:15; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Ecclesiastes 3:14; Ecclesiastes 3:22). "Named" (Ecclesiastes 6:10) refers to the practice of expressing the nature of something by giving it an appropriate name. In the ancient world people recognized that the person who named someone or something was sovereign over it. Thus God "called" what he had created day, heaven, man, etc.; and Adam named the woman, the animals, etc. Solomon’s point in Ecclesiastes 6:10 is that God has sovereignly decreed the nature and essence of everything that exists. Consequently it is foolish for man to argue with God about what He has foreordained (Ecclesiastes 6:10 b). More arguing only results in more futility for man (Ecclesiastes 6:11). Man does not know what is best for him or what his future holds completely (Ecclesiastes 6:12). Solomon pointed out that we are ignorant of our place in God’s all-inclusive plan. Even though we have more revelation of God’s plans and purposes than Solomon did, we still are very ignorant of these things.

"The Latin saying Solvitur ambulando (’It is solved by walking’) suggests that some problems are elucidated only as one goes forward in practical action (cf. Isaiah 30:21; as we go, the Lord guides)." [Note: J. S. Wright, "Ecclesiastes," p. 1173.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

For who knoweth what [is] good for man in [this] life?.... To be in a higher or lower station of life, to live in grandeur or meanness, to be rich or poor, learned or unlearned; since that which seems most agreeable to human nature is at, ended with so much vanity, the occasion of so much sin, and often issues in ruin and misery, that no man knows what is best for him; and therefore it is the wisest way to be content with what a man has, and enjoy it in the most comfortable manner, and use it to the best ends and purposes he can. The Targum is,

"for who is he that knows what is good for a man in this world, but to study in the law, which is the life of the world?''

so the Midrash,

all the days of his vain life, which he spendeth as a shadow? or "the number of the days of vain life, which he makes as a shadow" d; that is, which God makes as a "shadow", as Cocceius observes; makes to pass away swiftly: this is a description of the vanity, brevity, and uncertainty of human life; it consists of days, rather than of months and years; and those such as are easily numbered, and which pass away suddenly and swiftly, like a shadow that has no substance and reality in it, and leaves nothing behind it; or like a bird that flies away, as Jarchi, and is seen no more; such is the life of man, a most vain life, vanity itself; so it may be rendered, "the number of the days of the life of his vanity" e; since therefore he has so short a time to enjoy anything in, it is hard to say what is best for him to have, and the rather since he is quite ignorant of what is to come;

for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun? he does not know himself, nor can any man inform him, what will become of his wealth and riches after his death, which he has got together; who shall enjoy them, and how long and what use will be made of them, either to their own good, or the good of others.

d ויעשם כצל "et facit eos at umbram", Cocceius. e מספר ימי חיי הבלו "numero dierum vitae", ("vitarum", Montanus), "vanitatis suae", Pagninus, Rambachius.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      11 Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?   12 For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

      Here, 1. Solomon lays down his conclusion which he had undertaken to prove, as that which was fully confirmed by the foregoing discourse: There be many things that increase vanity; the life of man is vain, at the best, and there are abundance of accidents that concur to make it more so; even that which pretends to increase the vanity and make it more vexatious. 2. He draws some inferences from it, which serve further to evince the truth of it. (1.) That a man is never the nearer to true happiness for the abundance that he has in this world: What is man the better for his wealth and pleasure, his honour and preferment? What remains to man? What residuum has he, what overplus, what real advantage, when he comes to balance his accounts? Nothing that will do him any good or turn to account. (2.) That we do not know what to wish for, because that which we promise ourselves most satisfaction in often proves most vexatious to us: Who knows what is good for a man in this life, where every thing is vanity, and any thing, even that which we most covet, may prove a calamity to us? Thoughtful people are in care to do every thing for the best, if they knew it; but as it is an instance of the corruption of our hearts that we are apt to desire that as good for us which is really hurtful, as children that cry for knives to cut their fingers with, so is it an instance of the vanity of this world that what, according to all probable conjectures, seems to be for the best, often proves otherwise; such is our shortsightedness concerning the issues and events of things, and such broken reeds are all our creature-confidences. We know not how to advise others for the best, nor how to act ourselves, because that which we apprehend likely to be for our welfare may become a trap. (3.) That therefore our life upon earth is what we have no reason to take any great complacency in, or to be confident of the continuance of. It is to be reckoned by days; it is but a vain life, and we spend it as a shadow, so little is there in it substantial, so fleeting, so uncertain, so transitory is it, and so little in it to be fond of or to be depended on. If all the comforts of life be vanity, life itself can have no great reality in it to constitute a happiness for us. (4.) That our expectations from this world are as uncertain and deceitful as our enjoyments are. Since every thing is vanity, Who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun? He can no more please himself with the hopes of what shall be after him, to his children and family, than with the relish of what is with him, since he can neither foresee himself, nor can any one else foretel to him, what shall be after him. Nor shall he have any intelligence sent him of it when he is gone. His sons come to honour, and he knows it not. So that, look which way we will, Vanity of vanity, all is vanity.