Eccles. 6 The vanity of riches without use, Eccles. 6:1–2. Of children and old age without competent wealth; their obscurity is worse than not to have been, Eccles. 6:3–6. All labour is for necessaries of life, which one getteth as well as another, Eccles. 6:7–8.

Wealth; all sorts of riches, as gold and silver, cattle and lands, &c. Of all that he desireth; which he doth or can reasonably desire. Giveth him not power to eat; either because they are suddenly taken away from him by the hand and curse of God, and given to others; or because God gives him up to…

An hundred children, i.e. very many children, to whom he intends to leave his estate. Live many years; which is the chief thing that he desires, and which giveth him opportunity of increasing his estate vastly. The days; he saith days, because the years of men’s life are but few.

For; or rather, although, as this particle is frequently rendered. For this verse seems to contain not so much a reason of what he last said, that an untimely birth is better than he, as an answer to an exception which might be made against it.

He hath not seen the sun; he never beheld the light, and therefore it is not grievous to him to want it; whereas the covetous man saw that light was very pleasant, and therefore the loss of it was irksome to him.

Live a thousand years twice told; wherein he seems to have a privilege above an untimely birth. Hath he seen no good; he hath enjoyed little or no comfort in it, and therefore long life is rather a curse and mischief than a blessing or advantage to him.

For his mouth; for meat to put into his mouth, that he may get food; and as bread is oft put for all food, so food is put for all necessary provisions for this life, as Prov.

The fool, to wit, in these matters. Both are equally subject to the same calamities, and partakers of the same comforts of this life. Before the living, to wit, before the poor, that doth not know this; which words are easily understood by comparing this clause with the former.

The sight of the eyes, i.e. the comfortable enjoyment of what a man hath; for seeing is oft put for enjoying, as Ps. 34:12, Eccles. 2:1, Eccles. 3:13;c.

This verse is added either as a proof of what he last said concerning the vanity and wandering of insatiable desires, or as a timber instance of the vanity of all things in this life.

This seems to be added as a conclusion of the disputation managed in all the foregoing chapters, Seeing not only man is a vain creature in himself, as hath been now said, but there are also many other things in the world, which instead of removing or diminishing, as might be expected, do but…

Who knoweth what is good for man? no man certainly knows what is best for him here, whether to be high or low, rich or poor, because those great things which men generally desire and pursue are very frequently the occasions of men’s utter ruin, as hath been noted again and again in this book.