Ecclesiastes 6:3-6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

If a man beget a hundred children Very many, to whom he intends to leave his estate; and live many years Which is the chief thing that he desires, and which gives him opportunity of increasing his estate vastly; and his soul be not filled with good If he have not a contented mind, and a comfortable enjoyment of his estate; and also have no burial And if, after his death, he have either none, or a mean and dishonourable burial, because his sordid and covetous conduct made him hateful and contemptible to all persons, his children and heirs not excepted, so that he was by all sorts of men thought unworthy of any testimonies of honour, either in his life, or after his death: I say, an untimely birth is better than he Which, as it never enjoyed the comforts, so it never felt the calamities of life. For, or rather, although, he The abortive; of whom alone that clause, He hath not seen the sun, (Ecclesiastes 6:5,) is true; cometh in with vanity Cometh into the world to no purpose, without any comfort or benefit by it, which is also, in a great measure, the case with the covetous person here mentioned; and departeth in darkness Dieth in obscurity, without any observation or regard of men; and his name shall be covered with darkness Shall be speedily and utterly forgotten. Moreover he hath not known any thing Hath had no knowledge, sense, or experience of any thing, whether good or evil; this, namely, the untimely birth, hath more rest than the other Because it is free from all those incumbrances and vexations to which the covetous man is long exposed. Yea, though he live a thousand years Wherein he seems to have a privilege above an untimely birth; yet hath he seen no good He hath enjoyed little or no comfort in it, and, therefore, long life is rather a curse than a blessing to him. Do not all Whether born before their time or in due time, whether their lives be long or short; go to one place To the grave! And so, after a little time, all are alike, as to this life, of which only he here speaks: and as to the other life, the condition of the covetous man, if he die impenitent, and therefore unpardoned and unrenewed, is infinitely worse than that of an untimely birth.